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Solar Seal, a custom fabricator of architectural glass products based in South Easton, Mass., is preparing for further expansion in New England. The company has signed a 10-year lease for a new plant of about 200,000-square-feet in a Norwich business park in Connecticut with options to renew and expand.
“We wanted to develop an independent architectural or major project-based business that was able to drive top-level/global quality glass within North America’s footprint,” says Jeff Heintz, Solar Seal Architectural LLC, senior vice president. “And because we already have an existing separate business with great knowledge and people in that area… between New York, Boston and Canada, we felt that Connecticut was the right place for us to be able to execute as a global-quality supplier in North America. Having those two major metro areas and the Canadian market so close, everything kind of just fit for us.”
The company’s current facility in Massachusetts will continue its operations.
“That’s a 200-mile radius, heavy fabricated, smaller projects-based business, whereas the facility in Connecticut is more geared towards commercial and major projects as a completely independent business; outfitted with the latest and best in automation, quality control systems and product output capacities,” says Heintz.
The new facility is expected to open in three phases between May and August 2022, will handle projects requiring cutting, tempering, heat soak testing, ceramic frit, digital frit, opacity, lamination, box spacer, TPS spacer and insulating glass units – doubles and triples, he says.
“If you’re going to be buying glass from this facility, the point of it is that you can get birth certificates and information about each piece of glass, not just batch-run, quality control management. And that is the main focus–we’re really trying to drive a curtainwall or major project contractor focus into the glass manufacturing process,” Heintz says.
Earlier this year, O3 Industries purchased all assets of Solar Seal Co. from Consolidated Glass Holdings (CGH).
