A new, highly automated plant which is considered to be the Middle East’s largest glass processor with a most modern facility for processing high-performance insulated glass is up and running at the Bahrain International Investment Park.

Bahrain Prism Glass Factory (BPGF) WLL is now designed to produce 2.800 sq m per day of processed high-performance insulated glass. This output includes multiple laminated units that meet the requirements of architects and planners.
The company has already planned to expand by installing both its second line for the heat treatment of glass and the third robotised insulating line in late 2010 in accordance with the growth strategy that it has outlined. With this expansion the company will attain a daily capacity of 4,200 sq m of high-performance insulated glass against the present 2,800 sq m.
BPGF is offering a range of solutions embracing glass wall systems, point fixed assemblies, glazed floorings and entrances with surface decorations.  To stand out as a market leader, BPGF’s product range is supplemented by an integrated digital printer, an integrated roller coater with an inline silkscreen printing machine and a Five Axis CNC machine capable of handling glass of the size of 4,200 mm x 2,350 mm.
Also in the portfolio are value additions in the form of double-vision panels, tile textures, digitally printed etched designs and wood textures. Interior design specialists can avail themselves of surface decoration including sandblasting, bevel clusters, air brush decoration, leaded stained glass, fiber glass art panels, carved glass, glue-chipped glass, three dimensional glass, fused and slumped glass.
The company will provide advice on appropriate selection keeping in mind aesthetics, and solar and thermal performance.
The $25-million Bahrain Prism Glass Factory (BPGF) has been set up by a group concentrating on real estate development, trading, contracting, hospitality management construction and allied fields. The investors are Banz Group, Buhindi Group, Almoayyed International Group and Maritas Management.
Even while the factory was in the making, it bagged a spate of local and foreign orders from aluminium fabricators for mixed residential and commercial developments and is set to get busier as it implements those orders and takes on new contracts.
  
Export potential high
According to BPGF general manager T Mani the potential enquiries could translate into orders for nearly 466,000 sq m of glass. By the end of the first year of production, the company will have processed and supplied goods worth $24.6 million including those for projects it is now implementing, he says.
It sees export potential in GCC markets and several areas outside the region with airports, hotels and IT parks holding promise. The company is also exploring supply opportunities in Europe where regulations make the use of high-quality insulated glass imperative. 
The factory is importing clear glass from the region and sputter-coated glass from European manufacturers to support its production process at its modern plant near Port Khalifa Bin Salman in Bahrain’s Hidd area. At 35,000 sq m, the plant is the largest in the Middle East but it is also currently automated to 80 per cent operations.

Unique operator
“That makes it unique in the region,” said Mani. “Other factories are 20 per cent automated, 80 per cent manual; here we have 80 per cent automation, and this figure will rise to 100 per cent in 2010. We have equipment that can handle large sheets of glass. Most companies can deal with glass stock to a maximum of 4,800 mm length by 2,400 mm width but we can handle 6,000 mm by 2,800 mm for heat treatment.
“Since we’re 80 per cent automated and our technology is so advanced, our production is 1.5 times higher than in most factories in the region. Plants of 6,000 sq m usually employ 80 to 200 people while Bahrain Prism Glass Factory has an area of 35,000 sq m and employs 120.”
Mani, who served as president and CEO of a major glass processing company for a decade before taking up his present post, also highlighted other elements reflecting BPGF’s uniqueness: “We have deployed state-of-the-art equipment including an integrated roller coater, silk screen printing, a lamination machine, two fully automatic robotised vertical insulation lines both with dual seal and adaptor and a heavy duty Five Axis machining centre capable of churning out a door every 12 minutes,” he said.
 
Consciousness growing
BPGF comes at a time when public authorities, private companies, professional builders and architects and ordinary people have grown very conscious of the need for environment-friendly and energy-saving products.
The thermal code as instituted by Bahrain’s Electricity Distribution Directorate for glazing is the most stringent in the whole of the GCC region, one of the reasons why insulated glass units have light transmittance not exceeding 15 per cent but with little or no control on internal reflectance.
“With the value-added processes and equipment, BPGF wishes to provide glass to customers, developers and architects that has very high light transmittance, thereby reducing usage of electricity and enhancing usage of green energy,” said Mani.  “This would be taken care of by our ceramic frit and silk screen printing division that can offer coverage through printing so as to reduce the shading co-efficient of insulated glass and achieving the relative heat gain as required.
“Through this process we wish to offer high light transmittance glass insulated with a high-performance glass that has a very high light transmittance and a printed pattern during phases three or four.
“This could actively control day lighting and dynamically control solar heat gain for energy savings and improved comfort. This would also stop solar heat and therefore reduce air conditioning and energy consumption,” he explained.
“At the Bahrain Prism Glass Factory, we wish to be trend setters on the island and the whole of the GCC region.”
 
