Technology
IGMA: A new level of certainty

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). 

ANSI will perform annual assessments of the IGMAC certification process to ensure it meets stringent international requirements under ISO 17065:2012.

The IGMAC Certification Program design, development and administration has been included under IGMA IS0 9001 accreditation since 2002. The IGMA board of directors decided to pursue ANSI accreditation to ISO 17065 as the most relevant standard for third-party certification accreditation.

The IGMAC certification program is recognized by Natural Resources Canada for IG certification for the Canadian Energy Star program and the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC).

In addition to ANSI’s assessments, Administrative Management Systems (AMS) will operate as the certification body for the IGMAC program. Using AMS as the certifier will add another layer of assurance to the program and will help ensure conformance to accreditation requirements. AMS is an ANSI-accredited certification body that manages multiple product certification programs, including the Insulating Glass Certification Council (IGCC) certification program.

Accreditation is expected to be granted in the fourth quarter of this year. What does this mean for IGMAC manufacturer participants?

Manufacturer participants in the IGMAC program will notice little change to the certification process. IGMA will remain the program administrator and will still coordinate certification activities and conduct product reviews. One change you will notice once accreditation is gained is that the IGMAC certificates will bear the AMS and ANSI logos – an indication of the value-added oversight from both organizations.

 The requirements placed on participant manufacturers’ products will remain unchanged as a result of this accreditation. Product testing will still be conducted by participant-selected, IGMAC-approved testing laboratories to the same IGMAC-recognized test methods and standards. Certified product will still be inspected by IGMAC-approved inspection agencies as well.

To realize the benefits of this new arrangement, manufacturer participants will need to re-execute an updated license agreement with IGMA and AMS. The changes to the license agreement will serve to strengthen and improve the language used over the previous version. It is anticipated that the new agreement will be sent out to manufacturer participants in the third quarter of this year.

Announced earlier this year, the IGMAC Certification Program database is now automated using specially designed software. This transference of the data has now been completed and we expect that early in 2019 the Customer Information Portal (CIP) will be launched. The CIP will be the communication venue between IGMA and program participants. Each designated program participant contact will be able to access their data, audit reports, notices and certificates via the portal. This will further streamline the certification process and provide added value to the program participants.

An announcement will be publicized once ANSI accreditation has been accomplished and a second announcement will be issued for the launch of the Customer Information Portal.

For more on the benefits of ANSI accreditation, visit ansi.org. For more information on AMS, visit amscert.com. You can find an explanation of how the IAF MLA works at iaf.nu. If you have any questions regarding the IGMAC Certification Program, please contact our office or visit igmaonline.net.