Clearview National July 2017 - Issue 188 | Page 20

7THINGS... 7 things you didn’t know about… 1. LEADERS IN PVCU INNOVATION Synseal was founded as a PVCu extrusion house in 1980 but has a much richer history in PVCu innovation dating back to the Litchfield Brothers in the 1930s. Following success in making wire parts and metal pressings, the company started working in plastics after the Second World War forming LB Plastics Ltd in 1956, which was acquired by Synseal Group in 2014. The Sheerframe profile suite developed by LB Plastics was the first UK designed and manufactured window system. They were also the first to bring lead-free profile to market along with co-extruded gaskets and the first UK designed reversible window system. Synseal is now leading the way in recycled PVCu by rolling out EnviroCore across its Shield, Legend and SynerJy suites. 2. GLOBAL GLASS IS THE LARGEST UK OWNED GLASS MANUFACTURER Following the acquisition of Village Glass last year, Synseal Group’s glass manufacturing capacity exceeds 50,000 units a week, which makes it the largest UK owned glass manufacturer. Global Glass incorporating Village Glass covers more than 20,000 sq/ ft of manufacturing space, tempering more than 40,000 sq/m of glass every week. Global Glass has six fully automated sealed glass lines across four UK based manufacturing sites based in Blackburn, Wigan, Nottinghamshire and Essex. This includes a high speed triple glazing line capable of producing one unit every 30 seconds. 20 » JUL 2017 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M 3. LINKS WITH AUSTRALIA In the last year, Synseal Group extruded 36 million metres of PVCu profile – more than enough to cover the distance between Nottinghamshire, where Synseal’s PVCu extrusion facility is based, to Tasmania, Australia – and back again, with some meterage to spare! That’s also enough to get 90% of the way around the Earth’s circumference – giving Synseal a tempting target for this year… Synseal Group’s WarmCore range also has a unique link with Australia as the R&D team have scoured the globe looking for the best hardware solutions for the new inline patio system. They eventually settled on an Australian company to develop their bespoke five-wheeled roller sets, which have high precision bearings and self-levelling wheels.