Edgetech Europe GmbH, located in Heinsberg Germany, is a fully-owned subsidiary of Quanex Building Products Corporation, an industry-leading manufacturer of components sold to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the building products industry. Regarding the turnover Edgetech/Quanex is the world‘s largest manufacturer of spacers. Edgetech Europe GmbH is a sales location for the markets in continental Europe and one of the three worldwide Edgetech production plants, with a total of 480 employees and 17 extruders. On average, worldwide, more than 300 million metres are sold annually in over 90 countries.
4 automatic production lines run on 4,300 square meters of floor space in Heinsberg. With almost 100 employees, the company produces Super Spacer® around the clock. The flexible spacers are for manual processing in insulating glass production and for automatic application.
Easy Engineering: What are the most successful products in your line-up
EDGETECH: Our warm edge spacer product Super Spacer®. Our spacer keeps the windowpanes exactly at a distance and ensure that insulating glass is sealed even after decades. They disconnect thermal bridges at the window edges and so they contribute greatly to the energy efficiency and room comfort of a building.
Our Super Spacer® has so many advantages to help not only glass manufacturers but also the general public with some incredible qualities. For example, a Passive House PHA+ Certification for Arctic climate, a high-quality silicone for a superior resistance to UV light and oxidation. But some of its most incredible features are these: a low thermal conductivity, a durable edge seal with continuous vapor barriers at the corners, no chemical fogging, a very good gas-loss rate value according to the EN 1279 part 3. Excellent performance, durability, condensation and comfort are also some key attributes to our Super Spacer®.
E.E: Tell us about the team in your company and how important is the human factor
EDGETECH: Edgetech Europe is located in Heinsberg in the middle of Europe. Here, we are both a sales location and a production plant. The people here work a lot, but they also like to celebrate, laugh and talk. In our daily, multilingual work for our clients in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East, this communicative nature naturally comes in handy. Working for our international customers is incredibly exciting. Different cultures, different expectations and needs, different laws and regulations that we have to observe during export and order processing.
Our team in production and administration are also a colorful bunch with very different backgrounds. Tolerance, mutual respect and consideration have contributed to a great working atmosphere. This year, the Heinsberg factory celebrates its 10th anniversary, and many of the employees from the very beginning are still on board.
We also owe our great success to our strong roots here in the city of Heinsberg and the region. That’s why we like to give something back to the community. Not only do we offer good and secure jobs, but we also support people with disabilities, for example, by awarding contracts to a workshop for the disabled. We have also employed people with disabilities in the company itself. Since the beginning, the training of our own junior staff has been close to our hearts. They are encouraged and trained to the best of their ability, because they ensure our sustainable and healthy growth. And that benefits our Super Spacer® production in particular.
E.E: What can you tell us about products distribution?
EDGETECH: As mentioned, before we are both a sales location and a production plant for Europe, Africa Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Talking about the Super Spacer® taking over the world. Here are some references that we are the proudest of: the Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Vienna’s Hoho wooden skyscraper, the new Nike Flagship Store in New York, the Museum of the Future in Qatar or the spectacular Qatar National Library. XXL or XXS, round, square or trapezoidal, there is a perfectly fitting Super Spacer for every insulating glass window.
E.E: What’s the client feedback for the best-selling products?
EDGETECH: Customized made to measure windows have characterized the fields of window construction and insulating glass production since time immemorial. Due to intense competition and the great pressure to be efficient, a large portion of the industry has affected the transition towards industrial-style production. Last but not least, energy requirements and the trend towards large glass surfaces as well as curved and free-formed glazing are constantly presenting the industry with new challenges.
Being unique by offering one-stop-solutions for the glazing of the building envelope is one way to stay ahead of the competition, and having a warm edge spacer system that can be efficiently and economically applied into any kind of insulating glass unit is virtually a small, but significant asset for every glass manufacturer.
E.E: How does this feedback impact development of new products?
EDGETECH: We strongly believe in innovation through automation combined with flexible spacers. We are working hard to improve our existing products such as Super Spacer®, but we are also working towards new products such as T-Spacer Structural Glazing for XXL format and facades. This new spacer is a prime example of how successful customer-supplier relationships are based on much more than product reliability and quality. Developing custom-fit solutions together with the customer is the supreme discipline in any business. We are naturally honored by the trust placed in our work.
E.E: Tell us about the research and development in your company?
EDGETECH: We’ve launched a project here in Heinsberg production to keep increasing production efficiency. Our team is constantly thinking about how workflows and production processes can be optimized – and in all areas from mixing to finishing, to the finished product. where we apply our unmistakable trademark, the silver band, to the Super Spacer®. At our Heinsberg factory, we manufacture Super Spacer TriSeal for all markets worldwide.
E.E: What is your company philosophy and what drives your company forward?
EDGETECH: With new laws, regulations and growing interest as well as awareness concerning the environment and the future, industries such as ours need to adapt and keep up to date with what is needed, wanted, required and doable. The main concern is towards reducing carbon footprint in construction. At Edgetech, we are visionaries and have been for a couple years already working with the objective of being eco-friendly and eco-responsible. With our many materials having next to no impact on the environment, with minimum waste from production to delivery of our spacers, we make sure to keep a close eye on how things are done here. We aim for a green future, and with our Super Spacer® making sure to preserve energy and reducing the energy consumption.
E.E: What guarantees success in your area of activity?
EDGETECH: Today warm edge spacers with their low thermal conductivity, their excellent Psi values and their excellent condensation resistance are the present and the future. Glass has become the signature material in 21st century architecture, merging from a mere functional element to a decisive structural and design element coming in many shapes and forms. At the same time improving the building energy performance and reducing carbon emissions has become vital in modern construction. Never has there been a broader range of glass solutions on the market to meet all these demands.
For IG manufacturers to produce durable insulating glass with high energy performance at affordable costs is essential. In an automated production line Super Spacer® TriSeal™ Premium Plus with its integrated desiccant, adhesive seal and primary seal is prone to be one of the relevant costs and time savers. The flexible spacer is applied endlessly from the roll and in many IG manufacturing lines an application robot with two application heads makes it easy to switch between different Super Spacer® sizes.
E.E: Give us some details about the after-sales service & customer support.
EDGETECH: A product is only as good as it is processed correctly and marketed professionally. Therefore, technical service and training is an important and central topic at Edgetech. We provide regular technical training and technical service for our customers to ensure the highest quality and manufacturing through our equipment solutions, regular quality audits, on-site training and troubleshooting.
Of course, we also offer our customers a complete marketing package consisting of advertisements, press releases, sample cards, leaflets and brochures for architects, decision-makers in the construction industry, façade manufacturers and, of course, end consumers.