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Opening Thoughts from the President & CEO  This month, I’ve had the privilege of dropping in on two AAMA member companies located near York, PA. This town in the southern part of the state serves as an Eastern seaboard hub, of sorts, for the U.S. window and door industry. Five AAMA members, including two testing laboratories, are located in the vicinity of York. Read the full article. AAMA Fall Conference to Feature Keynote Speech on Benchmarking Green Performance The AAMA National Fall Conference will be held Sunday, October 10 through Wednesday, October 13 in Santa Ana Pueblo (Albuquerque), NM. The conference will feature council, committee and task group activity, as well as keynote speakers, and a variety of networking opportunities. The conference keynote speech, entitled The ABC’s of UL Environment – Assuring, Benchmarking and Certifying Green Product Performance will be given on Tuesday, October 12, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm, by Chris Nelson, the Director of Global Commercial Development for UL Environment. Nelson will give an overview of the importance of third-party validation and certification of sustainable products, as well as how a company can set itself up for success to earn third-party claims validation. Read the full article.
Fiberglass Benefits Drive Contradictory Trend in a Depressed Market Fiberglass as a material system in windows and doors continues to gain momentum. The AAMA/WDMA 2009/2010 U.S. Industry Market Studies show, for example, that while the demand for window units of all types plunged a heart-stopping 44.8 percent during the recent contraction from a 2005 peak to the trough in 2009, the market share for fiberglass nearly doubled from 1.6 percent to 3.1 percent. That share is expected to reach 4.3 percent in 2013, led primarily by sales for new construction applications. While these share figures are still small, the trend is clear, and several mainstream window and door manufacturers have introduced fiberglass lines to their array of window and door products over recent years. Read the full article on the Fiberglass Material Council website. Requirements for Fiberglass Coatings Evolve In early 2001, the first standard governing the use of fiberglass fenestration profiles was released – AAMA 305-2000 (updated in 2006). By the end of 2003, AAMA established a Fiberglass Material Council (FMC) to further develop standards and promote fiberglass as a viable fenestration material. Because the long-term durability of fiberglass profiles – more generically termed “fiber reinforced thermoset profiles” – depends largely on the applied coatings, the FMC embarked upon a project to develop specifications for factory-applied organic coatings, listed below. These define the capabilities and expectations for “good, better and best” levels of finishes for fiberglass fenestration profiles, addressing different performance needs for film integrity, exterior durability and general appearance for different applications and market needs. Read the full article on the Fiberglass Material Council website. ICC Active Members Support AAMA's Door Council Position As reported in the April Door Council News article, AMD’s Side-Hinged Entry Door System Code Proposal Too Little, Too Soon?, the Association of Millwork Distributors (AMD) attempted to gain ICC approval of its own procedure, Testing and Rating of Static Pressure on Side Hinged Entry Door Systems [SHEDS] and Their Components, for adoption by the International Residential Code (IRC) to address their concerns with requiring performance testing of complete door assemblies vs. an industry practice of in-field substitution of components. Their proposal, RB127, approved by the ICC at the fall 2009 hearing, would provide for rating of a completed door assembly based upon testing of individual components in that assembly. Read the full article on the Door Council website. Door Council Continues Work on Three New and One Revised Standard A new AAMA document entitled, Voluntary Specification for Performance Testing of Side-Hinged Exterior Door Trim Sets, is currently in development by the Door Handle Set Task Group (Chair Matt Taylor [Hoppe N.A.]). This document will establish test procedures and performance criteria for evaluating handle sets designed for use with multipoint hardware on side hinged doors. It will focus on handle sets designed for use with multipoint hardware. Other hardware performance standards do not address these products specifically. In addition, the test procedures in this standard allow for handle sets to be tested independently from the multipoint hardware. Other hardware performance standards typically test handle sets in conjunction with the locking hardware. The document is expected to be completed by October 2010. |
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