HALIFAX, August 8, 2005-The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) summer meeting is currently underway at the Westin Nova Scotian here. The meeting began yesterday with committee and group meetings, including technical working group meetings.

During yesterday's glazing guidelines working group meeting there was a discussion that focused on defining the requirements to allow thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) setting blocks. It was agreed upon that additional research would be conducted before a final decision was made.

The visual quality working group also met yesterday. The group is working to develop a guideline that covers what's allowable in the airspace of an IGU. The group will be focusing on things that happen during the manufacturing process-what's under the manufacturer's control-such as fingerprints.

The thermal stress working group's efforts are centered on trying to differentiate stress breaks and what triggers the glass to stress/fracture. One thing the group discussed was creating "dos and don'ts" design guidelines that would assist those who are designing and specifying insulating glass.

The recently-created education committee also met yesterday. The group discussed ways in which they could provide more education and information to members.

"We want to always drive education as part of our meetings," said Mike Burk of GED who chaired the meeting. Some of the measures the group discussed included creating an educational seminar on IG manufacturing quality procedures and also developing an AIA course that would be on certification and ASTM E 2190. Margaret Webb, IGMA executive director, said that IGMA exhibited at the AIA show this year and had an excellent response. In light of that, she said that IGMA is now looking at other ways to provide more information to architects and builders.