Super Spacer lines for insulating glass® they are the heart of manufacturing at Deschanet
The shortage of skilled workers is a problem that also affects the French glass industry. Automation is an important tool for countering demographic development. But is such a step also advantageous for a small or medium-sized family business? SA insulating glass manufacturer Michel Deschanet demonstrates that with courage, flexibility and innovation it is possible to remain competitive in a difficult market.
Pascale Roche-Deschanet has never regretted investing in an automatic line for the production of triple insulating glass with Super Spacers in 2012®. Today, at the time of the coronavirus, satisfaction is even greater. Its automated production makes it easier to respect safety distances and to compensate for downtime due to illness without too much difficulty. “Thanks to continuous automation, we are able to better protect our employees, react flexibly to customer requests and ensure delivery on schedule,” says Roche-Deschanet.
Automation guarantees competitiveness
The daughter of SA company founder Michel Deschanet runs the production of insulating glass in the French town of Augny together with her husband Didier Roche. In 2019, they invested again a millionaire to carry out a second phase of automation. The trend towards laminated glass and the large number of variants of glass sheets to have in stock have forced them to rationalize storage. “As a family business we must always be flexible and innovative to remain competitive. Therefore in 2018 we developed a concept of automation of the upstream production steps, ”explains Roche. From the unloading of the delivered glass sheets, to the cutting, the storage in an intermediate warehouse and the transport of around 100 different pieces of glass in the double and triple glazing lines, the entire production process is now fully automated at Deschanet. Insulating glass is flexibly produced with various structures and combinations of float glass and laminated glass. The automated cutting alone has allowed an increase in volumes of 40%.
Deschanet very early turned to triple glazing with Super Spacer® warm edge.
In addition to production efficiency, the investment in the first Super Spacer's line® in 2012 it was done mainly for quality reasons. “At Deschanet, we were confident that the energy-efficient triple glazing would give us an edge over the competition,” says the company executive. Indeed, at the time in northern European countries and also in Germany most of the new windows had triple glazing. In France, however, double glazing was still widespread. Time then proved the Deschanets right. Today 40% of the insulating glass panels produced in the company are triple glazed, mainly with Super Spacer® T-Spacer ™ Premium Plus as warm edge spacers.
“For projects with demanding structural facades and glazing, our production guarantees us the highest levels of quality and efficiency,” explains Roche. “Ours was the first French company to work the Super Spacer in an automated way. So we were able to reduce the production process essentially in the following phases: application of the spacers, composition of the glass sheets, addition of gas, pressing and application of the secondary sealing. The precision with which it is possible to apply the spacers represents in particular a quality factor that customers appreciate, evident in the aesthetics of the installed windows and in particular in the carefully worked perimeter compound. A tolerance of a few tens of millimeters is not achievable with manual processing even in 2.500 x 3.500 mm sheets.
Efficient glazing for tropical greenhouses and greenhouses
According to an estimate, 900.000 m have been delivered to date2 of glasses with Super Spacer spacers®. The first major commission with flexible warm edges was a flagship project in France: 6.000 m2 of high-performance cold-curved double insulating glass for a new tropical greenhouse at the Zoo de Vincennes in Paris. The impressive 4.800 m glass dome2, 100 meters long, 40 meters wide and 16 meters high, recreates inside on an area of 3.000 m2 the landscapes of Guyana and Madagascar in a humid tropical climate. The glass panels are extremely transparent, in order to recreate the ideal development conditions for plants, while the double glazing combined with natural ventilation allow ambitious energy efficiency goals to be achieved. Naturally, the constant air conditioning of a glass dome of this size to guarantee a temperature of 20 ° C to 25 ° C, with a relative humidity of 75% represents an energy challenge. The interior is regularly humidified with a nozzle system, sometimes surprising visitors with an unexpected shower. The 1,5 x 0,75 m panels were integrated into the structure on site with a curvature of 4 ° to 5 °. For the purposes of the ATeX authorization, statistical calculations and tests were carried out, eg. accelerated aging.
All Deschanet products have CEKAL certification. Deschanet's focus on energy-efficient insulating glass with outstanding thermal performance is an important distinguishing factor for customers seeking HQE certification® (Haute Qualité Environmentale), the BBC qualification (Bâtiment Basse Consommation) or a certificate under one of the other international standards in force.
Better and faster with automation! "Deschanet is an exemplary case of how automation allows you to increase production capacities and, at the same time, to produce high quality insulating glass in a significantly faster and more profitable way," says Fabrice Keller, Area Manager for France at EDGETECH EUROPE GmbH. “In such
seamless integration of application robots for Super Spacers is essential. Thanks to the sophisticated logistics of the components, the line is able to work without interruptions regardless of the size of the window or the structure of the glass. "
The requirement of speed was also present for the second greenhouse project, which the Deschanets built in 2017. Facade builder Mtechbuild had won a tender to build five domed greenhouses. Mtechbuild supplied the steel structure, Deschanet produced 15.000 m in two and a half months2 tempered glass for double glazing, cold-curved on site. "The project represented a very particular challenge, including five glass domes, one of which larger than that of the Reichstag building in Berlin, produced in 6 months, transported by ship to Vietnam and then assembled," says Franck Champaign, director of Mtechbuild.
The greenhouses are a central part of the “World's Garden” at Vin Pearl amusement park in Nha Trang and each represents a different climate zone. The largest one has a diameter of 52m and houses the cacti, the others have a diameter of 36m. Air conditioning takes place mainly through natural ventilation and fabric sunshades, with the support of double glazing with energy-efficient warm edge spacers. The structure of the glass hemisphere resembles an orange, with sections that gradually reduce from the bottom to the top and posed a particular challenge for Deschanet: in order to exactly follow the shape of the dome, in addition to the base glass in the 1,60 x 1 m format, triangular and trapezoidal glasses have been created for a precise combination. The whole glass structure with Super Spacer®, a secondary silicone seal and a special coating of the temperable glass were preliminarily tested in terms of suitability for cold bending, in order to guarantee the seal of the perimeter compound even under tension.
EDGETECH EUROPE GmbH
Super Spacer flexible silicone foam spacer systems® by Edgetech act as an energy-efficient warm edge in insulating glass windows. They significantly reduce heat loss to the outside, practically prevent condensation from forming and help extend the life of the window. Worldwide, more than 300 million meters per year are sold on average in over 90 countries.
EDGETECH EUROPE GmbH based in Heinsberg is wholly owned by Quanex Building Products Corporation. Quanex is a leading manufacturer of components sold to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the construction products industry. Quanex designs and manufactures energy-efficient window products, as well as kitchen and bathroom furniture components based in Houston, Texas. On a turnover basis, Edgetech / Quanex is the world's leading manufacturer of spacers. EDGETECH EUROPE GmbH serves the markets of continental Europe and is one of Edgetech's three production sites with 480 employees and 17 extruders. For more information on Super Spacer Spacer Systems® and on Edgetech's hot edge profile technology, see: www.superspacer.com.
