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Summer hot air

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Association’s 2014 Summer Conference was held the first week of August in Quebec City

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Association’s 2014 Summer Conference was held the first week of August in Quebec City.  In addition to the technical meetings, highlights included a walking tour of the historic old city.

Since the last meeting, IGMA has published two new publications. The first is TB-1601-14, Guidelines for Use of Capillary Tubes.  This document has been published jointly by IGMA and the Glass Association of North America.  We have also released TB-3001-14, A Brief Review of the Use of Setting Blocks for Insulating Glass Units. As with other IGMA publications, these documents are available for purchase through the new IGMA online store. 

Gorgeous and historic Quebec City was the setting for the IGMA Summer Conference. Delegates enjoyed some great food and drink as well as a walking tour of the Old City. Next up, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Advertisement

Emerging Technology and Innovation
The Emerging Technology and Innovation Committee met on the first day of the Quebec conference. The work of the Gas Permeability task group has been deferred while parameters are being established for a new field correlation study.

The Advanced Testing Fenestration task group is working on three new test protocols designed to correlate to ASTM standards and provide faster means of testing IGUs for a number of qualities. Positive Negative Pressure Cycling (also called the Thumper) uses external pressure modulation of plus or minus one PSI to replicate the pressure changes witnessed within an IGU cavity. Variable Environmental Cycling (Oscar) is a modified P1 chamber using full immersion UV at 100 per cent relative humidity and 60 C pressurized to five PSI. The Differential Thermal Cycling Unit (Big Hammer), developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, uses rapid thermal cycling to replicate thermal cycles in ASTM E2188.  The group is currently evaluating the fabrication of flawed test samples to determine equivalency to the ASTM standard. They are also working on how to correlate the NREL thermal chamber and the two other test methods with the ASTM E 2190 standard to ensure that the new test procedures will meet or exceed the objectives in the existing standard.

The Vacuum Insulating Glazing task group has completed the first draft of the technical bulletin, TB-2600, Vacuum Insulating Glazing.  The first ballot has closed and the group will be reviewing the ballot comments.  Most of the comments submitted were editorial.  It is anticipated that this document may be published before the end of the year.

In addition to working on the Product Category Rule for fenestration products, the Life Cycle Assessment task group has solicited RFQ’s for the development of a processed glass PCR.  The quotes have been received and the group will be meeting shortly to review the proposals and award the contract.

The Gas Content Field Correlation Study task group session is member-only due to the sensitivity of the subject.  However, the task group is developing the parameters to commence a study of these units.

Technical Services
The Technical Services Committee met the second day with reports on task groups, codes and standards development in Canada and the U.S. and reports from our affiliated organizations. IGMA has created a new task group, Tolerances for IG Cavity Width, to address non-parallel glazing and the effect on thermal and long-term performance related to changes in the cavity width.  The task group met early in October and established three work groups. The Manufacturing Tolerances working group will develop and establish manufacturing tolerances for allowable deflection.  A number of certification agencies have added deflection inspection criteria to their programs, but have not established the values. The Thermal working group will contact the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and the University of Waterloo for further data on the impact of changes in IG cavity width on thermal performance and will make recommendations to the National Fenestration Rating Council for in-plant inspection requirements. The Impact of Reflectance working group will review existing available industry data on solar heat reflection from low-E coated glass. The scope and objectives of this group are under discussion. The three work groups will be meeting over the next month to develop their specific scopes and objectives.  The entire task group will meet the end of November to review the scopes and deliverables and establish timelines for project completion.

Dimensional Tolerances
The task group that developed the technical manual on multiple cavity insulating glass units has now reconvened and will be undertaking a major revision of TR-1200, Dimensional Tolerances. This document will include multiple cavity IGUs but will primarily tighten up the tolerances included in the current document.  This technical report has been withdrawn from circulation until it has been revised. Currently the group is soliciting manufacturer’s tolerances in order to revise the document.

TB-3001-14, A Brief Review of the Use of Setting Blocks for Insulating Glass Units is a companion piece to TM-3000-90(04), IGMA Glazing Guidelines for Insulating Glass Units for Commercial and Residential Use.  It is intended to be distributed to window manufacturers to ensure the correct size, strength and placement of setting blocks, particularly in multiple cavity IGU’s.  This document has been published.

TM-3000-90(07), Section 5.0, Setting Blocks is a major revision to Section 5.0 of the IGMA glazing guidelines. It is being prepared for balloting to the IGMA board of directors. It is anticipated that this section will replace the existing Section 5.0 prior to the Summer Conference. Currently the diagrams are being updated to provide for future revision.

Canadian Standards Development
The Canadian General Standards Board has reconvened the CGSB Glass Committee.  The first task that is being undertaken is a review of safety glazing. Currently, there are two Canadian standards which address safety glazing: CAN/CGSB 12.11, Wired Glass and CAN/CGSB 12.1, Tempered or Laminated Safety Glass.

These standards are now being reviewed in response to needs identified by manufacturers, glass users and regulators such as Health Canada and the National Research Council, which incorporate the standards by reference. The revisions will establish the performance requirements of glass to ensure it breaks in a safe manner. The current task is to update CGSB 12.1 and expand it to include other categories of safety glazing: organic coated and plastic. There are four task groups working on this update and progress is well under way with the hopes that the revised standard will be ready for public review in early 2015. There is also a strong commitment to review other safety glazing standards including ISO and the ANSI Z97.1 with a view to harmonizing where possible. The laminated section of the CGSB 12.1 standard is close to completion as well as the organic coated one. 

All enquiries regarding the development of the CGSB glass standards should be forwarded to Jennifer Jimenez at CGSB. CGSB manages the standards development process using technical committees whose volunteer members represent a balance of interested parties, experts, general users and regulators.

The Certification and Education Committee, specifically the Spacer and Integrated Spacer Systems Task Group, is looking at alternate ways to determine component equivalency.  Currently the task group’s work has been placed on hold, pending work being done by the Sealant Adhesion to Spacer task group. The Sealant Adhesion to Spacer task group has developed a new test methodology based on a modification to the existing butterfly test.  The group met at a manufacturing facility to validate the test and reported on the results at the Quebec City meetings.  Based on feedback received, the work group will review the proposed test method.

The TM-4000, Quality Manufacturing task group is close to completing the first draft for the revised manual. This revision will include all clauses for accreditation to the ISO 9001:2008 standard specific to IG manufacturing.  Additionally, each section includes a commentary on the purpose and objectives so that manufacturers can determine which sections are relevant to their manufacturing operations and those they are to be exempted from. The task group will be meeting to review the final draft and a ballot will be issued next month.

The IGMA 2015 Winter Conference will be held jointly with the Insulating Glass Certification Council in Fort Lauderdale, Feb. 3 to 8. Details on the meeting and networking sessions are under development.