Reliable IGU production far from the European mainland

02/07/2023 | Print view

The glass specialists at Íspan from Kópavogur, a district of the Islandic capital Reykjavík, have been manufacturing insulating glass and refined flat glass for all over Iceland since 1969. Here we take a look at the company's production, where glass is refined into unique objects.

Since its foundation, continuous development has been at the top of the Icelandic company's agenda. Starting out as a small glazier's shop, Íspan relied on high-quality machine technology early on and became Lisec's first customer in Arctic latitudes.

As early as 1970, the company invested in a GFL desiccant filling system from Lisec, which made it possible to fill spacers with desiccant faster and more reliably, thus increasing the production rate and quality of the insulating glass produced.

With the takeover of the company by Guðmundur Grímsson as well as his brothers and his sister - the children of the company's founder - Íspan achieved a successful handover to the next generational. The glass company passed into the hands of the new owners, Ingibjörg Björnsdóttir's family, in 2017. Today, Einar Þór Harðarson and his wife Auður Kristín Árnadóttir run the operations of the glass refiner with around 50 employees.

Íspan has always placed the highest trust in its employees and also invests continuously in new technologies. This has enabled the glass company to make a decisive mark on the Icelandic market for insulating glass and to open up new markets with its specially developed products for interior and exterior use.

Facts and figures

The development of the Icelandic company, which sees itself as a quality leader in Iceland, has taken a particularly steep course since 2017. In the last five years, turnover has risen from around four million euros to over nine million euros. The proportion of the turnover between 50 per cent insulating glass and 50 per cent other glass products for interior and exterior use shows clear growth potential.

Íspan produces up to 400 insulating glass units a day in single-shift operation, mostly 2-pane units with aluminium spacers.

In addition to IGUs, Íspan also offers a wide variety of refined flat glass.

Íspan offers its customers an extensive product range, with more than 70 different types of glass in stock. The high-quality products include a wide variety of insulating glass for new and old buildings, glass partitions, balustrades and glass railings, as well as shower and kitchen partitions and special lighting objects, including mirrors with integrated LED lighting.

With this in mind, the sales team plans more than 100 customised orders every day.

Far away from mainland Europe

Due to Iceland's isolated location away from mainland Europe and the resulting need to be self-sufficient to a certain extent, Íspan has earned a very good reputation as a reliable and highly qualified partner.

"In case of emergency, we can manufacture customer orders on the same day, which creates a sense of trust and strengthens our brand," explains Einar Þór Harðarson. The Íspan maintenance team, together with the service staff of Lisec and its partner Per Mordt A/S from Norway, ensures high system availability, which is particularly appreciated by Íspan in its cooperation with Lisec.

The secret of Íspan's success

"The glass panes we need are delivered from Germany in special 20-foot containers and usually take three weeks to arrive from the time the order is placed. With Lisec's modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system gps.prod, which has an integrated database of orders from previous decades, we have been able to optimise our procurement. This in turn has a very positive effect on current availability and delivery times," says Einar Þór Harðarson.

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Happy with what they are seeing: Guðmundur Grímsson (left), former owner of Íspan and Einar Þór Harðarson, current owner of the company.

The various glasses, which are ordered and delivered as 5.1 x 3.21 m glass pans or in split strip dimensions as boxed goods, are stored in the company in several compartment racking warehouses that are linked to a Lisec support system. This provides the glass for the new float glass cutting system GFB-60/33, which also has an edge deletion module. A new, fully automatic insulating glass line with VHW washing system, FPS gas filling press and VL-1N sealing robot produces up to 400 units per shift.

The entire production planning is done with gps.prod, whereby the data for the corresponding systems is made available in electronic form and every process step in production is transparently visible or can be recorded.

A significant proportion of the glass processed at Íspan consists of laminated glass. Four years ago, the company therefore invested in a laminated glass cutting bridge of the base series LAM-37 from Lisec. Furthermore, an automatic topDRILL glass drilling machine from Schraml was purchased to cope with the increasing proportion of special glass to which corresponding holders and fitting systems are attached.

Einar Þór Harðarson (left) has taken over the business from Guðmundur Grímsson.

In addition, a horizontal 3-axis milling and polishing machine is used for glass processing, as well as a vertical single-sided multiple polishing machine for edge processing. And for surface finishing, especially for the design mirrors with LED lighting, a horizontal laser decoating machine is used.

Software and machines from a single source

"The interfaces of the Lisec software for data transfer from all these systems make our work immensely easier. The use of the Lisec software has led to a significant increase in the flexibility and efficiency of our production. This has allowed us to almost double our production, even though we have hardly changed our production area, while at the same time ensuring and maintaining quality," says Einar Þór Harðarson.

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In addition to modern machinery and associated software systems that guarantee optimal utilisation of the complex production facilities, service and maintenance also play an essential role in high plant availability.

Routine maintenance and service work is carried out in cooperation between Lisec and Íspan employees. In addition, if necessary, Lisec's partner Per Mordt A/S from Norway provides spare parts and further service support together with Lisec.

The majority of Íspan‘s output is 2-pane IGUs with aluminium spacers.

On new paths

In Iceland, where it is light almost continuously in summer and dark except for a short twilight phase in winter, Íspan has been offering lighting objects in Scandinavian design with unique mirrors for more than six years.

With these products, the company has succeeded in expanding its product range and offering its customers something very special. Íspan develops these and other special products internally with its experienced staff, setting itself apart from its competitors.

"New products and processes require modern systems and software solutions for control. In Lisec we have an innovative and competent partner who supports us in this endeavour and grows together with us," explains Einar Þór Harðarson.

Future and safety

"The Icelandic market with its exposed location offers security - but not without limitations. Quality and the trust of our customers are what drive us and we want to continue to strengthen and develop in the future, both in our cooperation with Lisec and, of course, in actively shaping the market," Einar Þór Harðarson explains.

The market share of special products and safety glass is steadily increasing, which requires Íspan to establish future focal points and additional processes to facilitate further development and enable the expansion of its strong market position. In addition, Íspan will be able to gain further market share thanks to its excellent location and facilities.

Success through integrated solutions

In its internal technological development, Íspan places great emphasis on solutions in which hardware and software take an integrated approach. The synergy of machine and software is important here in order to make optimal and efficient use of the available resources.

Another important factor is the simple and intuitive operability of software solutions, because only software that users can operate with pleasure and success will also deliver corresponding results.

"Thanks to Lisec's all.in.one:solutions, we have taken the top position in the Icelandic flat glass industry and we are proud of our machines and the software that supports us," Einar Þór Harðarson is pleased to say.