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CHINA GLASS 2014 FOUR DAYS OF INTENSE INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY

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POST-SHOW REPORT

This year’s China Glass Expo took up seven halls of the Expo Centre in

Shanghai, occupying a total area of 80,000 square metres. Thanks

to regular, new and even ‘old’ exhibitors coming back to the event,

the show was deemed highly positive. Products displayed attracted

considerable interest, with special glass types side by side with some of

the largest sheets of glass ever produced.

SUCCESS IN SHANGHAIAnother gathering of global glass circles at China Glass

2014 was staged in Shanghai, the most international metropolis of China. The glass show took place from 14 to 17 April 2014 and occupied seven halls of the Expo Centre (E1-E7) and an exhibition area of 80,000 square metres, with 821 exhibitors (190 interna-tional companies) from 27 coun-tries, including China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. They came to showcase their most up-to-date techno-logies, machinery and products, as well as to exchange informa-tion and technology.

The four-day glass show attracted over 23,000 profes-sional visitors from nearly 80 countries around the world, and 3,000 people from outside China came to the show, including visit-ing groups comprising about 400 members from industrial, trading and press sectors of India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, alongside the most important worldwide glass-related media.

PROMINENT INTERNATIONAL STANDING

Hall E1 of the Expo Centre was stage to a spectacular inter-national event, where almost all world-class giants of the glass industry were present, such as AGC, Benteler, Bottero, Bystronic, CNUD-EFCO, Five Stein, Glaston, Grenzebach, Lisec, PPG, Saint-Gobain and Teichmann. Germany, Italy and the United States were present with their usual country pavil-ions. The Italian exhibiting group took up more than 1,200 square metres for 24 companies; the German group, supported by its Government departments and organized by Messe Düsseldorf, had a booth area of 600 square metres with 30 companies, and over 20 companies were present with booths on an area of 400 square metres in the US pavilion.

Thanks to good feedback coming from previous editions of China Glass, a number of renowned companies such as Bystronic, Glassman, Glaston and Lisec rented even larger booths compared to last year. This is an important result if we consider

that the western economy is still partially affected by the econom-ic crisis. China Glass 2014 also encouraged the participation of more and more companies, with about 50 newcomers at this year’s glass exhibition from China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Glaston presented its glass pre-processing technology and a complete range of diamond and polishing tools for all needs. Company products on show included heat treatment techno-logy such as fl at tempering, bend-ing and tempering, fl at laminat-ing, as well as low-E and ultra-low-E glass products.

Lisec exhibited glass-pro-cessing equipment, especially machinery for photovoltaic glass, production/quality management software system and spacer bars; DIN standard laboratory for glass products quality control; European standard full range of architectural glass products and glass transport technology for public road.

Specialising in conveying, cut-ting, drilling and bevelling of

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glass machinery plants & accessories 4/2014 31

shaped glass, particularly vehicle windscreens, Bystronic had on show its new products and laser cutting technology.

CNUD-EFCO of Belgium sup-plies state-of-the-art technology regarding annealing lehrs and tin bath roofs, designed to cover a wide range of glass production capacities from 50 to 1000 MTD with ribbon widths varying from 0.7 up to 5 metres, and to anneal clear, coloured, coated, PDP and TFT glass ranging from 0.3 to 25.0 millimetres in thickness.

The Fives Stein Group is a sup-plier of thermal equipment and production lines and advanced technologies of fl oat glass furnac-es and annealing lehrs, includ-ing melting furnaces with either gas, electric or oil combustion systems, electric boost and bub-bler systems, working ends and forehearths with combustion sys-tems, as well as oxy-gas fore-hearths for various types of fi ber glass or solar glass. Renowned for intelligent handling, process-ing and automation technology, Grenzebach displayed its latest fl oat glass production lines and cold-end test techniques.

Partnered with PPG, Teichmann provides turnkey projects including engineering,

procurement, technical service, construction and project man-agement for fl oat, fi berglass, con-tainer and other specialty glass plants, complete fl oat glass solu-tions, oxy-fuel fi ring and CVD coating technologies.

Corning, a leading glass enterprise in specialty glass and ceramics, showcased techno-logies of machinable glass cera-mic, high purity fused silica and zero expansion glass.

AGC of Japan provide solu-tions related to glass melting fur-naces, in addition to high-rank fl oat glass, on-line low-E glass and TCO glass.

The world-famous producer of high-quality magnesia refracto-ries, RHI of Austria, demonstrat-ed products and services related to lining recommendations, heat transfer and chamber calcula-tions, lining drawings and mate-rial deliveries.

Digital ceramic in-glass print-ers and digital ceramic inks developed and manufactured by Dip-Tech were especially inter-esting to visitors at the company’s booth. Dip-Tech presented a full range of decorative and func-tional requirements for interior and exterior printed glass appli-cations.

INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS FROM CHINESE COMPANIES

The leading glass-related enterprises and groups of China present at this glass fair includ-ed AVIC, China Luoyang Float Glass Group, China Triumph, Guangdong Fushan, Guangdong IVACO, Jinjing Group, Landglass, Liaoning Lewei, Luoyang Northglass, Mingte, Ruitai, Shabo Glass Group, Shanghai, Shunde Golive, Taiwan Glass Group, TENON, Topglass, Xinyi, Yaohua Pilkington, and Zhejiang CSG. Some of them had booths as large as 500-800 square metres. Apart from gen-eral glass-processing techniques, machines and products, they brought to the show their inno-vative technologies and latest research results, including a great variety of special glass products and glass-processing machines, especially those closely related to low-carbon economy, energy effi -ciency, emission reduction, new energy and green materials.

Landglass is a Luoyang-based high-tech glass-processing enter-prise, specialising in developing, designing and manufacturing glass tempering furnaces with 40 patents. This company has devel-oped and manufactured a series

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POST-SHOW REPORT

of advanced horizontal fl at and bent glass tempering furnaces, continuous tempering furnaces, double-chamber tempering fur-naces, Jet-heating convection fur-naces, and the fi rst bi-directional glass tempering furnace in the world. Visitors at the booth were interesting in the cone-shaped tempering glass produced with new-type bent-tempering equip-ment developed in 2014. This type of glass is characterized by adjustable size and will improve the aesthetic aspects of buildings. This new bent-tempering techno-logy can be operated continuously with higher precision, larger out-put and higher productivity.

Luoyang Northglass is an inte-grated high-tech enterprise main-ly engaged in R&D of glass post-processing technology and equip-ment. The company present glass tempering furnace technologies, low-E glass coating lines, TCO glass and coating lines. Luoyang Northglass’ distinctive booth was made up of two huge glass plates: one the largest pane safety tem-pered energy-saving glass and the other a 18 x 3.3 metre printed glass sheet, which is also the larg-est in China.

Guangdong IVACO’s four-sided bevelling machine espe-cially attracted visitors, along-side many other glass-processing machines of this company, such as numerical-control double straight line edger (line), vertical arrissing machine, vertical drilling machine, glass washing drying machine, safety glass laminating line, automatic numerical con-trol glass cutting machine (line), automatic loader and air cushion separating table. The four-sided bevelling machine possesses guar-antees high energy-saving per-formance, high speed with low installed power, while saving 50 per cent of manpower.

The Shabo Group is one of the largest fl at glass production

groups in China, with 40 high quality fl oat glass production lines with daily melting capacity of 25,000 tons, able of producing a variety of 1-25 millimetre high quality fl oat glass and intensively-processed glass. The 20 varieties of glass-processing products at this glass fair fully demonstrated the great vigour of this Chinese company. Some Chinese glass enterprises returned once again to China Glass after not exhibit-ing for many years. For exam-ple, China Luoyang Float Glass Group was present at the show this year, after being present the last time eight years ago, with booth of about 200 square metres. On show, the group had 0.33 millimetre ultra-thin glass, which was independently developed by breaking the technical monopoly of other countries regarding simi-lar glass products.

FRUITFUL AND REWARDING EXHIBITION

China Glass 2014 once again provided a platform and a good opportunity for exhibitors and vis-itors from the world over to con-duct technical exchanges and trade talks. They all deem this glass fair very fruitful and rewarding. For instance, just on the second exhi-bition day, Guangdong IVACO received a number of order forms from Iran, Turkey, Korea and Poland. Seven of the eight CNY 3,000,000 worth of machines of Guangdong Fushan were sold out and export orders of more than CNY 10 million and nearly USD 3 million were clinched. The 18 x 3.3 metre numerically printed glass of Luoyang Northglass saw the headquarters of Apple Inc. as its fi rst buyer.

The considerable economic benefi ts of this year’s China Glass Exhibition are gratifying in view of the depression of the current world economic situation. This is the result of close collaboration

with all exhibitors, both regular and new ones, the organisers and all those who have continuously supported the glass exhibition.

ACTIVITIES DURING THE SHOW

A number of technical and aca-demic activities were held during the exhibition. The International Symposium on Advanced Glass Melting Technology took place on 11-13 April, with energy effi ciency, low carbon and new technology for recycling mate-rial as its theme, discussing melt-ing and oxy-fuel combustion technologies. GPD China 2014 was held on 12 April, address-ing energy effi ciency and sustain-ability in buildings with a focus on intelligent glazing and energy management, with 12 technical seminars with about 400 attend-ees, who had lively discussion on many interesting topics. The Consulate General of Germany in Shanghai held “the Night of German Pavilion” to enhance the relationship between Chinese glass enterprises and German companies. Last but not least, news briefi ngs and workshops were given by some exhibitors to promote their brands, products and R&D results.