FOREL & Tvitec. Interview with Rui Joaquim, Tvitec Operation Manager

– Few years ago, TVITEC and FOREL developed together the ‘No Limits’ project: starting from the necessity of processing Extra Jumbo, a new solution has been developed, capable of processing IG units over the Jumbo size. After some time and many IG facades processed, what is your comment?

When two companies start a project together to develop a new technological solution, it is very important that both companies are clear on two very important things:

1) Having clear and well-defined objectives/requirements to be pursued;

2) Be clear that in any new project things don’t all turn out perfect the first time.

The first requires that both parties have the ability, in a previous stage of the project, to be able to define clearly and very objectively what they propose to do. It is very important to focus on defining requirements based on what we want a particular machine to do, bearing in mind that you cannot have everything in a single solution.

The machine that does everything well does not exist. It is necessary to specialize and focus expectations.

The second thing is to be clear that you are in unexplored territory and when that is so you have to be prepared to overcome adversities with technical capacity, creativity and tenacity. These things are not achieved at first and without effort. This process can be long and exhausting so you have to be prepared.

In short, it’s like a wedding. You have to know with hum you are together with, that they both want it and that both of them are going to put in a continuous way what concerns them so that, in the end, the project works.

From our point of view and after many I.G. produced, we are very satisfied with the final result and with what both companies have contributed to this outcome.

– The large size trend is still on the go, from your point of view?

In a very fast way, the construction sector is seeking for industrialized solutions. This movement drags with it all the industries that supply solutions, which in short terms will have to look for ways to be more efficient, competitive and agile.

We believe that the large-size market will continue to develop, becoming more and more a market for iconic and unique projects that, in some cases, incorporates largescale glass solutions.

These projects are strongly influenced by conjuncture factors. The instability resulting from the pandemic, logistical and raw material problems and, more recently, energy have made it harder for this type of projects.

Another important reflection is to be able to say what a large dimension is: 6, 9, 12, 18, 21mt, …? Everything changes so fast that it is very important to know how to mark the limit of when to decide with facts or with emotions. One thing that we are clear about is that large dimensions (XXL) will never be the predominant market trend, but something that any reference company needs to be able to say present.

– The padel phenomenon: what is your feedback on the performance of our drilling and milling machine installed in the Cabanas Raras factory?

Padel is a sport in which a fairly rapid expansion in the number of practitioners can be observed. This situation is directly accompanied by an increase in the infrastructure available for the practice of this sport.

As it is a standardized enclosure, the production of this type of facility has enormous potential for industrialization and automation.

At Tvitec we use Forel’s vertical technology for Milling and Drilling mainly because of the reliability, precision and productivity that they introduce to our production.

– Expectations and feelings about the newly installed grinding lines installed in the Portuguese and Cubillos del Sil factories

Similar to what we mentioned with the Milling and Drilling systems, in the case of Grinding we also rely on Forel vertical machines to achieve a high-level productive result.

First impressions are quite positive. From a very intuitive and easy operation interface, passing through a very agile start-up and operations systems and finishing in the simplicity of having an interface to connect to other machines, up to now we are quite satisfied.

– Tvitec has demonstrated a strong intuition for the future trends. What are the “hot dossiers” a glass factory must keep an eye on today?

We are living in times when changes are taking place more and more rapidly. Being able to read and anticipate events is key to being successful.

The sector in which we operate takes a long time looking out the window trying to control external factors as best as possible. Whether it’s raw material costs, supply-chain problems, skilled labour, energy costs or an endless number of other factors, let’s understand them has “hot dossiers”. This applies to any company regardless of its size.

In fact, it is essential to manage these factors very well, which, curiously, are the ones we have the lowest degree of control.

Are we not giving little importance to what happens at home, that is, to the factors that we can control the most? The opportunity is not new, but it is more pertinent than ever.

Organizations have to professionalize themselves, rethink their production systems and follow the path of industrialization. Be aware that industrialization is not just about adding more machines.

The opportunity is within our houses whenever we are available to make the necessary reflection, define in a clear way the objectives we propose to ourselves and to initiate measures and actions in this sense.

It is not possible that, regardless of the size of the company, our sector follows almost the same production model.

From our point of view, rethinking and redesigning the productive structure is the great theme of the moment and of the most immediate future.

It’s a long and hard process that in the end will generated important benefits at several levels. We have already started our journey.

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