Pilkington marks specialist glass milestone

Pilkington has manufactured its 50 millionth square metre of specialist glass at its advanced coating line in St Helens, as the site marks 10 years since production began.

The milestone was passed after the manufacturer ramped up production to meet high demand from building designers and the construction sector over the last year.

According to Pilkington, the volume of glass produced by its OLC1 off-line coater is enough to cover 7,000 football pitches.

This total includes glass that prevents heat from escaping through windows, such as Pilkington K Glass S, a low-emissivity glass designed to provide the highest Window Energy Rating (WER) performance and Pilkington Optitherm S1 Plus.

The line also manufactures its Pilkington Suncool range of solar control glass that helps to prevent overheating in buildings by limiting the amount of energy transmitted by the sun through glazing.

The company has forecasted higher demand for solar control glass in the UK as building designers mitigate against the increasing frequency of heatwaves, and work to meet new Part O regulations for overheating in new homes.

OLC1 uses advanced glass coating technology to apply added performance to float glass produced on Pilkington UK’s UK5 production line at Greengate, St Helens. UK5 recently achieved three world first trials of hydrogen and biofuel to fire a glass furnace as part of the industry’s journey towards decarbonisation.

Neil Syder, managing director at Pilkington UK, said: “Demand for advanced coated glass that helps to deliver better energy performance to buildings is growing as building regulations tighten and developers go above and beyond to meet their own environmental targets.

“Advanced coated glass is also solving new challenges thanks to R&D breakthroughs, from antimicrobial glass that helps to sanitise healthcare and transport settings, to glass with a special UV pattern that helps to protect wildlife by being visible to birds.

“Our OLC1 line at Cowley Hill has played an integral role over the last 10 years supplying glass that helps specifiers in the UK and internationally to give added performance to their projects, from schools in Dudley to skyscrapers in Dubai. It’s set for another busy 10 years as industry demands more performance from glass to meet major challenges like net-zero.”