The world’s toughest and most versatile fire resistant glass is now being produced in the UK following Vetrotech Saint-Gobain’s decision to manufacture the full range of its Contraflam® products from a facility based in Coventry.
Contraflam is a market-leading product consisting of two or more sheets of toughened safety glass filled with a transparent intumescent gel which reacts when exposed to fire. By manufacturing it in the UK, Vetrotech Saint-Gobain is able to provide customers with shorter lead times. To further enhance levels of customer service, the company’s UK sales team has also moved to be on site at the production facility.
Andrew Lake, Vetrotech Saint-Gobain UK’s general manager, said: “There is a continued growth in demand for non-wired fire resistant glass with high impact safety characteristics within the UK market. As a dedicated fire-specialist we want to ensure that we are able to meet this demand by being in the best possible position to provide our customers with the highest levels of product, service and delivery.
“By manufacturing in the UK and centralising our operations we are ideally situated to achieve those objectives and serve the whole of the country. Additionally, the multi-functionality and breakage resistance characteristics of the product mean installers and specifiers can be confident that by using Contraflam they will benefit from versatile solutions that will not put their margins at risk.”
When exposed to fire, the special intumescent interlayers within Contraflam turn opaque and expand to form an insulating heat shield. This effectively reduces the transmission of radiated and conducted heat to achieve fire resistance classifications ranging from 30 minutes integrity (30/0) to up to 120 minutes integrity and insulation (120/120).
The Contraflam range can also be combined with complementary Saint-Gobain products to provide solutions for safety and security, enhanced thermal insulation, acoustic, solar control, decorative and glass flooring.