IGMA and IGCC Move Closer to a Harmonized Approach to North American Certification

At the meeting of the Insulating Glass Certification Council (IGCC), held August 21-23, 2007 in Minneapolis, the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Association (IGMA) and IGCC Certification Programs made significant progress in streamlining and standardizing the certification program for North American for the insulating glass (IG) industry. The associations have been working to harmonize the two programs since Fall 2004.

Both programs have developed and implemented a Gas Content Initial and After Weathering (GCIA). The guidelines for certification of triple glazed units and test specimens were standardized between the two programs when IGCC adopted the IGMA Insulating Glass Manufacturing Quality Procedures (TM-4000-02) as the minimum requirement for the program's quality assurance program. The quality procedures requirement will be phased in over approximately the next 18 months.

"Both IGMA and IGCC have worked diligently on harmonizing and streamlining the two programs," says Margaret Webb, executive director of IGMA. "Each group has adopted the requirements from the two programs which clearly represent the best approach to providing the construction industry with the assurance that when they specify units certified to these programs there are no insulating glass units that have undergone a more rigorous threshold. We have already standardized our short and mid-range targets and are well underway to having one standardized approach for the manufacturing sector."

According to John Kent, administrative manager for IGCC, "the IG certification harmonization effort between IGMA andIGCC has afforded an opportunity for each organization to take a hard look at best practices, adopt guidelines and requirements which make sense for the markets served, yet has still allowed each organization to maintain its identity and oversight of their respective programs. Both programs are better off for this effort and will add value to both the IG fabricator and public interest user specifier segments of the market."

Webb says that IGMA does not currently have an estimate on when the harmonization process will be complete, but the two groups are working closely on the few remaining items. The next step for the groups is to draft a list of "outstanding items" that will be presented for consideration at the next IGCC meeting in May 2008.

The next IGMA meeting will be held January 28-February 1, 2008 at the Sundial Beach Resort in Sanibel Island, Fla.

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