Clear advantage Rolltech

Mercedes Museum Stuttgart – Quality meets Quality

CLEAR ADVANTAGE

ROLLTECH A/S is a global leader in the design and manufacture of spacers for the insulating glass industry. Philip Yorke talked to Johnny Holm, the company’s sales director, about its latest products and the strategy behind its remarkable growth, as well as its plans for further global expansion.

ROLLTECH was founded in Denmark in 1986 by three entrepreneurs with the object of producing high-quality aluminium and galvanised steel spacers for the insulated glass industry. Initially the company marketed its products in Scandinavia and Germany; however, with a clear focus on expansion it developed the world’s first ‘warm-edge’ spacer in 1991, named ‘CHROMATECH’. This was followed in 1999 by CHROMATECH V, Europe’s first thin SST spacer designed for prefilling, which was subsequently rebranded as CHROMATECH plus after a design change.

In 2001 ROLLTECH was acquired by Alu-Pro of Italy from ERBSLÖH AG in Germany. The expansion into new geographical markets was accelerated by the company’s partnership with Alu-Pro and FENZI also known by the marketing brand GLASS ALLIANCE. Today GLASS ALLIANCE is truly a global operator with manufacturing facilities throughout the world and continues to represent the most advanced technology in the insulating glass market.

Cutting-edge technology

ROLLTECH manufactures probably the widest range of warm edge spacers in the world and offers the most advanced insulation technology in the glass insulating industry.

The company’s high quality warm edge spacer bars are based on stainless steel forms and provide significant advantages for glass insulation customers and end users. This is due to stainless steel having the lowest thermal expansion and the highest stability of any warm edge spacer on the market. It is also 100 per cent gas-tight, which means that no moisture or gas can penetrate.

The company’s latest technological achievement is its cutting-edge ‘CHROMATECH Ultra warm edge spacer, which provides an extremely stable and flexible 7mm spacer bar, with very high stability characteristics and excellent bending qualities. This combination offers the advantage of very low Psi values and is suitable for working with almost all known bending machines. In addition, its plastic top has the advantage that it can be bent precisely in cold working conditions and does not bend back again through temperature change. In combination with its stainless steel back, it ensures consistent, excellent corners and precise, straight sides on window frames of all dimensions.

Mr Holm said, “Although we are located in Denmark and have our major production facilities here, as part of the Glass Alliance Group we have access to production sites in Poland, Belgium, Italy, Russia, China and Canada. This is important when considering the success of our latest warm bar spacer, the CHROMATECH Ultra. We expect this product to help us to achieve a doubling of our turnover within the next few years and we plan to begin production of these advanced, warm edge spacers in other strategic locations worldwide as demand increases. In Italy production of CHROMATECH Ultra started in 2011.

Mr Holm added, “We have also been investing heavily in the development and industrialisation of the CHROMATECH Ultra, which today is one of the fastest-growing products on the market. In addition, in 2011 we decided to invest in dedicated production lines for our plastic extrusion components, to give us full control of the entire manufacturing process. Optimising quality, service and delivery is a priority for us at all times and, along with our unique, cutting-edge products, this clearly differentiates us from our competitors.”

Quality and quantity

ROLLTECH celebrated 25 years of service to the insulating glass industry in 2011 and has during that time produced more than one bil-

Hoher Kasten – Swiss Alps – Stunning View – CHROMATECH in the Frame

lion metres of high-quality spacers, with more than 90 per cent of its products going to export markets. The company’s spacer bar products are used extensively for the isolating of double-glazed windows covering all forms of building activity, from small domestic windows to the big glass fronts of tower blocks and open-plan offices.

In addition to its range of standardised and customised spacer bars, ROLLTECH produces a selection of warm edge spacer bars that offer unrivalled energy efficiency and eco-friendly properties. Installing ROLLTECH products significantly reduces the CO2 footprint of today’s and tomorrow’s buildings worldwide. Products like CHROMATECH, CHROMATECH plus and CHROMATECH Ultra set the standards for efficiency and energy-saving wherever they are employed. Furthermore, they provide the end user with lower energy costs, reduced CO2 emissions and improvements in indoor climates by significantly reducing or eliminating the risk of interior condensation.

Innovation across the board

Developing innovative, world-beating products is one aspect of ROLLTECH’s culture of continuous improvement; however, this also extends to its other business practices. When it comes to sustainability and the environment it is just as creative, and attaches great importance to the environmental issues that arise both inside and outside the company. Because of this commitment, ROLLTECH’s process technology does not generate any harmful waste and all eco-friendly waste products are melted down and recycled as a matter of course.

Mr Holm commented, “Our consideration for the environment always forms an integral part of our decision-making process, especially when it comes to manufacturing. For example, the lubricant that we use in our production processes is alcohol based, which we filter through active coal and reuse so that nothing at all escapes into the atmosphere. In addition, 50 per cent of our bought-in raw materials are made of recycled material and our spacers can also be 100 per cent recycled. In fact, our stainless steel bars are also eco-friendly in their own way, as they last indefinitely.” n