GLASS & SEALEDUNITS
Like clockwork - automation in fenestration
Chris Alderson , Managing Director of warm edge pioneers Edgetech , explains how automation is already changing the way fenestration businesses operate .
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AUTOMATION IS OFTEN presented as a destabilising phenomenon – and there ’ s no question , it ’ s set to drastically change the way companies , industries and even whole economies work .
But in doing so , it ’ s got enormous potential to help businesses improve – and face the increasingly complex and ever-multiplying challenges of the twenty-first century .
There were 1.9m industrial robots in the world in 2014 , according to respected US think-tank the Brookings Institute . By 2020 , that ’ s expected to have risen to almost 3m .
But automation isn ’ t about replacing your human workforce with robots . It ’ s about using technology to run your factory like clockwork . In manufacturing , fewer points of contact reduces human error , while allowing managers to reassign workers to more valuable and specialised tasks .
At the same time , it also offers a way through one of the biggest problems facing the construction sector over the next few decades – the skills shortage . The Manufacturing Institute estimates 3.5m construction jobs will need filling in the next ten years – and that the lack of qualified candidates will mean that as many as two million of those could go unfilled . We ’ re already seeing highly efficient intelligent machines that could help us to bridge this gap - for example , one company in the US has developed a brick-laying robot that can work up to six times faster on average than a human .
But automation also has particular benefits for fenestration . For a number of years , the fenestration industry got used to seeing the energy efficiency and overall performance of glass units improve all the time .
Ground-breaking innovations appeared – polyamide thermal breaks , warm-edge spacer bars , and others . Manufacturing techniques improved . And now , in the second decade of the twenty-first century , the best window products offer a level of thermal performance that wouldn ’ t even have been conceivable not that long ago .
Now , those drastic gains have flattened off . Exceptional thermal efficiency is the new norm . Fabricators , installers and end-users don ’ t just expect great performance from the most expensive windows anymore , they expect it from all products , no matter the price .
And that presents IGU manufacturers with a challenge – the need to produce huge volumes of windows , all of which offer best-in-class energy efficiency .
At Edgetech , we ’ ve watched the make-up of the IGU market shift quite dramatically over the decades that we ’ ve been operating in the UK . Back in 2007 , there were approximately 1,300 companies making glass units . Today there are only 848 .
But despite the number of IGU manufacturers dropping by over a third in just a decade , the total number of units being made has increased . So how has that happened ?
The answer is unsurprisingly complex , with all number of different factors at play . But one of the biggest has undoubtedly been automation .
Going forward , it ’ s likely that automation technology will allow us to make even greater efficiency gains . More and more businesses around the world are coming to rely on what ’ s known as the Internet of Things – a term given to all sorts of different machines and devices communicating with each other using the internet .
The pace of change is only going to accelerate – which means the earlier you embrace automation , the easier you ’ ll find it to adapt to the world that lies around the corner .
At Edgetech , we ’ ve worked with IGU manufacturers all around the world to successfully implement automation technology , and watched them thrive as a result . If you want us to help your factory run like clockwork , call Edgetech today .
For more information on Edgetech ’ s range of spacers and to stay up-to-date with the latest developments from the company visit : www . edgetechig . co . uk
64 » MAY 2018 » CLEARVIEW-UK . COM