Oct. 22, 2018 -  NSG Group has announced it has selected a location for its new glass production facility in the United States. The new plant will support the Group’s plan to expand production capacity of online TCO (transparent conductive oxide) coated glass to support the growing solar market, as announced earlier in May 2018.

Oct. 18, 2018 - As the fruit of a joint development agreement between AGC and Panasonic, AGC Glass Europe is to invest in production of vacuum glazing at its plant in Lodelinsart (Belgium), a technology that offers very high energy performance. Production is due to start in March 2019, with the products mainly going to the construction industry. 

Oct. 4, 2018 - AXYZ International will be holding a Waterjet Open House at theirBurlington, Ontariooffice onTuesday, October 16, from10AM to 4PM. Technical Specialists will be onsite to perform live demos and answer questions about the X-1530- a waterjet solution built for speed, accuracy and strength.

Sept. 28, 2018 - Two updated American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System (AIA CES) registered courses can be accessed via Vitro Architectural Glass’ online “Continuing Education” portal.

A look at what’s new in curtainwall, store front and other glazed building facade components.

Nano-sized modification on the surface of glass brings huge reductions in the reflection of light and keeps the glass water-repellant and clean. Invented at Brookhaven National laboratory in New York, the technology is now being commercialized by a team of entrepreneurs based in Montreal. Applied to architectural glass and solar panels, the broad-spectrum technology promises to achieve an unparalleled look of invisible glass, increased energy conversion in panels and self-cleaning properties for outdoor glass.

Sept. 20, 2018 - dormakaba has announced that David Kerl joined the company to further develop their success in the glass interiors market. David brings to dormakaba a wealth of knowledge and experience in the glass industry, spanning 22 plus years, with Trulite, Oldcastle and most recently with Bohlea America. David joins dormakaba as Regional Sales Manager -Interior Glass Systems-Responsible for sales and distribution in the central region of the US. 

Sept. 6, 2018 - C.R. Laurence has announced the release of its new Entice Panic Device by Blumcraft (a division of C.R. Laurence). The product will premiere in the C.R. Laurence booth at this year’s GlassBuild Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sept. 4, 2018 - Othmar Sailer has been CEO of the LiSEC Group for more than six years. Now he leaves the company. Othmar Sailer on the decision: "I really enjoyed working for LiSEC and have been able to make significant progress over time. An important task was, among many others, to build a reliable and competent management team, which I managed to do. Now is the time to devote myself to new tasks". Sailer has put a strong focus on the development of strategy, culture, structures, the introduction and optimization of processes and, above all, the further development of product management: business units that shape the respective product groups were founded, the innovation rate rose sharply. Other focal points were the successful expansion of the service business and intensive work on digitization in the glass business.

Aug. 1, 2018 -  After 58 years of dedication to his customers, business and team, Don Friese, Chairman and CEO of C.R. Laurence (CRL), will retire at the end of September 2018. His successor, Lloyd Talbert, has been with the company for over 25 years and will maintain his role as President along with assuming CRL’s leadership.

Earlier this year the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance decided to pursue additional accreditation for the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Association of Canada certification program and has selected ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, as the third-party accreditation body that will issue the accreditation. ANSI participates in the International Accreditation Forum MLA (Multilateral Recognition Arrangement) with the SCC (Standards Council of Canada). 

Oct. 29, 2018 - The 25th staging of glasstec, International Trade Fair for Glass Production, Processing and Products, in Düsseldorf, Germany again confirmed its position as the leading international trade fair and platform for the worldwide glass sector. A total of 1,280 exhibitors from 50 countries showcased their products in nine halls to more than 42,000 visitors from over 120 nations. The percentage of attendees coming from countries other than Germany remains unrivalled in the industry. Exhibitors unanimously reported promising new contacts and concluding good to very good business deals. The favorable conditions in the industry were also reflected by the positive atmosphere in the halls.

Oct. 22, 2018 - It is official: recreational marijuana is legal in Canada with effect from October 17. With that comes a patchwork of jurisdictional laws establishing where and how marijuana products will be sold and used by consumers.

Oct. 22, 2018 - A social media workshop about using different platforms provided ideas for effectively communicating a singular message to various audiences during a recent industry event. American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) Communications Coordinator, Meryl Williams, led the session entitled "Getting Your Message Across on Multiple Platforms" at the AAMA 2018 Fall Conference in Tucson, Arizona.

Oct. 17, 2018 - Earlier this year, the Boards of Directors for the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) and the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) began formal discussions with the goal of creating a new unified organization that can better serve the North American fenestration industry. The initiative is based on the recommendation of a joint AAMA and IGMA Exploratory Team after 12 months of careful thought and collaboration.

The Ontario Glass & Metal Association invites you to attend its 2018 Two-Topic Fall Seminar, Demystifying the Bonding Process and Certificate of Recognition (COR), Thursday, November 15 at the Richmond Hill Country Club in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Oct. 3, 2018 - Registration for IGMA's IG Fabricator Workshop has been strong and each of our two planned sessions during the week are beginning to fill up.

