SAPA unpacks during Polyclose. During the trade fair, visitors can get to know a totally renewed product range: TENTAL, SOLEAL Next, AMBIAL, TIGAL as well as specific project solutions. There is more, however, as the company is also highlighting its various tools to help digitize all processes, such as Techtip, Techdesign and ComAlu. Finally, SAPA continues to invest heavily in sustainability with the 'Driving Decarbonization' strategy, with which they want to continue building the world of tomorrow.
During the previous edition of Polyclose, SAPA already briefly showed a glimpse of what the future would bring in terms of new aluminum systems. Indeed, the manufacturer's R&D department continues to optimize existing products and develop new innovative solutions on a daily basis. "In order to meet the increasingly stringent energy performance requirements, window, door and façade systems must also score ever better in terms of insulation, wind and water tightness. In addition, extra attention was paid to the easy processing of the systems, through which we want to make the life of the processor significantly easier," says Johan De Clerck, Deputy Managing Director Benelux for the SAPA brand. "The result is a totally renewed product range with the TENTAL 50 & 60 as replacements for the Elegance 52 & 62 facade systems, the successors of the Avantis and Avantis Smartline window and door systems under the name SOLEAL Next, the AMBIAL folding door and the TIGAL pull-slide system. Today, by the way, the first facades with the TENTAL system are being realized in Flanders."
Market competition, supply chain automation, economic fluctuations, safety climate and regulations.... These are just a few of the many factors currently rocking the construction industry. Building a home or office is becoming an increasingly complex process, and with that comes ever-increasing expectations from the end customer regarding speed and quality.
At Hydro, the company behind SAPA, thinking and acting sustainably is therefore central. For example, they consciously choose not to use materials that are harmful to the environment. They also invest heavily to reduce CO2-emissions during the production process can be significantly reduced. Indeed, with current industrial processes, the production of primary aluminum from bauxite mining requires a large amount of energy, which translates into excessive emissions of CO2. Recycling aluminum scrap saves up to 95% of energy in the decomposition process without sacrificing material quality.
"Today only Hydro CIRCAL 75R is used for the production of the SAPA windows and doors, sliding windows and curtain wall systems, specifically aluminum that consists of at least 75% of post-consumer scrap. This drastically reduces CO2-emissions. The average footprint of aluminum used in Europe is 8.6 kg of CO2 per kg of aluminum, while with Hydro CIRCAL that figure drops to 2.3 kg. A typical aluminum window consists of about 20 kg of aluminum. A quick calculation tells us that we are therefore averaging 126 kg of CO2-emissions savings for each window system," explains De Clerck. "For us, however, it doesn't stop here, because we want to reduce that footprint even further. For example, we are the first aluminum building systems company to produce window, door and curtain wall profiles from 100% recycled end-of-life aluminum. Hydro CIRCAL 100R makes it possible to produce profiles with a CO2-footprint of 0.5 kg CO on average.2 per kg of aluminum, in other words almost 0. That is immediately the lowest value worldwide."
At SAPA, not only are we working to develop new products and reduce CO2-footprint, but also to smooth processes. That is why it also continuously invests in digital tools and software applications. For example, with Techtip, the company introduced an online platform where both architects and structural engineers can find all technical documentation in just a few clicks. They also always have the most up-to-date version at hand. In order to draw and calculate projects quickly and easily, Techdesign was created. And with ComAlu, an online, web-based platform is available that allows customers to place and track their orders digitally. This way, they can enter orders 24/7 and consult the status of all current orders. This also applies to the follow-up of open and completed deliveries.
More information can be found at: www.sapa.nl and www.sapa.be.