IGMA Summer Meeting Closes Out with Technical Presentations

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) summer meeting wrapped up earlier than anticipated yesterday, following presentations from Bill Lingnell of Lingnell Consulting Services and Andre Piers with TNO.

Lingnell told IGMA attendees how-to go about conducting a complete investigation and showed results of his own field investigations into insulating glass units that may have failed or needed a second look at performance levels.

Lingnell began his presentation with a list of different, but important, aspects and functions that architectural glass should provide: transparency, color, resistance to weather, enough stability to maintain shape, a resistance to atmosphere and chemicals, imperviousness to water, holds back air/wind, absorption radiation to limit heat gain, reflect solar energy, provide daylighting, changes in color and/or properties, and sizes, types, shapes.

"Investigation may be required when some of the main items listed [are not performing as they should]," he said.

Lingnell encouraged his audience to document the results of visual exam in notes and with photos and to take accurate measurements as they are necessary to validate conformance (or non-conformance) to specifications. Both are important, he said, because assessment can assist in a cost effective method for future replacements, to convey findings, conclusions and recommendations relating to the building condition and because a detailed condition assessment can help a building owner understand what remedial work or maintenance is required on a building.

Following Lingnell, Piers returned to the podium for the second day to discuss certification in the European market.

As he explained, the standards for IG certification in Europe vary somewhat from the standards in Canada and the United States, but the requirements also overlap in some ways.

One important difference is that every six months, a company's management representative files a report about the results of conformity control tests and manufacturers are required to keep these reports and results of any action points mentioned therein for at least five years, sometimes longer depending on the country. In England, for example, those reports kept for 12 years.

Additionally, part of the certification process in Europe requires the system manufacturer to submit for testing sample units that are representative of the units that are not perfect but that the company is still willing to sell to the public.

A third speaker, Zhang Baiheng, had to cancel his presentation on the Chinese Glass industry due to a scheduling conflict that did not allow him to attend the IGMA summer meeting. Without the third speaker, the 2006 event closed shortly after 11 a.m. The next IGMA event is the annual meeting, scheduled for February 21-25, 2007 in Tampa, Fla.

Look for a recap of the IGMA summer meeting in the September issue of USGlass.