When aluminium met glass

Aluminium and glass are often combined on large commercial projects to deliver energy efficient and sustainable buildings. Both materials also combined when CAB visited Pilkington's Cowley Hill operations in St Helens to see the manufacture of high performance solar control glass.   

The Council for Aluminium in Building (CAB) is the UK's aluminium in building trade association. It has members from across the supply chain, including consultants, fabricators, installers, systems companies and many specialist product supply and manufacturing companies. Pilkington – part of the NSG Group - has been a long-standing member of CAB.

Justin Furness and Martin Ford from CAB toured the NSG Group's state-of-the-art coater, home to high performance, energy saving glass such as Pilkington K Glass™ S, Pilkington Optitherm™ and Pilkington Suncool™.

As well as the tour of the coater, there was also an opportunity to discuss current regulatory issues and key industry topics with members of the Pilkington UK Commercial team. Subjects covered during the discussion included triple glazing, switchable glass, Building Information Modelling, Building Regulations and EU window energy labelling

"Visiting CAB members is such an important activity for us," Justin commented. “These visits help us to understand their capabilities and issues at first hand. Our visit to Pilkington gave us exactly that. The tour of their off-line coating plant was fascinating and the exchange of information was really useful and appreciated."