Features Processing & productivity Under the Glass
Under the Glass: Enhancing efficiencies

AT A GLANCE | Saand

• Market reach: North America
• Locations: Ottawa, London, two in Toronto
• Main services: Architectural glass cutting, edge conditioning, polishing, tempering, lamination, heat treating, heat soaking, digital printing, insulating glass manufacture
• Employees: 400
• Total plant: 570,000 square feet
• Instituted: 1988

A leader in the glass fabrication sector, Saand has grown to become one of the top suppliers in North America. With four locations across Ontario – two in Toronto, one in Ottawa and one in London – the company boasts more than 570,000 square feet of manufacturing space featuring state-of-the-art equipment. Saand employs approximately 400 people between its four locations.

Investing in the latest equipment has been one of the keys to Saand’s success over the years. Recently, the company invested in several new pieces of technology, including an oversized tempering furnace; digital printer; lamination line; and automated seaming system; to optimize its Toronto operations, located minutes apart from each other on 250 Brockport Drive and 355 Atwell Drive in Toronto.

“We have trucks back and forth here probably 10 times per day,” says Emil Leucuta, plant manager for the Atwell Drive facility in Etobicoke.

The facility on 355 Atwell Drive is the company’s newest location, purchased from Guardian in 2013. To enhance operations at this facility, Saand invested in the facility’s Glaston Pro L lamination line, Lattuada upright polisher, and an Intermac vertical drill and double polisher.

“The lamination line is the jewel of this building. It is the only one in all four facilities,” Leucuta, says. 

While the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is home to approximately 50 companies that can temper glass, there are only about five that can laminate glass, Leucuta explains.

“That gives us a big advantage in the market,” he says, adding that having one of the largest cold rooms in North America allows the company to consistently keep a larger amount vinyl stock than most of its competitors.

Saand’s lamination line is automated, so it also offers efficiency advantages over manual production lines. The unit can work on glass with dimensions up to 96” x 130”.

“It’s much faster and has improved quality greatly. We can do about 10,000 square feet of billets in 16 hours. For custom work, we can do 4,000 to 5,000 square feet, depending on the different shapes and sizes,” Leucuta says.

The biggest market for laminated glass is customers looking for insulated glass (IG) units. Much of the laminated glass production performed at the Attwell facility is then shipped to Saand’s Brockport location for its IG customers. 

The company recently purchased an automated seaming and washing system from Ashton and Benteler (respectively) which has greatly improved quality, safety, and productivity. It is able to work on two edges simultaneously, significantly increasing production speeds.

One advantage of the automated seaming system is that it is much easier to operate than the company’s previous seaming equipment, which was a discrete machine resulting in extra handling.

Saand also recently invested in a Lattuada vertical polishing machine. The new vertical polisher has worked so well for the company that Saand purchased a second polisher for its Brockport facility.

The oversized furnace and digital printer were purchased in 2023 for the Brockport facility.

The North Glass oversized furnace was purchased in November 2022 and can temper glass in dimensions up to 130” x 204”.

“It’s the biggest sheet of glass that we purchase in this business,” says Farad Rashid, operating manager for Saand’s Brockport facility.

The furnace was purchased largely to service the commercial IG market, although it is also used to service the residential sector (mainly the condominium market). Tempering plays a crucial role in this business right now, so producing top quality is vital, Rashid adds.

“Our customers are looking for better quality and larger sizes, especially on the high-rise buildings. You can see it when the sun rises, and the sunshine is there. You can see the distortion,” he says. “We have had good tempering on our glass, but we were looking for something that is really going to help us minimize that impact.”

The oversized furnace was purchased in order to meet demands from customers looking for larger units.

“They’re asking if we can make larger units. It’s not a small game anymore. They’re asking for us to do oversized units,” Rashid says. 

The company linked its jumbo cutting line to its new oversized tempering furnace and the results have been positive.

“Because it’s brand new, the accuracy is there, and the technologies are all updated. So, it is able to produce the good quality glass that our customers are looking for,” Rashid says.

The digital printer was purchased for the manufacturing of custom designed printed and bird-friendly glass, which has been picking up in demand in recent years as cities put forth new requirements and regulations on new builds.

Rashid says moving away from manual production will greatly improve production quality and efficiencies and open the company up to new opportunities in the marketplace.

 “Going to digital printing you’re opening yourself to the market where you’re saying, ‘I can print any print for you, no matter how complicated,’” he says. “Basically, you’re just receiving the drawing from a customer that is approved, and you’re creating a program and relying on the machine to do that job for you where it minimizes all the errors and is very fast… it also gives us the capability of opening our arms to more business that is complicated.”

With the Atwell and Brockport facilities being so close together, the production facilities can rely on each other for support when needed for almost all types of glass cutting and fabrication.

“We cannot supply IG production [at Atwell], and they cannot help us with lamination, but the rest we can do between us,” Leucuta says.

Software assistance
Saand has recently developed a custom software tool that allows employees to pull up any work instructions they might require for producing products on machines they may not be entirely familiar with from any computer on the production floors of all four facilities. This can help employees jump from one machine to another to assist different departments when work is busier at particular stages of the production process.

“For example, if I don’t have too much in tempering, and I ask some of the guys to go and help doing PM and lami, obviously they will need to go through this first. It’s all kind of instruction-based, how to do the PM, what to clean, what to check, change the filters, change the rollers,” Leucuta says. “I can go to Ottawa and look at their operation’s cutting. Even if I’m not familiar with their machine, because they’re different machines, I can read their work instructions. And with a little bit of experience, I will be able to take my cutting guy and he will be able to jump on that machine.”

It is also a great training tool for new employees to learn about the different pieces of equipment; and learn which types of quality issues can potentially arise on those machines. The software also has a preventative maintenance checklist for employees to review.

For the plant managers, the software offers the advantage of being able to identify quality and other production-related issues between the plants, and being able to communicate to each of the four facilities.

“As a quality manager, sometimes I need to go to Ottawa or London to address a few issues, but my time is limited. So, I’m trying to do everything online,” Leucuta says. “I have a meeting scheduled weekly with all facilities to discuss the issues that they have. And the good thing is, if I see an issue was in London, and I see the same issue in Ottawa, when Ottawa starts working on a project, I just tell the guys from London to communicate with Ottawa. So, sometimes you don’t need to go to all the way there. Or sometimes, somebody comes with a great idea and shares it, so we can implement it at the other three locations.”

Saand has been in operation since 1988, supplying glass fabrication services for more than 35 years. By updating its facilities with the latest production software and investing in state-of-the-art technologies, the company is positioning itself for success for decades to come. •