IGMA Opens Its Summer Meeting

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) summer meeting opened yesterday at the Westin Resort & Spa in Whistler, B.C.

The gas permeability working group was very productive today, having agreed to recommend to the board to accept CAN-BEST's request for proposal (RFP) to develop a test protocol for argon permeability through insulating glass (IG) units. (CLICK HERE to read more about the RFP from IGMA's annual meeting held in January.) In addition to choosing a test lab, the group also made decisions on which sealant and spacer types to study, as well as a decision to focus on 6-inch samples. Following the board's approval and final "tweaking" of the request for proposal, the group expects to move forward on this research.

IGMA is holding its summer meeting at the Westin in Whistler, B.C.

During this morning's session of the glazing guidelines working group, chaired by Ken Shelbourn of TruSeal Technologies, the group looked at the early work of a joint task group between IGMA and the Glass Association of North America (GANA) for the development of guidelines and recommended practices for capillary tubes. The goal of the joint document is to address the "when and the why" of using these tubes, noted Tracy Rogers of Edgetech, who chairs the task group.

Today the group added categories to consider on its preliminary chart on identification of the conditions for the use of capillary tubes.

"These are guidelines. The biggest focus right now is looking at all the info that's out there and putting it under one umbrella … this isn't a specification," Rogers said.

The session opened yesterday with meeting of the certification and education committee, during which the group worked further on its IG manufacturing quality procedures educational seminar. The seminar is being developed to help companies focus on quality control. The group discussed how best to create a session that would be educational for both large and small IG manufacturers.

"I see something like this being a tool used across the industry," commented Rogers, who chairs this group.

The meeting continues through tomorrow. Stay tuned to USGNN.com™ for further updates.

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