Closing Voir tous les miroirs à Tours

The glazier, Voir tous les Miroirs,, the oldest pas-de-porte of the rue du Commerce, whose workshop is in Joué, closed after sixty years of presence.

In 1958, Abel and Ginette Bertrand, miroitiers artisans, who previously had a manufacturing company in Paris, open Venice in Touraine, rue du Commerce, Tours. "Sixty years ago, it was the era of the engraved Venice mirror. The shop was in Tours and the workshop in Joué-les-Tours. There were up to three people who worked there. With a rare specificity: that of moneyer, for antiques. There are only ten in France. This consists in depositing a thin layer of metallic silver on the glass, "explains Brigitte Hervouet, who in 1985 joined her mother-in-law in the shop, while her companion, Eric Bertrand, was at the workshop.

The new generation then changed the name of the business to Voir, all the mirrors and extended the range of glass to decorative objects and, a little later, in 2000, jewelry, including those in Murano glass (near Venice), more than fifty creators.

While pursuing his small projects at home, from building halls to bathrooms, through the kitchen, "where glass is currently very fashionable".

"There are more than industrial mirrors" Because little by little "globalization has completely changed the market. Before, there were high-end products that were passed on from generation to generation. Today is different. A page is turned, there are more than industrial mirrors.

As a result, the only artisanal mirrors in the region have no buyers. "We sold to a small independent niche business. "We are very well known in the region. Our faithful clientele was moved by the definitive closure when we started the liquidation, before the holidays

I like my street, there are many independent businesses, it is an active street. "

Technis release on Evasafe ... .and the future

As you know 2018 is a year of transition and changes in our infill film offering, here are some of the official information we want to share with you. The calendar is the one we described in our previous press releases released in 2017:

BRIDGESTONE halts the production of several products, including EVASAFE (Glass) and EVASKY (Photovoltaic).

The name of BRIDGESTONE and the brands EVASAFE and EVASKY will be completely removed from the markets from 2019.

BRIDGESTONE's European headquarters, BRIDGESTONE industrial Ltd, based in Germany, at 89 Berliner Ring in Bensheim, remains operational and functional until the end of 2018.

Large quantities of EVASAFE films are available in our inventory, they will cover the production needs for a large part of the year 2018, at least until the GLASSTEC exhibition, which will be held from 23 to 26 October 2018, period to from which EVASAFE will be "officially and definitively" replaced by our continuation and development products, which we will be offering from April 2018, and present to you now.

A new network called GLAAST, takes the place of BRIDGESTONE, and continues the manufacture and distribution of Japanese thermosetting interlayer films, in the pure tradition of the EVASAFE, that is to say unique, quality products, rigid, hydrophobic, offering high performance ... usable for all applications.

GLAAST is based in Germany, at the same address as BRIDGESTONE. Several people from the former network, including former BRIDGESTONE engineers and chemists, are part of GLAAST.

The production is still done in Japan, under the GLAAST brand, in the factories of a major industrial partner, which has about 30 years of experience in the production of calendered interlayer films.

TECHNIS remains a member of the new GLAAST network, as exclusive distributor, unlike a number of former BRIDGESTONE distributors, who have been excluded from the project.

The interlocutors, in Germany as in France, remain the same, we have a real organizational continuation.

As for the movies, we also have a real continuation, and that's the point.

We are going from April 2018 to start marketing the products that will take over from EVASAFE, so it's about SECURE and DAYLIGHT movies.

- The SECURE film, is the continuation film, which directly takes over from the clear EVASAFE.

This is a real "copy-pasted" product and its performance.

Indeed, it is a unique thermosetting film, without plasticizer, made in Japan, very rigid, moisture-proof, UV protective ... always perfectly suitable for applications such as railings, floor slabs, canopies, roofs ...

The filiation between the EVASAFE and the SECURE is obvious, all the reports and the technical validities prove it, each manufacturer can verify it.

- The film DAYLIGHT, is the film that will succeed the extra light EVASAFE.

This is a development product, a bit different from BRIDGESTONE's extra clear film in terms of performance and capacity, which makes it possible to offer a more complete product: more elastic, less rigid, and therefore more versatile.

Its rigidity remains high enough and stable to be used in the manufacture of railings for example.

In addition to the two Japanese films, SECURE and DAYLIGHT, we are expanding our range of EVA films, with a third product, a thermoplastic EVA, the B-FLEXIBLE film launched at the last VITRUM show. This film is less efficient and less technical than our Japanese films, but offers a serious and complementary alternative, with a lower price.

So today we have an EVA offer more complete than before, with:

- a rigid EVASAFE / SECURE film such as we have always had,

- a very versatile film DAYLIGHT which is very qualitative and innovative,

- and a complementary "basic" thermoplastic film, the B-FLEXIBLE EVA.

The French national union SNFPSA becomes the Actibaie professional group

Yannick Michon, union president announced for the National Union of Closure, Sun Protection and Associated Professions, a strategic repositioning ... and a name change!

This decision is explained in his view by the difficulty to communicate on a name and acronym as long.

The new name of what is now called a "professional group" rather than a union has been revealed: it is "Actibaie": simpler and more meaningful for everyone, including the young employees that companies in the Doors, Doors, Shutters and Blinds sector are seeking to attract.

