The Tempering Division of the Glass Association of North America(GANA)was busy last week during the Fall Conference,working on manuals,glass informational bulletins(GIBs)and more.The meeting ran from September 18-22 and took place at the Hilton Chicago.
Jeff Nixon with Glass Coatings and Concepts,chair of the Engineering Standards Manual committee,discussed the updates currently underway on the document;several sections currently are in balloting stages.These include,for example,the edge finishing section(appendix five).Brianna Beatty of Edgeworks chairs the task group working on this document,which will soon have updated content as well as new illustrations.She said it should be ready for final approval in the next couple of weeks.
Revisions also are underway on section 4.1 on applied opacifiers.The documents have been revised and approved by the task group and previously voted on by the subcommittee so those comments were reviewed during the meeting.One of the comments discussed involved component compatibility.The group talked about extracting relevant text from possibly the GIB or from the GANA Glazing Manual and incorporating it into this document.These efforts will continue before the document is again balloted.
Revisions to section 11,"Recommendations for Fully Tempered Interior Butt Glazed Fixed Glass Panels,"also are underway.The Tempering Division is updating theses guidelines and is checking engineering calculations to ensure code compliance.These efforts are being chaired by Greg Carney,president of C.G.Carney Associates.Carney said a lot of work has gone into these revisions and they are making good progress.
During the full division meeting,a recommendation was made and carried for the Technical Committee to approach the laminated division about this and assess its interest in participating.
The Tempering Division meetings last week also had some special guests:members of the International Window Cleaning Association(IWCA).There is a joint task group of GANA and IWCA members working together to update the GIB on proper procedures for cleaning architectural glass products.During the Construction Subcommittee meeting,Urmilla Sowell,GANA technical director,provided an update and said the next step will be to send the document to the joint group for review and if all parties approve,it will be balloted at both GANA and IWCA and jointly published.
As part of the standards update that took place during the Technical Committee session,Sowell reported on ASTM's work on developing a specification for consumer safety for glass furniture.She explained the specification has been balloted,but the group has been unable to resolve one negative.That negative itself was recently balloted to see if members would find persuasive or not.Sowell said that while the ballot has closed there was no word as to whether it's approved;the ballot closed last week.
John Kent with the Safety Glazing Certification Council(SGCC)provided an update on this group's recent activities.He reported that SGCC is considering the development of a heat soak certification program.Kent said this is in a very preliminary stage and will be discussed during SGCC's next meeting,October 10-11 in Naples,Fla.
