Zamil Glass Industries (ZGI) has begun manufacturing a new range of safety and security glass following the introduction of the latest laminated glass production technology at its facility in Dammam’s First Industrial City.

The company also announced it has introduced a new quality control process which it says provides enhanced investment protection for customers of tempered safety glass.
The lamination line is fully automated and capable of producing a full range of laminated safety and security glass (Lamlite), providing architects, consultants and aluminum fabricators with an expanded choice in durable glazing materials, the company said. The Lamlite offering satisfies a growing demand for enhancing industrial, business and residential security, it added.

Giving details, ZGI general manager Salah Al Otaibi, said the principle feature of ZGI Lamlite glass was its safety performance level under impact enabling typical applications to include locations where safety glazing was required such as doors, windows, showers and bath door enclosures, fixed glazed panels, balconies and panoramic elevators as well as sports stadiums, atriums and skylights.

“Lamlite is a composite glass comprising at least two glass lites and one or more interlayers of tough PVB (poly-vinyl-butyral). The glass lites can be annealed, heat strengthened, tempered, tinted, reflective or patterned,” said Al Otaibi.

“By using clear, coloured and patterned PVB in varying thickness, our manufacturing capabilities extend to bullet-resistance glass ‘Securalite’ and XIR-Laminated high-performance glass in accordance with approved international institutes and laboratories.
“Should the Lamlite glass become impacted, any glass fragments will remain in place by adhering to the PVB interlayer minimising the risk of serious cuts or injuries. The PVB interlayer also absorbs the energy impact reducing the risk of penetrating the glass unit. Even if the glass is broken, it will stay in place, remains weather tight, and can be replaced with ease.”

ZGI Lamlite has introduced the XIR-laminated glazing system under license from the US’ South Wall’s Technologies, whose products are used in a number of architectural aspects to enhance optical and thermal performance characteristics, improve user comfort and reduce energy costs.

The range of security glass “Securalite” available includes burglar-resistant Lamlite, bullet-resistant Lamlite, and blast-resistant Lamlite, all of which can substantially reduce injury from flying glass resulting from direct blast shock waves, thereby maintaining the integrity of a building and safeguarding against interior damage, the company said.

“In addition Lamlite offers improved detention and security for mid-level security requirements while at the same time providing unobstructed vision by eliminating the confined look of bars and metal screens. Institutional glazing offers prolonged physical impact resistance and extends the time required for penetration.”

About the new quality control process for tempered safety glass, Zamil Glass Industries said it involved a heat-soak-testing process that eliminated foreign bodies such as nickel sulphide (NiS) in the raw materials of float glass.

According to Al Otaibi, heat soak testing is a quality control process that guards against spontaneous breakage. “NiS inclusions are invisible to the naked eye and can form during the tempering process. Such particles freeze in an unstable form and can return to their original state, which can happen either in days, months or years due to the low temperature state at any time.  If NiS particles occur within the tensile portion of the tempered glass, they increase in volume, causing fractures or breakages in the glass,” he said.

The purpose of heat soak testing is to eliminate tempered glass lites containing critical NiS inclusions, by speeding the rate of the reverse transition to the low temperature state. This means that tempered glass lites containing NiS inclusions will fracture during the heat-soak process thereby eliminating the possibility of finished glass that could break in the future.
ZGI, whose parent company is Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC), is ISO 9001-certified.