Etihad Terminal ... one of the major projects for Emirates Glass.

Emirates Glass, one of the leading architectural glass manufacturers in the UAE, is on the fast track towards becoming a leader in the industry with demand soaring for its products in prestigious construction developments in the UAE and around the Middle East.

“We have executed jobs worth approximately Dh350 million ($95.37 million) over a four-year period that extends to December 2007,” says Ziad Yazbek, general manager, Emirates Glass. “We are now working on 500,000 sq ft of high-cost projects that include Index Towers in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Ritz Carlton and Bayside Residences in Dubai Marina, as well as Platinum Tower and City Centre in Qatar.”
The list of its past projects is as impressive: Emirates Towers, Fairmont Hotel, Dusit Hotel, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi, Dubai Marina in Dubai as well as Etisalat Abu Dhabi, besides projects in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran.
“We recently finished work on the villas and Oceana Resort on Jumeirah Palm Island, besides the Jumeirah Beach Residences, Zayed University in Dubai, Dubai Airport and the Emirates Airlines Headquarters,” observes Arthur Millwood, technical consultant for Emirates Glass.
With the work orders continuing to flow in, the company is making efforts to ensure that it can cater to demand which is constantly increasing not only in the UAE, but also in other parts of the Middle East.
“To meet these demands, we are planning to increase our manufacturing capacity by about four times as much next year,” Millwood says while pointing out prominent projects on hand such as the new Etihad Terminal at Abu Dhabi airport.
Emirates Glass, which was established by Dubai Investments in 1998, has today become one of the leading providers of energy-efficient architectural glass in the Middle East with a rapidly growing market stretching from London to Hong Kong.
Backed by the latest in manufacturing equipment and expertise, Emirates Glass’ quality consciousness has drawn the attention of property developers, architects, engineers and contractors as their first-choice source of high-performance glass for their projects.
With a processing facility area covering 11,000 sq m in Al Quoz Industrial Area of Dubai, Emirates Glass has a state-of-the-art factory with equipment supplied by internationally recognised leaders in their respective fields. Glass is processed by cutting it to size, heat strengthening or tempering it and thereafter applying solar control and low-emissivity coatings through a magnetic vacuum deposition (sputtering) process, to provide clients with finished glass in their choice of colour and transmissions with corresponding reflective and insulating properties.
The company provides a wide variety of high-performance solar control, low emissivity coated and high-performance glass products that give building owners, architects and consultants a vast choice of thermal performance and aesthetic expression.
Its “EmiCool” solar-control coated glass provides a reflective barrier to dramatically reduce solar heat gain and visible glare through the glass, thus resulting in lower air-conditioning equipment investment and operational cost. Aesthetically, EmiCool coatings appear transparent from the interior during daylight hours and are durable layers of metal that are thin enough to see through, yet dense enough to restrict heat gain.
Emirates Glass’ other products include EmiTuff and EmiSafe glass produced in a modern 3,300 mm by 7,200 mm horizontal roller-hearth Tamglass furnace that ensure these heat-treated products are free from tong-marks while the roll distortion is characteristic. In addition to ASTM C 1048-97, all EmiTuff fully-tempered products conform to BS 6206 methods of test for safety glazing materials, says the company.