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FLIP IS READY AND WAITING Dan Sullivan, MD of DoorCo gives Glass News an insight into the benefits that DoorCo’s door fabricator customers are finding particularly useful about FLiP, their new glazing cassette system. FLiP® is the revolutionary glazing cassette system launched by DoorCo last year. Designed for performance and aesthetics, FLiP is now the standard glazing cassette system used across the entire DoorCo range and it is transforming door glazing for our customers thanks to its numerous benefits that have simplified fabrication and enhanced door designs. Right from day one, FLiP made a significant impact. We developed FLiP to give us greater control over the supply chain of one of our major door components. This really came into play last year by ultimately allowing us to offer better customer service because we could react faster and keep up with demand, as well as being able to invest in physical stock on the shelves when we needed to.
MADE IN THE UK Working with oversees partners to deliver our everyday products has always been a challenge. Material supply, currency fluctuations and shipping costs are a balancing act for procurement and budgets, even before last year’s shipping crisis and the unmanageable costs we’re still facing. Overcoming this was a key consideration during FLiP’s R&D so we chose to partner with a large, experienced injection moulding specialist. When issues with our existing supplier of door glazing were causing a bottle neck in production and pushing up lead times, we accelerated FLiP’s launch to provide a solution. As there has been little disruption to FLiP’s production from the shipping crisis, a good supply of FLiP cassettes was established quickly and effectively. We were able to boost our stock holding of all types of cassettes to fulfil the backlog and reassure customers by demonstrating the large amount of stock
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we are able to maintain. This supply has not faltered, in fact we’ve already made further investment in this area to increase production with the addition of an in-house foaming machine which applies FLiP’s unique Foam in Place® technology.
FOAM IN PLACE® TECHNOLOGY FLiP’s Foam in Place (FiP) technology is a foam seal applied by machine to the outer frame during manufacture to deliver a superior seal and negate the need for hand applying glazing tape. The investment by DoorCo on FiP is significant, totalling half a million pounds into an on site robot line to apply FiP tech, to save customers time and cost a painstaking stage in the door glazing process, and something our door fabricator customers asked us to address during our market research. FiP saves on average 3 minutes per cassette installation and removes that additional component cost. It performs better too as it eliminates the risk of gaps, particularly in the corners where water ingress is often an issue. FiP’s uniform seal prevents any water ingress. This was proven during testing. FLiP performed exceptionally well, easily meeting the BS6375-2015 and EN1027 standards, and most impressively, achieving over 1000pa through the glazing aperture during weather testing. This is further supported by DoorCo’s extended 10-year warranty. The rest of the installation process is simple and quick too. The mechanism inside FLiP clips and screws together, with a screwdriver being the only tool needed to
install it. The structural connectors have a unique pivoting head that adjusts to the thickness of the glass, an angled corner protector to reduce corner flare and support heavy units, with an optional component for larger apertures for even more security. The result is a glazing cassette that sits flush to the door.
AESTHETIC APPEAL As well as delivering outstanding performance, FLiP has the most design options on the market. In the range there are two unique profiles, two new surface textures that have been painstakingly matched to our door finishes, three overall designs, and 23 style variations. From clean, modern profiles through to traditional bevels, there is an option for any style of composite door, whether it’s traditional, contemporary, or even designer. Although creating a contemporarystyled cassette that matched our doors and performed well was a priority for FLiP, customers are also delighted with the reinvigorated bevelled design of our traditional choice, FLiP Standard.
FLIP STANDARD With a woodgrain finish, Ovalo shape and 14 different options, FLiP Standard fits perfectly with our wide range of traditional door styles. Initially, we launched FLiP with designs that suited our current doors, but we have already started adding new styles like the 4-Grid range. There are currently three choices of Grid cassettes – Merion, Lytham and Gleneagles, with plans to widen
Dan Sullivan, MD, DoorCo
this further. Available from early February, we will be adding Turnberry, a half glazed arched design to the FLiP Standard range.
CONTEMPORARY DESIGNS FLiP has two contemporary product finishes that have a modern squaredoff flat profile and finished in either a woodgrain finish to partner with our Flush and Monza II doors, or stipple finish that perfectly matches the smooth, etched texture of Links, our composite aluminium alternative. Each FLiP Flat option has 4 styles that help form our contemporary and designer range of doors.
THROUGH COLOUR TECHNOLOGY When it comes to colour, customers are delighted that we’ve matched FLiP’s standard colour range with our doors’ standard colours. FLiP’s standard colours are applied as part of the injection moulding process, delivering a quality of colour that customers can trust to match and removing the need for additional cassette painting. And if a bespoke colour has been chosen, both door and cassette can be painted to match either in-house or using our flexible painting service. FLiP is delivering a world of choice to our customers, from our wide range of styles for traditional, contemporary and designer composite doors, its well thoughtout design that is improving weather performance and production efficiencies, and most importantly, a good level of stock on the shelves, supported by a consistent and reliable supply that is under DoorCo’s control. It’s time to FLiP: Talk to us today about enhancing your composite door offering with FLiP by calling 01625 428955, or visit: www.door-co.com/flip
February 2022 | www.glassnews.co.uk