Questioning and repositioning

2150 members (including 100 manufacturers spread throughout the country), 29,000 employees and a turnover of 2.8 billion euros on a market of closure and solar protection which is 3,4 billion euros: Actibaie represents 80% of the industrial products put on the market and displays a solid financial and structural health. But since 2016, the group had the feeling of being too little known with regard to the actions and services offered. Moreover, far from considering the return of growth as a long-term gain, the union wanted to think in depth about the new issues of the market. With significant concern for many years, the ability of the sector to cope with recruitment difficulties forcing manufacturers to become selective with their customers and limit their order book. "Sales people, construction managers, maintenance technicians are becoming difficult to recruit," laments Yannick Michon. The president also notes the need to engage a work with the National Education to make known the trades of the sector which would win very often to be for the sector and for the employment in France.

New name, new era

Because in its new communication strategy, Actibaie intends to address all its members, its future members but also the young people who will integrate tomorrow, network companies. Educational tools, popularization of standards and DTUs (sleeping pills for many): the action of the group consists in putting in place tools that draw quality upwards by making available knowledge and training to all its members, whatever their profile. One could perceive in the calm and determined announcement of this strategic upheaval, a massive awareness and a willingness to act in front of (but also with) the changes to the work in the sector and in the building in general. Whether in terms of resources, training, innovation or e-communication, taking into account the environment of members (prescribers, lawmakers, press, media ...) The energy transition is obvious and frame. Strategic thinking was initiated in 2016, prompting an in-depth questioning that finally came to an end after a year and a half of work, at this change of name, from the era of acronyms to that of meaningful and immediate, coherent semantics. with that of social networks. Voted unanimously without abstention at the end of the general meeting, this change of name is therefore endorsed: Actibaie's communication plan starts today and will continue for several months.

New identity, new website and a free mobile app for its members

To ensure its mission to inform, support, train its members and promote the trades of the sector, the change takes place according to a global strategy not only identity but also tools focused on the web and social networks. Actibaie acquires a new graphic charter, a new website and a free mobile application for its members. The group will also continue to develop its educational tools and its policy of promoting the sector. We will come back in detail in issue 104 of Verre & Protections on the activity report of the group and its strategic repositioning with an exclusive interview with Yannick Michon, president of Actibaie.

Cerium oxide

Cerium is the least rare rare earths, especially in its case are not so much, especially when its name comes from Ceres, goddess of the earth, cerium has many applications, always growing, as for meet Ceres who is also the goddess of growth!

Cerium, the chemical element of Ce and atomic number 58, is a silver-gray metal that belongs to the rare earth group. Its crystalline structure is cubic faces centered, its atomic mass is M = 140.1. It was identified in 1803 by two chemists Martin Heinrich. Klaproth and Jöns Jakob Berzélius, and in a state of proper purity by Carl Gustaf Mosander about twenty years later.

Cerium, which is the most abundant lanthanide (about 48 ppm, is more abundant than copper and 4 times more than silver) in the Earth's crust, is part of the whole rare earth (TR) which does not are not that rare, but often their oxides are the by-products of mining an ore. The main mineral sources of cerium are monazite, rare earth and thorium phosphate, which is the main ore of thorium, bastnæsite, rare earth fluorocarbonate, which is often found as a by-product during extraction iron ore |

World production of rare earth oxides is in the order of 140,000 tons / year, 95% of which in China, which has drastically reduced its exports since 2009 in order to keep the virtual monopoly of a strategic material that is considered strategic by their government.

To obtain cerium oxide two methods are used:

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• not separated (Molycorp): enriched bastnæsite is oxidized by calcination in air at 650 ° C. The trivalent rare earths (all except Ce (IV)) are then dissolved with hydrochloric acid (see hydrochloric acid). The residue, after calcination, contains about 70% of ceria or cerium oxide, CeO 2, used directly;

• separated (Rhodia): the monazite is attacked by soda concentrated at 180 ° C. The Na3PO4 phosphate formed is removed by washing and the rare earth hydroxides are, after filtration, then solubilized by nitric acid. By means of a battery of liquid-liquid extractions, the thorium nitrate is first separated, then always by solvent extraction batteries, the lanthanum is extracted, then the cerium and the other TRs. Nearly 1,500 stages of mixer-settlers are used to separate rare earths.

The first use of cerium dates from the end of the 19th century when city gas lighting was generalized. Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach developed the "sleeve" of cotton dipped in a mixture of thorium and cerium nitrates and dried.

During the first heating, the cotton burns and remains the grid of ThO2-CeO2 oxides which are luminescent and give in the flame a greenish white light. This process is still used for camping lighting (gas!).

Other uses are numerous. The lighter stones are in ferrocerium, in fact a 25-30% iron alloy and 70% mischmetal (mischmetal is a mixture of ceric earths, 50% of cerium, 25% of lanthanum, 17% of neodymium and other rare earths 'light non separated'). As rare earths are highly oxidizable, the fine particles torn off by abrasion are pyrophoric, they ignite in the air and ignite the flame of the gas.

This use remains relevant given its low cost despite the competition of piezoelectric.

One use that consumes a large tonnage of cerium oxide CeO2 is the precision polishing in aqueous suspension. It has replaced iron oxide and is used as a finishing abrasive for spectacle lenses, television tubes, LCD screens and silicon wafers (see Silicon). Nearly 24,000 tons are devoted each year to this sector. To decolorize the glass by oxidizing the impurities of iron oxide and as anti-browning in glasses exposed to ionizing radiation (cathode ray tubes, UV sterilization) is used cerium (IV) 1 or 2% in the glass composition.

Some manufacturers, such as Rhodia, may have to favor the catalysis sector to the detriment of the glass sector in the future.

But many projects outside China are under study