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Committees, Working Groups Stay Busy During IGMA Annual Meeting

The Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) worked to reduce its environmental footprint during its Summer Technical Meetings, which took place in June in Quebec. The event was paperless as all of the meeting information, including agendas, minutes, technical presentations, IGMA policies and working documents for the groups and committees, was provided to attendees on USB drives.

“We received extremely positive feedback on doing this so we will definitely be repeating it,” says Margaret Webb, IGMA executive director. “The agendas and minutes were posted to the IGMA website for the attendees to download in advance and we did notify everyone that we would not be providing printed materials. All in all this was an extremely successful, efficient and effective way for the groups to have access to the documents.”

And there were a number of documents that were reviewed. During the Certification and Education Committee meeting members reviewed the PowerPoint presentation for TM-4000, an introductory overview on how to use the manual and implement a quality control program for a manufacturer’s specific requirements. The presentation will now be balloted to the committee.

The Glazing Guidelines Working Group focused on the current activities of the joint task group between IGMA and the Glass Association of North America that is working to develop manufacturing guidelines for the use of capillary tubes. The task group is now working on language for each of the items included in the technical bulletin.

During the Gas Permeability Working Group CAN-BEST made a presentation on the design for the new test cell and test sample specification for Phase 2 -Evaluation of the Gas Permeability of Edge Seal Assemblies. Following the meeting, CAN-BEST had plans to validate the repeatability of the cell to measure samples at the sensitivity required. Once the test cell design has been approved by the group, the project will proceed to the actual testing of samples.

The Thermal Stress Working Group reviewed and finalized a list of conditions that may or may not contribute to thermal stress. Volunteers were selected to write the text for each condition and identify the potential of low, medium or high thermal stress. The group will next develop guidelines for a combination of conditions.

A working group focusing on Design Considerations for Multiple Airspace IGUs met for the first time and discussed plans to work on developing a technical report addressing issues such as thermal stress, gas content, stresses on seal system, coatings, fabrication techniques, altitude limits, glazing considerations, glass thickness, exterior condensation and optical considerations for triple, quad and greater glazed IGUs.

The Technical Services Committee’s activities included:

• Approval of the funding for the ASTM Thermal Stress project and the AAMA Sloped Glazing document revision;

• Approval of participation in a cross organization publication resource library; and

• Review of the status of the TM-4000-02 (07) revision as well as the status of various working group projects.

IGMA’s next meeting will be its 2010 Annual Conference, during the Glass Association of North America’s Glass Week, March 24-27, in Las Vegas. www.igmaonline.org

William Stone Purchases Louisville Plate Glass from UGC
United Glass Corp. (UGC), headquartered in Louisville, Ky., has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary Louisville Plate Glass (LPG) to William A. Stone, one of the original founders of UGC. According to a company announcement, LPG will continue to operate in its traditional marketplace with UGC maintaining a supplier relationship with LPG.

Lawrence O’Connell, UGC chief executive officer, said the transaction was completed to take advantage of significant capital investments recently completed at UGC’s Atlanta and Cheswick, Pa., locations.

The company also reported that the acquisition of heat-treating ovens, fabrication equipment and automated systems provide the basis for UGC to realign and expand sales territories serviced by its five remaining glass and aluminum fabrication operations: Pdc Glass; Pdc Aluminum; Pdc Michigan; MTO; and TGI.

USG
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