Sept. 28, 2018 - As Manufacturing Day, October 5, 2018, approaches, the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its affiliate association, the Automation Federation, celebrate the importance of manufacturing to the world’s economic health and future.

Your company. Your industry. Your community. Now in its 16th year, GlassBuild America, the largest annual gathering of the glass, window and door industries in North America, returned to Vegas from Sept. 12 through 14.

A church in Guam. The airport at Anchorage, Alaska. The Great Wave piece that everyone sees arriving from international destinations at Vancouver International Airport.

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance held its Summer Conference on July 31 through August 2 in Vancouver. The event attracted over 100 insulating glass fabricators for three days of informative presentations and discussion.

National activities of the Canadian Glass Association are on hiatus pending discussions of a new direction for the association.

Six years since we launched Top Glass, it now seems apparent that a lot of other people in other places were noting the same need for industry education and networking events.

Oct. 18, 2018 - On Tuesday October 2, 2018, Vitrum Glass Group celebrated the grand opening of their new Calgary manufacturing facility in Rocky View County, Alberta, located just 10 minutes North of Calgary’s international airport. The new 65,000 square foot facility currently employs 35 employees who manage and fabricate local orders for shower doors, railings, monolithic glass products, and tempered glass.

Oct. 9, 2018 - Energy efficiency is hard to see, but we feel its benefits in our homes, neighbourhoods, environment, economy and wallets. Federal investments in innovative energy-efficient projects drive economic growth, contribute to our clean energy future and create new, middle-class jobs for Canadians.

Well, we know they had sand...so why not glass? The palace-city of Samarra, capital of the former Abbasid Caliphate, was home to an advanced industry of glass production and trade, according to a study published August 22, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nadine Schibille of the CNRS, France and colleagues.

July 9, 2018 - AGC (AGC Asahi Glass) has entered into a strategic development agreement with Ubiquitous Energy. The collaboration will focus on the development of Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent and neutral solar coating to create windows that produce electricity. 

Light-flooded spaces and a general airiness in buildings are no longer just a trend in the architectural world, but are increasingly state-of-the-art. This general airiness achieved through the use of transparent materials does not end with the balcony. Total vision glazing and glass balustrades can offer continuity to wide open spaces, if they are not interrupted by framing or other mechanical fixations. When it comes to connecting glass to frame materials, new solutions are coming to market every day.

Meeting the budget for construction of a building can be a challenge, especially when a proposed design may be aspirational rather than strictly practical.  Public and private sector owners, construction managers, general contractors, sub-contractors,  fenestration  system and component suppliers have, for many years, looked for cost savings through continental and increasingly, global procurement (i.e. outside North America and overseas). 

Dr. Charles (Chuck) Black of Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States will present his team’s research using nanomaterials to render glass and some plastics virtually invisible by eliminating nearly all surface reflections.

Glass Performance Days, a biennial conference held in Tampere, Finland, has released an entire online book full of educational articles provided by its session presenters. The 457-page document contains 91 white papers, each connected to an educational seminar that took place at its 25th event in June last year. The papers discuss just about every imaginable topic in the architectural glass industry.

In our northern climates, where temperatures can plummet to -30 C and colder, consumers can see an increase in glass breakage in their windows.  This year in the Ottawa area, an unprecedented number of glass breakages have been reported with temperatures in the -39 C range with intense sun for days on end. It’s a chilly time.

When it’s time to take IG production to the next level, fabricators can consider integrating automated spacer production into their process. It’s a big investment of money, space and training time, but a big payoff in reduced inventory, supply control and input costs.

Oct. 12, 2017 - The pursuit of safer, more environmentally friendly roadways and sidewalks shifted into another gear with the first public installation of low-wattage, energy-producing tempered glass solar panels manufactured by Solar Roadways topped with low-iron Starphire glass by Vitro Architectural Glass.

Angelo Cairo of Stouffville Glass, president of the Ontario Glass and Metal Association, has issued a statement criticizing the recently announced cancellation of funding for several large institutional projects by the Doug Ford PC government in Ontario.

Oct. 29, 2018 - The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) have collaborated to create a free e-course to help identify and safely control sources and products containing nanomaterials in the workplace, to protect workers from harm.

The PC government of Ontario elected earlier this year has announced it will "wind down" the Ontario College of Trades, set all journeyperson-to-apprentice ratios to one-to-one and put a moratorium on adding new compulsory trade classifications or reclassifying existing classifications. It has also promised an unspecified "replacement model for the regulation of the skilled trades and apprenticeship system" by early 2019. 

While we all enjoyed some time off this summer, others were contemplating the current predicament we find ourselves in because of the short-sighted decisions made south of the border. 

