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Innotech Team Welcomed as Friends
The Summer is the perfect time for daytrips, even business trips, and so the Innotech sales team set off on Monday for a tour of Cardinal Glass Industries’ factory in scenic Hood River, Oregon. This was the team’s opportunity to see first-hand the modern manufacturing process that is required to create the best quality glass – and best performing insulated glass units – in the world.
Accompanied by Sales Manager Mika, our intrepid sales team including Martina, Jan, Darren, JJ, Sam, and Nicolay boarded Cardinal’s private plane in Abbotsford. Thirty minutes later they touched down in Portland and a short drive then took them to the massive Cardinal plant perched in hills above Hood River. Nestled amongst rolling farmland, the huge facility is one of 34 Cardinal factories across the USA, but only one of nine that produce the insulated glass units (IGU’s) used by Innotech in our windows and doors. The sealed units that Cardinal makes in Hood River are sent to us in Abbotsford and Morden for integration into our energy efficient windows and doors, which are subsequently installed across projects Western Canada and the US.
Cardinal Sales Manager Clayton Watson and the entire Cardinal team welcomed us as he would close friends and gave us a first class trip around the factory. They showed us everything from the advanced robotics used to move sheets of glass around, to the high-tech quality control systems they employ. The plant turns out 24 tons of insulated glass per hour – or 21 miles of glass per day. At that rate, Cardinal could build a road of glass from their plant to our head office in Abbotsford, BC in just over two weeks!
One of the interesting facts we learned is that most of the glass produced by Cardinal is 2.2mm or 3.0mm thick. However, the glass manufactured specifically for Innotech windows and doors is always a minimum of 4mm thick (thicker depending on application, such as a need for higher wind load resistance or acoustical performance). Not all the glass from Cardinal is the same and when combined with superior frames, such as our Hybrid uPVC Framing System, the difference in performance is huge!
We can’t show you everything (they have corporate secrets to protect!) but we can share a couple of videos available on YouTube.
Here’s a sample of the robots in use on the factory floor:
Here’s a short video describing the quality control technology utilized by Cardinal:
Clayton was an excellent tour guide! Thank you to the entire Cardinal team in Hood River for hosting our team.
After a lovely dinner hosted by Cardinal, they flew everyone back to Abbotsford and our team much more informed about the technology of glass-making and better able to help our clients understand why Cardinal Glass Industries combined with Innotech is the best choice for their homes and projects.