Increasing competition in the fenestration sector has made systems companies invest to offer innovation across their product ranges.

This, coupled with the continuing strong growth of aluminium in the commercial sector, has meant that independent testing certification has also become a crucially important element of any product being offered to specifiers.

Throughout 2005, Sapa invested many thousands of pounds in an extensive development and testing programme for their Dualframe system and at the same time committed to developing and testing their high specification product ranges.

Mark Robinson explains: ‘One of the specialist systems involved in this development programme was our Powerframe Blast Resistant Glazing System which is without doubt our most specialised product range. In the middle of last year as the world's attention was focussed on the London bombings, we became the first company in the UK to submit windows and doors to be tested to the new draft European Standard for blast resistant glazing.

‘Powerframe fixed, casement and tilt-before-turn windows were all subjected to a range of tests at different distances and at far greater blast loads than the product range has been tested at previously. The window testing programme was then followed by the first-ever testing of our blast resistant door, which again, successfully withstood the testing.

‘This testing of the Powerframe system means that our customers can now offer specifiers doors, windows and curtain walling as a comprehensive, safe and reliable specification for projects that require blast protection to the latest standards. The scope of this product range extends beyond ‘terrorist targets' to other areas that may need protection in the event of a blast. Designers of buildings close to gas and oil plants for example, will also consider the need for blast protection for the occupants of buildings they are responsible for. The need for this sort of protection particularly was highlighted with terrifying clarity with the events at the Buncefield fuel depot.

Blast resistance

‘The strength of Powerframe is that it is designed to obtain the maximum benefit from the membrane action of varying thicknesses of laminated glass and its ability to transmit complex loads to the perimeter fixings via the frame members of the windows and doors.

‘This series of testing places us at the forefront of this exceptionally specialist market and our network of fabricators will benefit immensely as we take Powerframe to a wider audience.

‘Our second major development programme last year was aimed at supporting those customers who are involved in projects that require curtain walling. As more and more fabricators look to the commercial sector to supplement their traditional business we recognised the need to support them with product and market sector training. We also know that the product range has to be right and meet the differing needs of both specifiers and our customers who have to be able to make it and install it as easily as possible.

Elegance 52

‘We undertook to develop our Elegance 52 curtain walling system and launched it to our customers in a series of training days held in December. Crucially, Elegance 52 has been tested to and meets the requirements of both BS EN 13830 Product Standard for Curtain Walling and CWCT Standard Test Sequence B.

Significant customer demand for the training days for this product has meant that we will be continuing them throughout the early part of this year as well.

‘Many of our customers are of course experts in curtain walling systems and have installed curtain walling in projects across the country for many years. However, there was another group of customers that, whilst undertaking commercial work generally, were not so familiar with the specific requirements of fabrication and installing of curtain walling. To allow for these differing levels of expertise we split the training elements of the launch of Elegance 52 into two parts - first to introduce the less experienced customers to the wider concepts of curtain walling specification and fabrication and then a second more detailed training course about working with Elegance 52 specifically.

Airport projects

‘By the end of this training and launch programme we will have increased considerably the number of our customers that can work on higher specification projects and we know this is just the type of work that many of them wanted to be able to exploit in the future.

‘Elegance 52 has come from our European product range and has been widely specified across Europe for highly prestigious projects such as Belgium's Bierset Airport. Because of this strong pedigree, our launch to UK specifiers has been much more straightforward and it has been built into many projects here now as well, which is especially good news for our customers.'

Mark concludes: ‘We believe that the comprehensive nature of our product range is a major attraction for our customers. It ultimately means that they can meet the specification and fabricate and install a combination of products in the knowledge that not only will all elements of the fenestration work together but, more importantly, we will we be able to support them across the whole project. This, at the end of the day, is what is going to ensure they are successful.'

Source

Glass Age