New cutting line
Energy Saving Glass has completed the purchase of a new Forel Laminate Vertical Cutting Line as the IGU manufacturer looks to expand glass processing business – including the supply of single sheet laminate and cut size laminate to the trade.
Supplied by the Promac Group, the Forel Laminate Vertical Cutting Line processes full sheet size laminate glass stock entirely in the vertical axis, improving overall output while reducing machinery footprint.
Alex Walker, director at Energy Saving Glass, said that this gave the Kingswinford-based business a unique platform, including the supply of single sheet laminate and cut size laminate to other IGU manufacturers and glass processors, in addition to its core trade business.
“The addition of the Forel Vertical Cutting Line gives us a capability that none of our competitors have but also a capability that’s out of reach to a lot of other glass processors and IGU manufacturers,” he said.
“We have invested in it, in part to fulfil the growing demand that we’re seeing within our own business for laminate glass but also demand from other glass processors.”
Capable of processing sheets of up to 6,000mm x 3,300mm the Forel Vertical Cutting Line achieves cut-to-size accuracy to within +/ – 0.2mm/linear meter, while the square cut is also guaranteed by cutting bridges that adjust to within +/ – 15 mm to accommodate out-of-square glass.
Keeping glass in the vertical throughout the cutting process also reduces tension of the applied load on the glass sheet and, with it, the risk of breakage.
“This kind of collaboration isn’t necessarily how the industry has always done business but we see that as changing and as long as it works for us and for our customers, working with other glass processors, where it makes sense to do so, offers a lot of potential opportunity for everyone,” Alex said.
