American Architectural Manufacturers Association

Opening Thoughts from the Southeast Region Board of Directors

December 7, 2011

Kevin Seiling (VEKA)
President, AAMA Southeast Region

The timing and location for the AAMA Southeast Region Fall Meeting (October 17-18 in Miami) could not have been better, given all of the pending industry changes – especially the adoption of ASCE 7-10 by the Florida Building Code. In addition to the venue, I was pleased to see the quality of the attendance – given the pace and importance of developments. In fact, the Southeast Region Technical Committee agreed to add standing agenda items to monitor IBHS, Miami-Dade requirements and ASCE 7-10.

The Atlas Material Testing Technology, LLC, Miami location proved to be a well-equipped venue for a first-day kick-off tour by Southeast Region Meeting attendees, many of whom were first-time participants in such an event. The tour and the presentations provided by Atlas staff proved to be informative and timely, particularly the materials on the correlation between results of outdoor vs. accelerated laboratory weather testing.

Headquartered in Chicago, Atlas has a facility at Miami, as well as additional laboratories and offices in the U.S. and Europe. They provide instrumentation and testing services in more than 65 countries and maintain an outdoor weathering exposure facility in Miami as part of a global network of production sites, outdoor test facilities, laboratories and offices.

Testing capabilities center on natural and laboratory weathering and material testing to supply the data needed to make informed product performance decisions. Atlas also offers a wide range of instruments and systems that simulate the environmental parameters of sunlight, temperature and moisture in the form of rain, dew and humidity, including the well-known Weather-Ometer®. The testing devices control these environmental parameters to replicate actual field conditions, using light sources ranging from carbon arc to xenon; metal halide to fluorescent lamps.

As the hosts, Atlas also presented information on a study performed to find the test scenario that produces the highest correlation to optimize a testing approach that can be used to screen competitive material and coating performance claims.

The study employed several different light sources, including UVB-313 bulbs, UVA-340 bulbs, carbon arc, small and large xenon lamps and a solar concentrator. Inspection intervals ranged from every 50 to 250 hours, depending on the light source. The outdoor exposure was conducted at different south-facing exposure angles (5, 26 and 45 degrees), with 45 degrees being the benchmark value, inspected at a three-month interval.

Three colors (red, white and blue) of each of ten different gel coat formulations with varying stability were tested – a total of 30 individual samples, with gloss and color-change data taken at several intervals. The accelerated weathering result was then compared to the outdoor weathering result, arriving at a correlation coefficient of 1.0 equating to perfect correlation, and 0.0 equating to no correlation.

For gloss results, the Fresnel solar concentrator and large xenon arc showed good correlation for all colors in the 10 different gel coat grades. For delta E color change, the results gleaned from the large xenon lamp had the highest correlation to the outdoor weathering data.

However, it was confirmed that there is no universal correlation factor and correlation factors are best done empirically. Other conclusions were that:

• The faster the accelerated test, the more likely it will not correlate.
• Acceleration factors of 10 or higher are extremely material/environment specific.
• For best results, a compromise must be made between correlation and acceleration.

On the second day of the meeting, members heard from Timothy Reinhold, PhD, PE, Senior Vice President for Research and Chief Engineer of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), focusing on the IBHS Research Center, a multi-risk applied research and training facility in Chester County, SC. A summary of that presentation is included in this newsletter.

Dr. Reinhold also gave a useful update on legislative and building code developments in the southeastern U.S., which is also summarized within this newsletter.

Other presenters included:

• Pete Thornton (Technical Services), who reviewed the results of the latest ballot on the update of AAMA 520-09, Voluntary Specification for Rating the Severe Wind-Driven Rain Resistance of Windows, Doors and Unit Skylights
• Shawn Collins, PE (Architectural Testing) and Dean Ruark (PGT), who presented an update on the rollout of ASCE 7-10 and AAMA’s position statement on its interpretation
• Jeff Sonne of the Florida Solar Energy Center, who discussed energy considerations, summarized within this issue
• Rich Walker, who provided a national update from his perspective as AAMA President and CEO

I am particularly pleased to “go out on a high note” as President of the AAMA Southeastern Region. Erik Thompson (Quanex) will be taking over as President in January 2012 and will be hosting his first meeting in Austin in May. I wish him success and as successful a kick-off meeting in Austin as we had this past October in Miami.

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