Safety Glass - a Construction Material of Future

Safety Glass - a Construction Material of Future

The construction market has posed increasingly high technical, artistic and quality requirements. Many new technologies and materials have been applied in recent years, in particular, safety glass has been used in many major national works, residential areas, airports, hotels and multi-storey buildings.

Having been aware of a huge demand of the construction material market and carried out a programme on diversifying products by the Vinaconex Corporation, the Vinaconex Joint Stock Company N⁰ 7 (Vinaconex 7) built a safety glass plant at the Quang Minh industrial park, Me Linh district, Vinh Phuc province. The plant had a modern production line imported from Glassrobot Oy, Finland. Its capacity is put at 120,000 square metres per working shift. Materials for safety glass production include high quality floating glass manufactured by the Vietnam Japan Floating Glass Company (VFG) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) imported from Trosifol, Germany.

Nguyen Cong Tam, director of Vinaconex 7, said that it was a new product with outstanding specifications: long duration, good heat, sound and ultraviolet light resistance. Glued, pressed and burnt in high temperature and pressure, safety glass has two or more plies, glued with each other with PVB. Multi-ply glass is resistant to fire. Even when it is broken, it can maintain its shape, thus helping minimise risks of causing injuries. Tam said that materials and production of safety glass were examined carefully to make sure that products were of high quality. With such good qualities, safety glass made by Vinaconex 7 is suitable for multi-storey buildings, airports, hotels, schools, hospitals and automobiles. Many major works in Vietnam, such as the Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh multi-storey block of flats, the Vinaconex headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City, the Noi Bai and Phu Bai airports, the Anh Quan swimming pool, the My Dinh national stadium, the Haiphong international fair centre, the Vincom twin tower, use the product.

The product has been praised by customers for its quality and artistic value. Many developers have expressed their attention to the company’s products. However, as a new product in the Vietnamese market, the product is not yet well known. However, with such good qualities, Tam said he believed that safety glass would become a favourite construction material in the future.

The Vietnam Institute of Construction Material Research has granted a certificate on the product’s heat and emission insulation. The product won a gold medal at the 2003 Construction Fair and Exhibition and a gold medal at the 2003 Vietnam International Industrial Fair. Since 2004, the safety glass plant under Vinaconex 7 has applied the ISO 9001-2000 quality management system.

Under the market mechanism of fierce competition, there are many safety glass products of various qualities and prices but the product by Vinaconex 7 remains the customers’ favourite choice.

• Mai Anh