Production process
With equipment imported from top-level manufacturers such as Lisec and Tam Glass, Bahrain Prism Glass Factory has no doubt that its product will be fully embraced by a quality conscious and discerning market.
BPGF receives stock sheets of post-temperable sputter-coated glass from across the globe. This is fed into two automated jumbo cutting lines by an automatic cutting gantry capable of producing 6,000 units per day on a 10-hour shift.
These are further transferred into a high-powered robotically managed fully automatic arising machine capable of arising the straight shaped and profiled glass units, after which they are automatically transferred into a 6,000 mm by 2,800 mm Pro-E-Magnum horizontal tempering furnace with an advanced heating process and a coated glass system.
Subsequently, units of individual architectural glass are either transferred into a laminating line or an insulating line.
The lamination line, one of the largest in the region at 5,100 mm x 2,600 mm, is designed to laminate annealed or tempered glass panels with customised sizes, shapes or Low-E glass side by side to enhance production capacities.
The machine also enables lamination of two small-sized panels side by side for increased output. It is equipped with a self-diagnoses and tele-assistance control system along with a hybrid furnace and forced air convection plus PVB unwinding stations up to 6 PVB rolls, thereby enhancing productivity and saving energy.
The factory is equipped with two jumbo-sized fully automated vertical insulated glass lines. The two lines, LVFPLN 3,500 mm x 2,500 mm and 5,000 mm x 2,500 mm, are empowered with a vertical edged deletion machine, a fully automatic plant for endless bent spacers and two fully automated dual adaptor robotic sealing machines capable of sealing double-glazed architectural units with silicon polysulphide or polyurethane as the case may be.
After the glass sheets are laminated they go into an autoclave 6,000 mm x 3,000 mm which is a hyperbaric chamber where temperature and pressure are controlled by a special air re-circulating system consisting of a fan and suitable air recycling and distribution channels. This enables temperature and pressure conditions to be homogenously maintained.

Quality is of the essence 
BPGF’s production manager says the manufacturing approach is in line with modern manufacturing practices. The product control, process controls and sampling frequency required at various stages are derived after a detailed study using FMEA guidelines.
Control starts right from the arrival of raw material with detailed specifications in place for all aspects of raw material quality. A detailed control plan indicates the control methods and mistake proofing for all the operation stages. Absolute clarity is documented in defining reaction plan and preventive action at all stages.
For each stage, pictorials are provided for standard operating procedures for all essential steps. The focus is to control the process first and to control the product by verification at every stage. Practices of first-off inspection, in-process inspection, control charts and statistical process controls are used at all stages.
The quality assurance department is actively engaged in conducting process audits for ensuring system adherence and identifying the area with scope for strengthening. The in-process rejection PPM level performance versus targets is a key aspect for the quality assurance. 
All key personnel at all organisation levels are highly skilled, educated individuals and have extensive experience of working in the glass field.
To maintain good working of the machines, all operators are trained for autonomous maintenance and are an integral part of the team performing planned machine maintenance activities along with the maintenance department. All these departments directly report to the operations manager.
To continuously upgrade technical skills, the HR department is actively involved in competency mapping for all levels. Department heads prepare a skill matrix for their operators and have individual plans for upgrading skills and for multiskilling all staff.
The training programme for the operators covers both soft skill and functional on-job training.  Training is imparted on the manufacturing practices of 5S and TPM. Other skills such as the use of statistical tools (SPC/SQC), ISO 9000 and ISO 14000, are given as per the training needs identified by the functional head.
BPGF will in due course conform to ISO 9001:2000 and 14001 system standards along with BS/ASTM and other duly recognised systems of production.
“In this competitive society, we always have planned to be ready for tomorrow’s challenges and to be ready to maximise our potential to maintain a strong customer relationship,” said Mani.
“In our efforts we are diversifying our core business objective and are working incessantly to address it at every level.”
 
Bahrainisation
Currently 16 per cent of the staff is Bahraini, a figure the company wants to take to 30 per cent in late 2010. They will be given training on robotic equipment in Europe. Intensive training will last 12 weeks by which time the company will move up to 100 per cent automation against 80 per cent now.

The company’s commitment
BPGF’s stated commitment is to produce, supply and install products of optimum quality, maintain continuous improvement in systems, procedures, organisation and product range, fulfill all legal and regulatory requirements and improve employee satisfaction.
It promises to be “a market-focused, process-centred organisation that develops and delivers innovative solutions to our customers, consistently outperforms our peers, produces predictable earnings for our shareholders and provides a dynamic and challenging environment for our employees.”