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Emirates Glass embarks on AED100 million expansion Emirates Glass LLC (EGL), one of the leading processors of architectural flat glass in the Middle East and a subsidiary of Glass LLC, wholly owned by Dubai Investments (DI), has embarked on a major expansion plan at a cost of AED100 million to increase the coating capacity further to meet a growing demand for its products.

'The expansion will increase the coating capacity by three million square metres per annum to bring the total capacity to 3.7 million square metres of flat glass products,' said Mr. Ziad Yazbeck, Deputy General Manager, Emirates Glass. 'This will meet the additional demand created by the recent unprecedented growth in the Gulf construction industry,' he added.

Currently, at full utilization of its 700,000 square meters capacity for coated architectural glass, Emirates Glass is supplying its products to various projects in and around the region.

'Emirates Glass has placed an order for a new glass-coating line with the Applied Materials Company in Germany (suppliers of the original line). The company will begin the installation process of the new line which will be operational by December 2007. Installation of the new equipment and machinery will begin by August 2007 and will be completed in three months,' remarked Mr. Yazbeck.

With a bed-width of 3.3m and a sputtering section of 68m long containing 20 cathode-positions (15 installed initially, including 10 rotatable C-Mag type , and 5 Planar magnetron) the equipment will be the largest and most modern machine of its kind in the Middle East. It will also be able to produce a wide range of high performance energy-efficient glass types with 'High Selectivity ' ratios which are now being favoured among architects and developers throughout the region.

The core operation of Emirates Glass is the application of ultra-thin metallic coatings by means of cathodic sputtering on to float glass substrates. These coatings, which comprise various combinations of Silver, Tin, Zinc, Chromium, Titanium and Stainless Steel, greatly enhance the colour and reflectivity of the glass. Thus Emirates Glass products provide impressive levels of Solar Control and Thermal Insulation (when used in double glazing) to minimize heat gain into all building types besides reducing the consumption of energy for Summer cooling.

The EMICOOL Range of coated, energy-efficient glass has been the market leader since its introduction nearly 10 years ago and continues to be widely specified for many of the largest projects in the Middle East.

At present, the Emirates Glass order-book has swelled to more than a million square meters of various glass types. These products are being supplied to various iconic projects throughout the region.