Glass Solutions help ALS to maintain laboratory supplies

ALS Food and Pharmaceutical, based in Chatteris, UK, relies on Glass Solutions to maintain its laboratory glassware. The Section Head of the company’s Vitamins and Additives department explained: “Our laboratory is responsible for the analysis of vitamins in a wide range of food and nutritional products, and clients rely on the integrity of our results. As a busy analytical laboratory, we need to make certain that we always have sufficient glassware available for our analyses and, because degradation of the analyte is a potential problem, we often use amber glassware to provide protection from light.”

“While clear glass tubes are readily available, amber ones are not. Instead of buying clear tubes and sending them away to be amber coated, we have them custom made by Glass Solutions, which is just as cost effective and far easier. The company also has the capability to repair qualitative glassware – for example, replacing damaged tops on Quickfit® apparatus or taps and spouts on separating funnels – helping to prolong lifespans. Glass Solutions is very flexible and always willing to help; they give us exact lead times so that we know when the order will be ready, and our drivers collect the glassware during their daily routine, ensuring rapid delivery and minimising breakages during transit. It’s an ideal situation.”

Glass Solutions is working with bespoke furniture and lighting designers FRD Ltd to produce individual lighting installations for both private and public spaces.

Jane Kavanagh, Operations Manager at FRD, explained: “FRD creates unique lighting and furniture for the high end interior design market, from restaurants and public areas to private dwellings and super yachts. We have a strong global reputation, working with architects, designers and private clients in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Far East and USA to produce truly bespoke pieces. Although we are known for our metalwork, our designers often use glass to complement specific aspects of our pieces, and we have worked with Glass Solutions for a number of years to help us achieve the right aesthetic for individual projects.”

“We originally contacted the company to manufacture a series of large diameter glass tubes for chandeliers, as we couldn’t find any other supplier capable of producing something on the scale we required. They pulled out all the stops on that project – the service we received was truly exceptional – and we have since gone back to them a number of times, for everything from simple chandelier components to large complex pieces. We often push the boundaries of what is possible, but the Glass Solutions team is always up for the challenge, and we rarely have to compromise. You live and die by tolerances in this industry and, when we supply a design to Glass Solutions, we can always be confident that the glass is going to match the metalwork precisely.”

Bolton-based PTFE Developments Ltd. specialises in the production of fluoropolymer-lined chemical process equipment for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, relying on Glass Solutions to supply the high quality glass used in its tubular sight glasses.

David Howarth, Managing Director, explained: “We chose Glass Solutions as our supplier because the company maintains substantial stocks of the SCHOTT Duran range of borosilicate glass that we use. This helps to ensure the availability of top-end glass tubes made to our specifications, which is vital for reliable production.”

“Quality, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, is a very important factor. Glass Solutions’ workmanship is excellent, and the glasses we receive are always accurately cut. We simply place an order for the size and length of tube that we need, and the company delivers a custom solution ready to build in to our products. We have a good working relationship with the company, and the service we receive is excellent; Glass Solutions is both flexible and efficient, which is particularly beneficial if we need something urgently. We have been working with the company for several years now, and find the team really easy to deal with.”

Glass Solutions hand-blown precision glassware is key to the continued success of Yorkshire-based LabPlant UK’s laboratory scale spray dryers.

Simon Rowe, sales/purchasing and exports manager, explained: “Spray dryers are popular research tools in industries such as pharmaceuticals, and flavors and fragrances, as well as academia, enabling the conversion of liquids into powders for further analysis. These systems are bespoke items, adapted to individual customers’ requirements, and high quality glassware is a vital part of the unit, whether that’s chambers, collection bottles or cyclones.”

“It is important that the glass components of the spray dryers are made reproducibly, and we need to ensure that the tolerances are exactly the same every time. Our systems are designed to enable a degree of movement to either side, allowing adjustments to be made should there be any variance in the glassware, but the quality of Glass Solutions products is such that we almost never need to do this. Although every component is inspected on delivery, I know that this is not necessary since each piece of glassware will be identical, which is excellent. We have worked with Glass Solutions for many years, receiving great service. Our relationship with the company is really good, and we know that it will meet its deadlines, which is key to the timely delivery of our products.”

Glass Solutions has collaborated with production company Atom Ltd to manufacture a unique high quality glass trophy for a large multinational company.

Alan Robinies, Director at Atom, explained: “We had previously produced a number of awards in acrylic for the company to present to its staff in recognition of their achievements. Subsequently, we were approached to recreate these custom-designed awards, this time in high quality glass. Finding a supplier prepared to take on the challenge of creating something a little different to normal was not easy; Glass Solutions was like a breath of fresh air, and did a great job for us.”

“Quality is paramount and, while the original acrylic award was good, the glass trophy is far superior. The craftsmanship involved in glass blowing, bonding different pieces of glass together and then creating the bespoke shape of the award, is incredible and cannot be mimicked by a computer or machine. It’s fascinating to watch. Turnaround times are equally important, and Glass Solutions delivered the awards to us in advance of the agreed deadline, ensuring that we had ample time to complete the decoration and engraving. I always had confidence in what the company could achieve and, once the first award was complete, it was plain sailing.”

Haberdashery, a London-based design consultancy, relies on Glass Solutions to produce top quality, custom-made glassware for its landmark sculptural lighting commissions.

Director Mac Cox explained: “At Haberdashery, we focus on the design, supply and installation of high end bespoke sculptural lighting for exclusive properties and developments worldwide, from penthouses in London to the Hermitage apartments in Monaco. As well as commissions from interior designers and architects drawing up plans for luxury properties, we work with up-market developers and hotels, and on individual pieces for some of the wealthiest people in the world. At this level, quality is everything.”

“We chose Glass Solutions because the company has the capability to reliably and consistently produce the large quantities of high quality custom-designed tubes that we need for our lighting sculptures, which comprise several thousand individual tubes of diverse lengths. Glass Solutions gives us a lead time and keeps to it, which is exactly what we need, and has the flexibility to allocate additional staff to a project to meet short deadlines when necessary. We have also occasionally asked the company to produce other unique pieces of glassware, which have been beautifully made. Over the five or six years we have been working with Glass Solutions, we have established a great working relationship built on trust. The company is in the top 10 of the hundreds of suppliers we use, and is by far one of our favored manufacturers.”

Blackpool-based RocketScienceMods, a manufacturer of high-end electronic cigarette components, turned to glassware specialist Glass Solutions to meet its need for a bespoke high quality drip tip.

Managing Director Matthew Smith explained: “Top of the range e-cigarettes have a separate mouthpiece which, traditionally, is made from either stainless steel or plastic. However, many users felt that plastic mouthpieces lacked a quality feel, while stainless steel tended to accumulate dirt. RocketScienceMods wanted to offer an alternative; a Pyrex® mouthpiece manufactured, like the rest of our products, from UK-sourced raw materials. Our search for a glass supplier that could work to tight deadlines to produce a top-end product meeting our demanding quality standards led us to Glass Solutions. The company also shares our ethics for being an entirely UK-sourced manufacturer, which is equally important.”

“We have a great relationship with Glass Solutions. The company worked well with us to perfect a high quality product meeting our design specifications and tolerances, adjusting its processes where necessary and providing technical advice. This expertise was particularly important in helping us accomplish the technical challenge of bonding a stainless steel collar to the Pyrex drip tip, where we not only had to meet the mechanical needs of the joint, but also health and safety requirements. Our business transactions with Glass Solutions are always straightforward, which is a big bonus, and we’ve no plans to change.”