Glasstec delivers in style

Glasstec, the world’s biggest trade fair for glass, closed its doors on Saturday 28th October with over 54,000 visitors attending. This is a slight rise on the last show in 2004, which drew 53,752. Over 1,300 companies, associations and research institutes from 46 countries exhibited. Approximately 60 per cent of visitors came from one of the 84 foreign countries ranging from Argentina to South Africa. And over 70 per cent of these visitors had decision-making powers, say the organisers.

Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director at organisers Messe Düsseldorf, said: ‘Glasstec is the only trade fair worldwide to showcase the entire spectrum of the glass sector. It has proven once again that the innovative potential of glass as a construction material and the operational excellence of manufacturers, finishers and machinery manufacturers is far from being fully exploited.’ He went on to say that extra-thin glasses, insulating glass, laser technology, photovoltaics and solar thermal systems in particular met with keen interest from the visitors.

German sees an upswing

German glass machinery manufacturers are currently doing better than they have in a long time, according to Siegfried Glaser, Chairman of the VDMA-Forum Glastechnik, who spoke at the Opening Press Conference of the trade fair. The main reason for this is that the German construction sector is moving out of a trough, thereby increasing the demand for windows. Exports are healthy too.

Over the first eight months of the year the industry posted a 57 per cent sales increase at home and a 5% sales increase abroad compared to the same period in 2005. This corresponds to a total increase in turnover of 12%. VDMA (the German Engineering Federation) expects turnover growth to level out at a good double-digit figure by the end of the year. This means the sector will clearly exceed its 2005 turnover totalling EUR 650 million this year.

Products for an easy life

‘Glass technology live’ with its accompanying symposium attracted a great deal of interest (see pages 54-57). This special area was conceived and organised by Professor Stefan Behling, Senior Partner at Foster and Partners’ London office, in cooperation with his team from Stuttgart University.

But for many of the UK processors, the main reason to visit Glasstec was to browse the several halls of machinery and other equipment. These presented a host of practical options to develop and add new areas to a glass business.

With no substantial representation from any of the main glass manufacturers, once again the machinery manufacturers dominated the exhibition halls.

‘Products for an easy life’, was the theme of the Glaston Technologies presentation. Glaston encompasses Tamglass and Bavelloni, enabling the installation of complete tempering and processing lines. This ‘One Stop Partner’ claimed the biggest stand again.

Tempering made easy

Glass tempering can be as easy as ‘APC’, according to Tamglass, which hailed a new era in tempering with its automatic process control (APC). This automatically measures the low emmissivity coating, glass thickness and the load on the table to make furnace operation automatic. APC is available on the complete Tamglass flat tempering family, including Sonic, ProConvection, ProE Magnum and ProE, which is the world’s most popular tempering furnace.

Lisec is a new name in glass tempering but this leading manufacturer of processing machinery has taken a fresh look at the problems of safety glass production, yielding some very interesting results.

The Lisec tempering line is inclined at 54 degrees, and is built for glasses from 2.3mm to 12mm, mainly for the sealed unit market. This type of furnace results in no heat spots during tempering, no roller waves and a less than one per cent breakage rate, claims Lisec.

Breaking tests on the Lisec stand demonstrated the strength, flexibility and optical quality of the Lisec tempered glass.

Uniglass, also part of the Glaston Technologies Group that includes Tamglass, has been established for 10 years. The Finnish company delivered its 100th machine in June, to South Korea, and in the UK, it is represented by Peter Hawkins.

Optimised cutting & storing

‘Every sheet counts’ was the message from machinery makers in this area, whose developments were eagerly received, following this year’s increases in glass prices.

Bohle has improved that tiny but most vital of components, the cutting wheel. The new tungsten carbide cutting wheels have with a patented coating for 10 times more life. Cutting wheels were the foundation of the Bohle business in 1923, and are still its core business, these days for automatic cutting tables of course.

Hegla cutting tables will surely put these wheels to the test. These can cut at 240 metres per metre, with 15 metres per second acceleration, all at 0.1mm accuracy. For the USA, a new 2500mm x 1900mm table addresses the problem that with American glass sizes, the breakout guy can work faster than the table.

Software specialist Albat + Wirsam launched its Dianopt package for dynamic optimisation. Dianopt improves glass optimisation by using a buffer zone of 150 slots, and is a new concept in optimising, combining sequencing and yield.

This new system was in use at Glasstec on cutting lines linked to separate sorting systems by both Bystronic and Hegla.

Glass sorting systems were also shown on by Lisec, which has launched a new combined cutting table for float and laminates.

Bavelloni launched new combined cutting lines for float and laminates, which can be configured with its new Synchro loading and storage solution.

Bottero’s retro-fittable system for edge deletion is ‘perfect’ for processors working with small quanitites of soft coat glass, says Philip Grindrod of Bottero UK.

Sealing and bonding

Direct glazing was a concept promoted on the Kommerling stand, using Ködiglaze S and Ködiglaze P. These sealants provide both the edge seal and the bonding media in one source. The load transfers achieved by sealing glass and frame in the factory means reductions in cost, and sightlines. Slimmer window profiles can be used and steel reinforcement is not needed for PVC-U windows. Rigidity comes from the glass, as in bus and car applications.

This has taken off with some mass window manufacturers in Germany, says Harald Kahles. Whereas reactive hotmelt is used in automotive direct glazing, Kommerling has developed a two-part system for window applications. Security is another benefit of the system.

Kommerling’s GD920 is a new two-part slicone selant for use in the manufacture of insulated glass units with an exposed edge seal.

Bostik has implemented a new product numbering system that gives each specific sealant type a clear number range to make identification and product selection quick and simple. All hot melt products have a 5000 product grouping, and the existing P5125 hot melt keeps the same number. The acquisition of a Turkish sealant manufacturer will also see the introduction of Ceklomastik 999, a new two-part polysulfide perimeter sealant, into the UK.

The introduction of the EN1279 standard has seen a resurgence of interest in hot melt sealants because of the good results achieved with it, said Richard Sellman, Bostik’s Marketing Manager for Industrial Adhesives. The development of automatic sealing robots has also given this type of sealant a boost. There are now around 30 of these devices on insulating glass lines in the UK.

Dow Corning launched its Quality Bond programme. Described as a ‘landmark initiative’ this brings together building owners, architects, facade consultants and engineers, system suppliers and applicators in sharing Dow Corning’s extensive know-how in structural glazing and other silicone bonding applications.

The next glasstec will be held in Düsseldorf in October 2008, see www.glasstec.de.

Our review of continues over the following pages, covering Glass Technology Live (pages 54-57) and other highlights (pages 58-63).