When Bill Lingnell Speaks, People Listen

FGIA technical consultant of glass products Bill Lingnell answered questions surrounding quality, compatibility and performance requirements for insulating glass units during the organization’s hybrid Fall Conference this week. Lingnell has more than 55 years of experience in the technical field of glass and architectural products. His career involvement includes significant building projects throughout the U.S., Canada and other countries. At the end of his one-hour presentation, he provided answers to several pertinent industry questions.

Q: Who typically is responsible for compatibility for the wall system in a high-rise commercial building envelope portion of the project?

Lingnell: If it’s a custom wall system on a commercial building—there are a lot of people involved. There are architects, owners, general contractors, glazing contractors, glass fabricators, glass installers [and] suppliers of the materials that go into these glazing systems. I don’t believe there is one person who is totally responsible…The way I look at this thing, everybody in this team has a certain responsibility to make sure their products, when supplied, are compatible with the overall system that’s going to be used on a project.

Q: What is the best way to determine what is compatible and, in particular, if you’re introducing a new component?

Lingnell: Suppliers use a lot of different tests to validate their products before they get out to market. Usually, they are anxious to do a compatibility test and to help you out [with] whatever it is you’re using in conjunction with another material.

Q: In order to help prevent insulating glass seal failures, what should an insulating glass fabricator do?

Lingnell: Some folks feel they have a quality program, but I challenge you to say, ‘Okay, do you know what the cost of your quality is?’ That’s a question for management, as well as for the quality supervisor. Once you find out what that is, you know whether or not you’re going to be making quality products and what you have to do to get there. My encouragement to fabricators is to get all of the documents, guidelines [and] put into place the things you need to do to run an organization that’s smooth, quality-oriented and [has] high-production capabilities. But follow all of the guidelines that are available to you and do good practices for making your units.