Ultimate piece of kit

Glass Times spoke to Nolan Millard of Unilam about a recent custom-build installation that will play a key part in the expansion of longstanding customer, Cwmtillery Glass.

For companies looking for innovative and intelligent solutions for glass production, Unilam Machinery is widely regarded as one of the leaders in its field.

From its base in Leeds, the company represents some of the industry’s leading brands, offering its customer base a wide choice in glass machinery.

One such customer is south Wales-basedCwmtillery Glass. The specialist glass company recently took delivery of a custom-built CooltemperFirejet glass toughening plant, designed and installed by the Unilam team. It thermally toughens glass, changing it from its annealed, float state by rapid heating and cooling to create the high stress levels required for much stronger toughened safety glass.

Installed to complement Cwmtillery Glass’s existing Cooltemper plant as part of an expansion programme, the Firejet is one of the fastest, most energy efficient toughening plants on the market, the company said.

Explaining more about the Cwmtillery Glass installation, Unilam’s technical sales director Nolan Millard said: “The CooltemperFirejet is an extremely advanced piece of machinery and one which will bring huge benefits to Cwmtillery Glass. This was a custom-build, so we worked with Paul from Cwmtillery Glass to understand his exact requirements and then designed the ultimate piece of kit to meet – and hopefully exceed – his expectations.

“The machine is able to change between glass types with practically no loss of production. This means, for example, that 6mm glass can be sent into the oven while the quench/cooling section has 4mm in cycle. This is a unique feature of the Firejet and one that really sets it apart from others on the market. It enables high quantities of toughened glass to be produced with the lowest energy requirement per square metre.

“This is one of the fastest machines available, which helps to reduce the waiting time on toughened glass production. It also boasts high speed/low cycle times with very high energy efficiency due to the recirculation and re-use of convection heat. We’re sure that the Firejet will play a key role in Cwmtillery Glass’s expansion and we’re pleased to have worked with Paul and his team once again on this latest large-scale installation.”

Cwmtillery Glass also benefitted from full training on the machinery, and Unilam will continue to provide after sales service and support for the Firejet and the other Unilam machinery already in place at the company.

“We have been supplying Cwmtillery Glass with machinery since 2007 and have a great relationship with Paul and his team,” Nolan said. “Paul had a clear vision to grow his business and it’s great to think that the first-rate support that we have delivered over the years has played a part in their ongoing success, and this most recent expansion, which has taken the size of their state-of the-art plant to over 75,000ft2.”

Paul at Cwmtillery Glasssaid: “We have recently invested £3 million into our new extension and Firejet furnace. Cwmtillery is constantly looking at ways to remain at the forefront when comes to high end machinery, always striving to meet increased demands while maintaining high standards.

“Adding our new furnace along with recent investments will help us continue to do this. When you’re specifying high value machinery you need to work with the experts and that’s exactly who the team at Unilam are.

“We chose Unilam again for our thirdfurnace in recent years due to the ease of install and quality of the machinery they provide. The advice of Nolan and his team is invaluable, and our custom Firejet is already having a huge impact on the service we can offer to our customers.”