Emplas expands its glass cutting capacity to meet triple-glazed demand

Emplas is building further capacity in its Padiham IGU operation with the addition of a state-of-the-art Bottero cutting table. Representing a major investment, the Bottero table significantly increases its float cutting capability in line with exponential growth in demand for IGUs in general and increasing demand for triple-glazing.

John Spiby, Managing Director Padiham Glass, explained: “We’re growing, so at its most basic, we have a requirement to increase our capacity. We’re also seeing increased demand for triple-glazed products, which increases our cutting requirement. With the Future Homes Standard likely to increase that demand from 2025, it’s important that we build additional capacity now to make sure that we continue to have the room to comfortably meet future growth.”

Consultation on the Future Homes Standard is expected to start imminently. While it may still change under the current proposals it’s widely expected that this will introduce a new notional value for new build of 0.8 W/m²K with a limiting value of 1.2W/m²K.

“We’re investing to build our capacity in general but it’s our expectation that Future Homes will increase demand for triple-glazed products one way or another”, John added.

Its new Bottero cutting table is a continuation of Emplas’ investment in its glass operation. This includes a more than £1million investment in a new Forel Vertical IGU Line, which was installed at the end of last year.

It includes the Forel Vertical Washer, Emplas has also opted for Forel’s Art AS Flexible Spacer Applicator.

This automatically applies the spacer bar to the edge of the glass sheet with an ultra-high level of accuracy, delivering an instant and far better bond than traditional spacer systems, maximizing thermal performance.

The Forel coupling press then simultaneously couples IGU’s while filling them with gas ahead of automatic sealing, delivering a highly accurate final seal on units and significantly reducing the likelihood of failure.

John continued: “We’re in a good place. Product quality and service has been transformed in the last 12-months, with the new Forel line significantly increasing our capacity but also quality.

“The Bottero cutting table allows us to build increased resilience and further capacity into our operation, including increasing our inhouse toughening capability, delivering a positive impact right down the line and ultimately better quality and a more flexible service to our customers.”