Decorative Discussions Take Place as Part of Glass Week 2010
March 26, 2010

Glass Week continued yesterday with a number of groups meeting, including the decorative division, which has been busy preparing a number of information documents, presentations and even a new website. The meeting was chaired by Kris Vockler of ICD High Performance Coatings and took place yesterday morning at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The event is sponsored by the Glass Association of North America.

The Glazing Material and Compatibility task group, chaired by Michelle Burns of Ferro Corp., met first and is working on completing a glass informational bulletin (GIB) titled Assessing the Compatibility of Glazing Materials. The task group passed a motion to approve the document, which will now move on to the technical committee for review and ballot.

The group also discussed putting together a list of tests that are done on decorative glass. Prior to the meeting the division had approached one testing agency about the types of test as well as companies that test to these different tests. One concern the agency had about this is that because there is so much information they did not feel the document would be all encompassing and would never be inclusive.

Greg Saroka of Goldray Industries suggested that members could submit information on their own issues or problem areas to create a list of things to be aware of [as potential concerns].

The group agreed that building awareness is the goal.

One member suggested that member companies could submit their most common issues that come up in everyone’s business—those things everyone has seen in the past--and create a generalized GIB about the [concerns] regarding decorative glass.

The Product Color and Durability Subcommittee meeting, chaired by Jeff Nixon of Glass Coatings & Concepts LLC, met next and is working on a “properties glossary” that will focus on color and appearance terminology. The document is moving on to the technical committee for review.

In addition, the group discussed a document on durability characteristics. Nixon said this has been hard to formulate as these terms are more involved than color terminology.

“The goal is to create a benchmark way for fabricators to assure that durability is being addressed properly given where the product will end up,” said Vockler.

Nixon added, “We want to provide definitions and test methods to allows us to communicate effectively about these properties.”

During the division meeting Cathie Saroka of Golray, who serves as the chair of the division’s membership and website committees, discussed an American Institute of Architects presentation based on the terminology in the decorative glossary that the Education Committee has put together. The presentation is currently being reviewed by the committee and once approved it will go to the board for review. She said once approved they would also like to make it into a web-based presentation format.

She explained that they took all of the items in the glossary and then broke them into categories. The presentation also covers applications where decorative glass can be used, general information on how glass is made as well as considerations for architects when they are specifying the glass.

In addition, the decorative division is also working on creating a new website that they expect will be live by mid-May.

Glass Week meetings continue through Saturday morning and will be followed by the annual BEC Conference. Stay tuned to USGNN.com™ for news updates from Las Vegas.

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