Sept. 6, 2018 - Canadian municipalities issued $8.2 billion worth of building permits in July, down 0.1% from June. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower construction intentions in British Columbia.

Our cover looks a bit different than usual this month. Don’t worry, we aren’t turning into a political magazine. But I suppose it’s an example of how politics has infected everything in this age of Trump that the best approach to our big topic looks like a political cartoon. The U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum have been greeted with head-scratching and condemnation by just about all responsible economic commentators.

A local glass manufacturer asked the government to include imported flat glass in the list of products subjected to mandatory quality control to address the deteriorating quality and safety of these products. Pioneer Float Glass Manufacturing Inc. said it was seeking the re-inclusion of flat glass in the list of mandatory standard product list amid the influx of substandard glass products. Pioneer Float Glass vice president Nonito Galpa said the entry of substandard flat glass imports had undermined the competitiveness of the local glass industry and subjected consumers to possible threats of harm because of poor quality.

July 3, 2018 - Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) continues to support the Federal Government in its recent efforts to respond to the Trump Administration’s misguided decision to impose tariffs on the aluminum and steel industry in Canada.

June 6, 2018 - Municipalities issued $7.8 billion worth of building permits in April, down 4.6% from March. Declines were reported in every component except commercial buildings.

Any new dance studio created in this day and age has to have lots of light and lots of modern energy – and that means lots of glass. In the case of the new space for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD), a Calgary professional dance company and recreational dance school, “the studios benefit from a vast amount of vision glass, 32 feet of it,” notes site manager Colin Swirles at glazing contractor, Flynn Canada.

When Lemay’s architects set out to design a new office building for construction firm Pomerleau in Lévis, Que., in 2016, they knew they wanted to do two things: bring the outdoors inside and promote a sense of collaboration and connection between employees.

North American Contractor Certification beta tested its Architectural Glass and Metal Technician test Aug. 15 in Buffalo, N.Y., in front of experts from Finishing Trades Institute and some curious onlookers from Canada. Michael Fitzgerald of FTI walked the group through the proposed test and took questions and suggestions. Some discussion followed of the AGMT program, it's potential role in Canada and steps NACC might take to inform the industry about it.

The Certification Committee of the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance met Aug. 1 at the IGMA Summer Conference in Vancouver. Committee members and attendees heard about some major changes - both recent and upcoming - to how we evaluate and certify insulating glass units.

July 26, 2018 - The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) recently released a new document to describe proper guidelines and glazing procedures for structural glazing. AAMA SSGDG-1-17, the "Structural Silicone Glazing (SSG) Design Guidelines", reviews a glazing that offers a unique appearance and simplicity of construction that often cannot be achieved any other way.

July 10, 2018 - Louis Moreau, Head of Technology & Innovation at AGNORA, along with Rick Wright, Director of Technical Services at Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope (and ASTM C14 & C14.08 Chair), has assembled an international group of stakeholders to develop a new ASTM standard test method for anisotropy measurement on glass. The initial kick-off meeting took place at Apple’s former headquarters, One Infinity Loop.

July 9, 2018 - Earlier this year the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) decided to pursue additional accreditation for the IGMAC certification program and has selected ANSI, the American National Standards Institute as the 3rd party Accreditation Body (AB) that will issue the accreditation. ANSI participates in the IAF MLA (Multilateral Recognition Arrangement) with the SCC (Standards Council of Canada).  ANSI will perform annual assessments of the IGMAC certification process to ensure it meets stringent international requirements (ISO 17065:2012).

Mar. 26, 2018 - Guardian Glass North America has published Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for flat glass and processed glass products manufactured at its seven North American float plants.

With the title “North American Fenestration Standard,” it is tempting to think that NAFS applies equally to all fenestration products. This is not the case: while NAFS applies to a great many fenestration products, it excludes many products used in larger buildings from its scope. Fortunately, the code recognizes this and provides complementary compliance paths for products within and outside the scope of the standard.

Mar. 5, 2018 - American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) member company UL/CLEB gave a workshop during AAMA's 2018 Annual Conference in Orlando on Feb. 21. UL/CLEB Principal Engineer Robert Jutras presented a case study on the subject, offering visual examples of a specific project and its tests.

Mar. 1, 2018 - The North American Contractor Certification (NACC) program is pleased to announce that National Glass and Metal Company Inc., of Horsham, PA has completed the process of NACC certification. The NACC program is an ANSI accredited 3rd party process that was built for the architectural glass and metal installation community.

Nov. 3, 2017 -  The Physical Test Steering Committee of the Architectural Glass and Metal Technician (AGMT) Certification Program, began development of conceptual test apparatuses at a meeting held on September 20, in Hanover, MD. The apparatuses will be used by future AGMT certification applicants to demonstrate their proficiency in fundamental physical glazing skills and abilities; the physical test element of the certification exam.

The IGMA Summer Conference in Montreal heard about the significant progress our many active committees and task groups are making. Here’s a look at some highlights.