Door & Window Market • October 2016 • What's News

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) held its summer conference in Banff, Alberta, in August, and a major focus of the discussions was education and training, both inside and outside the industry.

Tracy Rogers of Quanex chairs IGMA's Visual Quality task group, which is a joint initiative with the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) designed to set up a consumer-oriented webpage to help people understand the characteristics of glass and what actually constitutes a defect.

"The primary focus is to help consumers understand standards," Rogers said. "The beginning is an introduction to glass and glazing systems, so they get a baseline knowledge for what they're looking at."

For those in the industry, the association's Education and Safety Committee discussed the educational programs the group has put together, including the upcoming IGMA Leadership Development Program (LDP).

Oak Moser, who spent 33 years in the glass industry with companies such as Cardinal and PPG, now consults on leadership development. On behalf of Coaching to Connect, he put together IGMA's LDP program, which will consist of a 12-part, 12-month webinar series–with activities and assignments in between–set to start in January 2017.

"Glass doesn't move people–people move glass," Moser said during a presentation to the group. "We are in the people business, but we don't typically spend a lot of time developing our people skills."

The committee also discussed other educational activities. IGMA successfully held its first IG Fabricator Workshop earlier this year in Plano, Texas, at the Intertek Testing Facilities. More than 40 industry members got both classroom and hands-on education regarding glass fabrication.

John Kent of the Safety Glazing Certification Council (SGCC) updated attendees about developments surrounding safety glazing.

"We've seen a nice jump in safety glazing participation, with more than 350 companies involved," Kent said regarding certification test standard activity. "We've got a really good library of passing and failing rates for both tempered and laminated glass."

Kent updated the group on the SGCC's current activities, which include its efforts to seek ANSI accreditation. He said in the past, the industry relied on market recognition, but as the implementation of safety glazing became more widespread, accreditation was necessary. The council expects to be accredited by October.

Margaret Webb, executive director of IGMA, later explained to attendees the state of the Canadian General Standards Board's (CGSB) ongoing efforts to update the Canadian safety glazing standard.

The new standard will likely mirror ANSI Z97.1, and going forward, the standards will be identical.

Another big related development this year is that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) agreed to accept ANSI Z97.1 as the primary safety glazing test method.

Kent gave an update on the council's current activities, including its laboratory committee. The board of directors approved funds for an interactive animation lab training and monitoring tool.

Dave Cooper of Guardian Industries gave a rundown on the TM-4500 Quality Manual, which has been in development for five years and is roughly 60 pages long. He said the document is currently in ballot with the board of directors and will close soon.

Helen Sanders of SageGlass made a presentation about Health Product Declarations and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).

"There are architects that say they won't specify your products unless you have this," said Sanders. "Material ingredient hazard disclosures and LCA/EPDs are becoming essential."

Sanders also discussed the committee's work on Product Category Rules (PCR), which are used to develop EPDs. A flat glass PCR and window PCR have previously been completed, and a PCR for processed glass has been through review and will be completed soon.

The socialist government of Venezuela used a routine maintenance shutdown of Guardian Industries' float glass furnace at its facility in Maturin as a pretext to seize the plant in late July, according to a statement the company released in September. Guardian says it warned the country that it could be creating a dangerous situation if it continues to make glass there without completing the maintenance work.

Guardian also forcefully rejects Venezuela's claim that the company "abandoned" or "sabotaged" the facility, and it says the government violated international investment treaties by taking over the factory.

Since taking over the plant in late July, Venezuela's government has told sympathetic media outlets there that Guardian closed the facility as part of an "economic war" U.S. businesses are waging against the country, a catch-all claim that officials in Venezuela have been making for years. However, most analysts cite the collapse of global oil prices, combined with the country's disastrous socialist economic policies, for creating conditions that are forcing many foreign companies to pull out of Venezuela.