Revisions to ASTM Standard Specification for Flat Glass Will Bring Better Clarity, Simpler Application
November 17, 2011

By Sahely Mukerji, smukerji@glass.com

The ASTM Committee C14.08 recently revised C1036 - Standard Specification for Flat Glass, and brought better clarity on the requirements for float glass, says Jeff Haberer, tech services engineer of Cardinal Glass Industries in St Louis Park, Minn.

The updated C1036-11 covers the quality requirements of flat, transparent, clear and tinted glass intended to be used primarily for architectural glazing products, and was last revised in 2006.

The task group, consisting of flat glass producers, users, and engineering groups, discussed and reviewed all sections of the document and made changes, including:

• Limiting the standard to soda lime glass;
• Defining clear glass;
• Clarifying edge requirements;
• Improving wording and figures of viewing conditions for inspection of blemishes; and
• Including a clarification of blemishes for stock sheets.

"The changes will help to better manage customer expectations, and hopefully, eliminate disputes about requirements, especially blemishes," Haberer says.

Kevin Ramus, manager quality assurance of PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, agrees. "The revisions made to C1036 by the review sub-committee, which I chaired, were basically to bring better clarity to the requirements set forth in this standard," he says. "For example, definitions were added or revised, inspection methods were re-written to be more clear and concise, and diagrams were simplified. But there were no changes to the actual requirements themselves."

Mark K. Schmidt, unit manager and principal of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. in Northbrook, Ill., offers the perspective of a forensic engineer who specializes in curtainwall and glass issues. "The C1036 revisions are intended to make the standard more user-friendly for field application," he says. "For example, discreet detection distances for linear blemishes have replaced the former cumbersome detection distance ranges. As another example, the required detection distances applied to existing glass installations on mid- and high-rise buildings generally precluded inspection from the exterior. Considering this limitation and the fact that the vantage point of interest for building inhabitants on floors above grade is generally the interior, luminance measurement of the daylight source is now allowed from the building interior.

"These and other changes will foster a more straightforward application of the standard," Schmidt says.

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