Despite reports of shortages of some raw materials in the window and door industry, Rapierstar’s deep UK stocks of specialist fasteners and 30 years of sourcing and supply chain experience has enabled it to guarantee supplies of fasteners to its fabricator customers and support the industry as it recovers from lockdown.
The company continues to hold £4m of window screw and fixings stock and more than one billion items at its 100,000 sq. ft. warehouse and distribution centre in Cheshire, from where it serves window and door manufacturers across Great Britain and Ireland, as well as growing exports across mainland Europe.
A comprehensive audit of fastener usage by Rapierstar has delivered production, quality, stockholding and installation benefits for leading Hull-based window, door and conservatory manufacturer and installer Vulcan Windows.
These benefits have been realised following a Fastener Health Check conducted by Rapierstar earlier this year, which looks at a window and door manufacturer’s fastener use, how they are being applied, what the intended applications typically are and the stockholding approach.
High-performance fasteners from Rapierstar are helping leading Scottish window and door manufacturer the Saveheat Group, to deliver consistently high quality finished products across its PVCu trade window and door portfolio, with its Blairs PVCu business now joining sister company Merlin Network in using StarPVCU fixings.
Based at Greenock near Glasgow, Blairs PVCu is a rapidly growing force in the trade window, door and conservatory market in the West of Scotland. The business was launched by long-established Blairs Timber in 2019, enabling over 100 years of experience in windowmaking to be applied to the manufacture of KÖMMERLING O70 Gold system windows and doors.
Fastener specialist Rapierstar is providing extensive support to window and door manufacturer Shelforce to streamline fastener usage and ensure its workforce is fully supported to achieve the highest quality finished products.
The Birmingham-based manufacturer, which specialises in the supply of windows and doors to the social housing, new build and schools sectors, is already benefiting from a 25% reduction in the number of different types of fasteners it uses following a Rapierstar fastener ‘Health Check’.
High levels of invisible atmospheric pollution across the UK could be undermining the long term quality of even the best manufactured windows and doors due to the wrong types of fasteners being used in their assembly, according to Rapierstar.
As Simon Monks, MD of hardware distributor VBH (GB) highlighted recently in an article, air pollution is a global problem, so no part of the UK can be immune to its effects. While the focus is usually on the serious dangers it poses to human health, wildlife and the environment, airborne pollution can have a catastrophic effect on certain grades of steel hardware used in windows and doors.
Scotland’s unique specialist distributor to the glass and glazing and door and window sectors, Abacus Agents, has added new Rapierstar high performance fastener options to its range to help customers upgrade the quality of their manufacture and installation.
Serving customers across Scotland and the north of England, Abacus Agents is unique in offering a range of products that covers all aspects of glass and glazing, as well as door and window manufacturing, installation and repair.
With a design specifically for British wall construction, StarFix® masonry screws from window and door fastener specialist Rapierstar could help installers achieve a better all-round result in less time and without generating unnecessary plastic waste.
StarFix fasteners are designed for quick and easy installation, requiring only a 6mm or 6.5mm pilot hole through the frame, reinforcement and brickwork before the screw can be driven into place. This saves times as there is no need to drill to accommodate a plug or anchor and plastic waste is reduced too – a hot topic for consumers at the moment.
Sticking, scraping and binding friction stays could be a thing of the past thanks to the development of the new LFG low profile screw by window and door fastener specialist Rapierstar.
Following a comprehensive 12-month trial with several major fabricators and distributors across the UK fenestration sector, Rapierstar is extending the roll out this pan head fastener, which is specifically designed to attach friction stays to PVC-U frames. LFG was developed by Rapierstar at its NPD and technical centre in Cheshire in combination with a leading friction stay manufacturer in response to feedback from across the industry, but it has the potential to deliver better casements for fabricators using any hinge brands.
