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IGMA Summer Technical Conference: Day 3

June 7, 2012 – The last day of the IGMA Summer Technical Conference kicked off with a meeting of the Glass Safety Awareness Council. The chair, Mike Burke of Quanex, was not able to attend so Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance executive director Margaret Webb chaired the meeting. There was a discussion of safety issues in the glass industry as well as possible approaches for raising awareness. There was some discussion of putting a section on safety into the quality manual, however many delegates were concerned about the possible legal implications involved in producing safety guidelines.

June 7, 2012 – The last day of the IGMA Summer Technical Conference
kicked off with a meeting of the Glass Safety Awareness Council. The
chair, Mike Burke of Quanex, was not able to attend so Insulating Glass
Manufacturers Alliance executive director Margaret Webb chaired the
meeting. There was a discussion of safety issues in the glass industry
as well as possible approaches for raising awareness. There was some
discussion of putting a section on safety into the quality manual,
however many delegates were concerned about the possible legal
implications involved in producing safety guidelines.

Randi Ernst of FDR Design summed it up: "All the equipment manufacturers provide lots of safety information, but no one reads it and when someone gets hurt, the manufacturer gets taken to court anyway." Webb said she felt the IGMA needs to find some way to provide more safety information to its members.

Crystal Archibald of Kohltech chaired the Education and Certification Committee meeting. Everyone agreed that the education seminars held in Vancouver last December were hugely successful and produced some lively interactions. The committee is working on deciding whether to hold similar seminars at GlassBuild in Las Vegas this September. Webb commented that it is difficult to know in advance how a seminar program will be received. While Vancouver was a great success, Toronto, she said, is often a "dud."

Steve Marino (left) and Frank Caporiccio of PPG just love all the action at the IGMA Summer Technical Conference.

Next, Ernst chaired the TM-4000 task group, also dubbed the Death by PowerPoint Committee. The group is attempting to develop educational materials to inform the industry about the TM-4000 Insulating Glass Quality Procedures, but most of the discussion at the meeting was about proposed guidelines for creating more effective presentations. Some discussion ensued as to whether their work would be better turned over to the Marketing Committee.

The component task groups delivered an overview of the AGMA/IGMA validation process for insulating glass components and discussed their various certification activities. Some areas where suppliers were asking for change were discussed, such as humidity standards for dessicants and product categories for hot melt. A lively debate broke out over whether the ASTM E 2190 accelerated aging test addresses sealant adhesion, with one group saying it is impossible for an IG unit to pass the test without the sealant maintaining sufficient adhesion, and Tracy Rogers of Quanex pointing out that this does not constitute an actual test of the sealant's adhesive properties. Everyone enjoyed the discussion so much that it seems sure to come up again at future meetings.

Tim Snow and David Goldwasser of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory closed the conference with an in-depth presentation on the thermal modeling capabilities of the Open Studio plugin for Google Sketchup. These free online products have extensive tools for three-dimensional modeling and building design, and can create detailed reports on the thermal characteristics of the building design.

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