Tuesday, 02 December 2008 12:19
TERMETAL GLANER S.j.
PRESIDENT: Piotr Glaner
OPERATIONS: Construction Industry
ESTABLISHED: 1989
EMPLOYEES: 220
REVENUE: 95 mln
www.termetal.pl
Read e-book version...
Termetal Glaner is a Polish company specializing in the manufacture of gratings and hot-dip galvanizing services. Established in 1989 as a family business, the company since then has grown to an enormous enterprise employing 220 people in three manufacturing plants. Their products and services have all the hallmarks of professional and modern solutions geared towards customers’ special needs and requirements. This simple quality-oriented approach earned the company a good reputation and elevated it to the top rungs of grating manufacturers and providers of galvanizing services.
Written by: Marcin Zimny
Outlining milestones
The company’s development was paved with brave decisions concerning mainly the implementation of relatively big investments and advanced technology. One of them was the construction of a hot-dip galvanizing plant in 1998 in Piła. At that time it was one of the biggest and most modern galvanizing plants in Poland. Thanks to this investment, the enterprise managed to build a strong market position. State-of-the-art technology, which Termetal Glaner had in those days, gave it a considerable advantage over competitors.In 2000 the firm reached even more important milestone when it purchased a grating production line that offered the most modern solutions in the whole Europe. The production line was assembled next to the galvanizing plant in Piła. Combining those two elements (i.e. the galvanizing plant and the production line) triggered technological upgrading. The technology developed by leaps and bounds, bringing the company to the top rungs on the European markets. Soon after, the manufacturing output grew rapidly and the enterprise was perceived as an export giant. Seventy percent of the output was exported. The sustainable development was also accompanied by a synergy effect caused by positive investment-related factors. New dreams incrementally came to light, as the company was strengthening its market position. As a result, innovative concepts were put into practice. In 2008 Termetal Glaner successfully completed the construction of a multi-purpose hot-dip galvanizing plant located in Grudziądz. This investment put the enterprise among exclusive Polish companies which form elite groups of galvanizing plants. The manufacturing capacity quadrupled, reaching the threshold of 6000 tons per month, which gave the enterprise the third place in the country. Another crucial undertaking was an investment in the second grating production line. The investment was located in Piła where new manufacturing facilities were built and the production started in June this year. The new line is more technologically advanced than the previous one and, more importantly, it enables the company to boost the efficacy of the manufacturing process, thus helping to bring the products and services to the markets in Europe, the Middle-East and in Northern Africa. The manufacturing capacity soared from 1200t per month to about 2500-3000t per month.
Policy that sells
Termetal Glaner won the confidence of myriad customers, including, but not limited to, manufacturing plants, power plants, chemical plants, petrol stations, shipyards etc. The business policy is not much revealing, though. As a company’s representative says, the enterprise simply plumped for the quality, promptness and flexibility in satisfying the customer’s demands. And competitive prices add luster to attractiveness of products as well. At present members and directors of Termetal Glaner are happy to see the business growing more and more popular, which is especially important in the midst of the global financial crisis. As regards the reasons for success, the company owner’s abilities for implementing business plans come to the fore. His charisma, business intuition and a stroke of luck dictate the direction and pace of the development. On the other hand, today’s technological race requires from everybody constant changes and alterations. Those who follow the changes and implement them on regular basis assume the leadership. Therefore, the regular improvements would not be possible without committed and creative staff members. Their work and commitment is highly valued by the company owners. In general, people working with Termetal Glaner make a good success-oriented team that is capable of what by many is thought to be unattainable.
Products and services
Termetal Glaner is associated with the manufacture of gratings, although it also offers galvanizing services. The company does not prioritize particular products or services. On the contrary, it considers all products and services to have equal importance for further development of the business. It can be inferred from the investments made by the enterprise that two products are developed almost simultaneously. On the one hand, the firm wants to create a better offer by revamping the galvanizing technology and, on the other hand, it develops new solutions related to gratings.
Hot weld grids
Hot weld catwalk grids are fabricated as components of floors, ceilings and stairs. Since many of them are multi-purpose they are widely used in industrial and general building. Recently they have come to be used even more frequently as protective and decorative elements on exteriors and within interiors of buildings, industrial halls, sports buildings etc. Hot weld grids can be used for: covering communication catwalks, covering channels and securing man-holes, access hatches for gantries and ceiling tracks, covering light suspended ceilings, covering communication conduits on bridges and gangways, external and internal stairways, fencing segments and ornamental partitions, external and internal elevation components and 1001 other uses.
There are many advantages of heat welded catwalk grids. However, the most noteworthy are:
- stable carrying surfaces;
- the high degree of adhesion to the sub-floor - even with standard fabrication, arising from the grooving of the rods;
- high static and dynamic durability if compared to weight;
- the greater durability of hot weld grids in comparison with cold pressed grids with the same carrying strut parameters, arising from the melding of struts and rods, i.e. using the whole cross-section of the road for carrying loads;
- long life of grids arising from the uniform welding of struts and rods and hence lack of notches;
- high resistance of the rod and strut welds to corrosion because there is no loosening of the joins and the arising of corrosion points, as it happens, for example in pressed grids;
- easy and swift assembly and disassembly of covers;
- light passing through ceilings and staircases, easy lighting;
- self-cleaning of ceiling and step surfaces.
Hot-dip galvanizing services
The phenomenon of corrosion, or the easy oxidation of iron in steel, is a well-known and problematic phenomenon ever since products have been made from steel. Steel products not protected from outside factors are characterized by a shorter utilisation time for safety or aesthetic reasons. In practice, various methods are used to prevent this detrimental effect. However, they all have a relatively short period of effectiveness and in all cases they do not meet all expectations. This is because it is difficult to select an anti-corrosion substance which will resist the majority of factors from the external environment. Of all the currently known anti-corrosion methods for protecting steel products, the best one is hot-dip galvanizing. Comparing costs of hot dip galvanizing service products shows it is currently the cheapest and most effective way of preventing corrosion. Paint coatings, though aesthetic, are in practice very expensive and do not possess sufficient resistance to mechanical damage and in the case of an inadequate preparation of the sub-surface, rust points appear and the coating begins to flake and fall off. Covering the surface with oils or grease, by contrast, has only limited possibilities of application. That is why hot-dip galvanizing seems to be the best method. A great significance is attached to the quality of the galvanizing mixture. It means that the coating applied in our galvanizing plant is characterised by:
- manufacture according to EN ISO 1461 standards;
- a sheen maintained for 3 months from the date of galvanizing;
- highly attractive appearance;
- uniform and even covering of the whole surface;
- increased adhesion to the product thanks to careful selection of the components of the galvanizing material;
- increased resistance to scraping and other mechanical damage;
- increased flexibility.
