IGMA Conference Closes with an Eye on Education

IGMA held its 2017 summer conference this week in Montreal.

Education has been a key focus for the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) in recent years, as the association continues to bolster these efforts through new and improved programs. This was part of the discussion Wednesday as the association’s Education Committee met during the group’s 2017 Summer Conference.

IGMA announced that it will hold another IG Fabricator Workshop November 7-9 at the Intertek/ATI facilities in Plano, Texas. The event will include the same classroom and hands-on demonstrations it has in previous programs, and the committee is working to implement information on spacers and spacer systems—prompted by feedback from past participants.

“This hands-on learning is kind of new for IGMA, and it’s been well-embraced,” said Bill Briese of GED. “We’ve done three sessions so far, so we’re starting to get feedback. We want to make sure it can evolve where [members] want it to go.”

Industry consultant Bill Lingnell encouraged attendees of the summer conference to participate and for up-and-comers within their companies to take part as well.

“If you want to get new people up to speed on how insulating glass works, this is the place to be,” he said. “And even veterans of the industry come to get a refresher.”

The committee is also working to format a video of its Preventing IG Failures Education Seminar as an online education program. At the meeting, several IGMA members volunteered to help determine the best way to make them available—for example, as a package or in separate parts.

Earlier in the day, IGMA’s Technical Services Committee met. A joint task group between the committee and AAMA is developing a test fixture to measure edge seal pressure. The committee is also working on a document containing voluntary guidelines for IGU manufacturing tolerances, as well as a technical bulletin on IGUs with unsupported edges. The technical bulletin is a joint effort between IGMA and the Glass Association of North America’s Insulating Division.

According to IGMA, the bulletin addresses “concerns regarding the structural and durability performance of unsupported IGU edges subject to uniform load including glass stresses, practical glass deflections, sealant strength capabilities, spacer stress and deformation limits, load durations, dead load support and setting block location, plus other variables that influence the unsupported edge condition for IGUs.”

Also in the Technical Services Committee, a task group is developing a document on design considerations for IG cavity compensation. Cavity compensation methods included in the manual are capillary tubes, breather tubes, valves, desiccant adsorption/desorption, pre-inflating/pre-deflating the unit, temperature manipulation at the manufacturing environment and bladders.

In the afternoon, Lingnell gave an update on standards he is monitoring and helping develop, and Mike Burk of GED gave a presentation on glass safety awareness.