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COME ON OUT TO WIN-DOOR

Is there any reason why an architectural glazier or glazing fabricator would consider going to Win-Door? Well, maybe one or two.

Is there any reason why an architectural glazier or glazing fabricator would consider going to Win-Door? Well, maybe one or two.

How about an automated IG line with a TV in it? Win-Door has been attracting more machinery manufacturers lately.

Let’s start with the  top-notch educational program. Fenestration Canada’s technical consultant, Jeff Baker, will present a seminar on the Ontario Green Energy Act’s requirements for energy efficiency in fenestration materials. This law applies to everyone who builds with glass, low-rise or high-rise. If you do not attend Fenestration Canada events, you may not be familiar with Baker’s act, but it is a good one. He is involved behind the scenes with many of the committees and task groups that actually make the codes and standards we have to follow. Baker’s talk may be slanted toward window and door fabricators, but he will happily answer questions from the commercial side as well.

On the second day of the show, Peter Norman of the Altus Group gives his economic forecast for the Canadian construction sector. He is careful to cover ICI activity as well as single-family construction, so there is lots there for the glazier. Last year, Norman didn’t think we were seeing a price bubble in the major metro condominium markets. Let’s see if he still thinks so after a year of unabated construction.

If your brain has not swollen uncomfortably after those two presentations, you can dare to sit in on Bill Lingnell’s talk, Design Considerations for Multiple-Cavity Insulating Glass Units. Lingnell is the Insulating Glass Manufacturer’s Alliance technical consultant, and has forgotten more about engineering with glass than many of us will ever know. Perhaps you were wondering how to calculate gas law problems for ideal gasses using Boyle’s Law and Charles’ Law. This is your chance to find out. 

On the show floor, there are any number of opportunities for glaziers to have potentially profitable encounters. Air-Ins test laboratories is certainly no stranger to the architectural glazing world, possessing a tower capable of mounting curtain wall mock-ups up to 18 by 30 meters and blasting those mock-ups with 170 km/h winds from a Pratt and Whitney DC-6 aircraft engine. Verick is exhibiting at Win-Door, carrying such familiar commercial brands as Henkel, Saint-Gobain, Shurtape, SAS Automation and Bostik. Need a restroom trailer for the jobsite? Check out Ameri-Can Engineering. And of course everyone can use EDTM glass inspection tools. Those are just a few examples out of over 100 exhibitors.

So while Win-Door continues to have a residential window and door focus, it is not a waste of time for the architectural fabricator or contractor. If you have some free time on Nov. 13 or 14, and you are in the downtown Toronto area, drop in to the south building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. If nothing else, you can stop at the Glass Canada booth and say hi. •