Gulf Construction Online - GRI eyes GCC growth as business booms

Manufacturers & Procurement

GRI’s facilities ... focus on quality.

GRI eyes GCC growth as business booms

01 September 2016

Dubai-based Gulf Rubber Industries (GRI) recorded excellent business in 2015 and is looking forward to another promising period this year as it has secured some prestigious projects in the region.

“Our business has grown two-fold since last year. We are looking forward to increasing our market share and our main focus is the GCC market,” said Urfi Kidwai, managing director of GRI.

He said the company has a lot of projects in hand and is also planning to expand. “Our new extrusion line will incorporate the growing business requirements.”

GRI claims to be the first of its kind in the entire Middle East to offer a phenomenal range and capabilities in manufacturing of extruded, co-extruded and moulded products of EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer), neoprene, silicone, Viton and fluoro silicone rubber for aluminium architectural application that comprise of multi durometer hardness, multi material colour extrusion, profile pre-cut, TPE (thermoplastic elastomer), vulcanised frames, corners and various other combinations depending upon customer requirements.

Kidwai ... expansion plans.

“We analyse the concept and requirements of customers for architectural systems like hinge windows, sliding doors, sliding windows, curtain-walls and unitised systems with vertical integration of high quality market-specific products and services; and then accordingly propose profile design and materials for the static and dynamic usage and function of rubber profiles,” he said.

GRI products have been specified for prestigious projects like the Address Hotel Downtown Dubai, Al Habtoor City, Dubai Mall expansion and the Dubai Trade Centre District.

Established in January 2014 in Dubai Investment Park Two, GRI has introduced some new and innovative products to meet market demands.

“Today’s need of the market is fire-retardant rubber profiles as per EN standards. GRI has developed fire-retardant compound as per standard EN 13501-1 to produce rubber profiles for architectural requirements. To ensure customer satisfaction and quality, we have done thermogravimetric analysis and gas chromatography of our compound. Our material has been tested at an independent lab in Germany. In addition, a third-party test for the physical property of the rubber was performed at Al Futtaim Exova,” he said.

“GRI’s visionary approach towards environment-friendly technology is meant to preserve the environment through energy efficiency which in turn reduces energy loss. This approach has helped us introduce a unique mechanism for testing aluminium architectural system using infrared thermography.”

Kidwai said: “The thermograph test analysis highlighted the critical areas of air leakage or air infiltration and energy losses wherein the design modification or customisation of the rubber profile was advised to the customer. An improved design of the rubber profile along with the selection of a suitable rubber compound helps in restoring the resources and provides the desired results.”