TruFit Like A Master Fitter Thanks To GQA CPD Programme

GQA Assessors are invited to learn about the benefits of TruFit®, expanding foam edge tape from Edgetech UK, at a special GQA CPD event on 19 April 2017.

Window installation tapes like TruFit are being used more and more for window and door installations and this year it will feature in the finals of the Master Fitter Challenge at FIT Show 2017.

“TruFit is leading the professionalisation of the industry by helping installers to maintain the Window Energy Ratings (WERs) of the windows they are fitting,” explains Charlotte Davies, Head of Marketing at Edgetech UK.

“Our CPD session for GQA assessors will give them a thorough understanding of TruFit and how it can be used to achieve a more modern finish with a consistent perimeter seal. This will give them the knowledge to ask the right questions of candidates using window fitting tapes.”

“TruFit offers benefits that outperform traditional ‘wet’ sealant methods, with up to 23 percent less heat loss in independent tests. It’s important that both installers and assessors understand these benefits.”

FIT Show’s Master Fitter Challenge is well-known for incorporating the latest industry trends, which is why TruFit is included in this year’s final.

Charlotte continues: “Master Fitter competitors will be installing using TruFit during the finals. As part of our involvement with the competition, we’re inviting all Master Fitter Competition entrants to join us for the CPD event also. That way they can practise fitting windows with TruFit before the live final at FIT Show.”

Entry is open for the Master Fitter Challenge until the end of March. Installers looking to show off their skills, win a share of the £10,000 prize money and be crowned Master Fitter of the Year can enter at www.fitshow.co.uk/master-fitter-challenge.

The CPD event will be held at Edgetech UK’s headquarters in Coventry. You can book your place on the TruFit GQA CPD session by calling 0114 2720033 or emailing: info@gqaqualifications.com.

For more information on TruFit, visit www.trufit-it.com.

It’s an inescapable fact that we’re living in an age of superfast communications, where emails, video conferencing and Facetime are a part of everyday working life. And there’s no doubt that along with things like product videos, such tools – for that is what they are – help many businesses achieve some of their goals.

But while things like Skype and meetings conducted via a superfast broadband network with real-time video links have their uses, there are some things that these elements can’t bring about, namely, the personal impact of standing in front of a product and learning, firsthand, what it can do.

That is the genius of a trade event like FIT Show 2017. It is easy to forget that a little actual face-to-face time – not just Facetime – can work wonders turning potential customers into long-term loyal clients and can give your company a competitive edge.

Attend a trade show, either as an exhibitor or as a visitor, and you are guaranteed to find the people who will match your aspirations. It’s contact ‘heaven’. You’ll either be an exhibitor looking to sell a product or a service to willing buyers, or you’ll be a visitor, looking for that special item or service fulfillment that will make your job more productive – and hopefully more profitable.

FIT Show 2017, being held for the first time at the NEC in Birmingham this May, brings together both exhibiting companies – over 200 – from the glass and glazing industry and thousands of visitors from the sector. Being able to see and in many cases touch the product that you want for your operation, and be able to discuss it in detail with the experts, is an experience you won’t want to pass up.

Another advantage of the trade show formula is that everything is under one roof. As an exhibitor, the world comes to you. Plus you get to see what your competitors from across the UK and beyond are doing. You can see at firsthand how the sector is developing. It’ll give you lots of ideas on how to perfect your own product – or give you the satisfaction that you have the best product on the market!

And as a visitor, being able to go around the exhibition halls and witness – again, at firsthand – an industry-wide array of products and services is an incredibly cost-effect way of spending your time.

And as well as hundreds of exhibiting companies, there’s more – much more – to the FIT Show 2017. As well as product demonstrations, visitors can hear from the best in the business by attending free-to-attend seminars across the three days of the event. These are always a big hit with delegates and cover a range of must-know guidance on regulations, finance and market conditions, plus business know-how, sales tips and installation advice, all presented by the show’s carefully chosen experts.

Finally, event organisers fully appreciate that people’s time is precious, and so creating value at a trade show is an absolute ‘must’. That’s why FIT Show’s BIG Tuesday will take place on Tuesday 23rd May and will see show opening hours extended to 8pm. Offering a relaxed ‘after hours’ atmosphere – a time when some will argue the best deals are done – some exhibitors are already planning to include drinks and music on their stand in order to create a party atmosphere and take advantage of the extra hours.

If you want to find out about the latest product developments in glass and glazing, you can’t afford to miss FIT Show 2017.

If you’re visiting the FIT Show why not take advantage of the free daily seminars? For more information visit: www.fitshow.co.uk/seminars and for the aluminium-focused seminars delivered by experts in aluminium, AluK visit: www.fitshow.co.uk/aluk-seminar.

Taking place 23-25th May 2017, to book a stand at FIT Show 2017 please contact Freya Humphries on: 07572 623457, or email: freya@fitshow.co.uk. To register as a visitor for FIT Show 2017 visit: www.livebuzzreg.co.uk/2017/fit17

Securing themselves a strong start to the first quarter of 2017, Sternfenster is proud to offer the cutting-edge, Secured by Design aluminium bi-fold door. Now available for Sternfenster Approved Installers, this door has been meticulously designed to greatly improve door performance and ensure customer peace of mind.

This Secured by Design certified aluminium bi-fold door has achieved a prestigious status across the market, as few suppliers can offer them. For Sternfenster Approved Installers, this offers an opportunity to open up new markets with a highly sought after product that promises a greater profit margin and happier customers.

Approved Installers can also benefit from reduced aftersales services, with the Secured by Design aluminium bi-fold door undergoing a stringent testing process to ensure an outstanding degree of product quality and build is achieved. This will not only enhance any home in which they are installed, it also allows you to maintain your reputation as a respected double glazing installer.

Quality by design, these aluminium bi-fold doors combine a premium grade aluminium profile with a high security, multi-point locking system to create a product that specialises in crime prevention. Customers want the best, and the Secured by Design aluminium bi-fold door from Sternfenster is a clear answer to that call.

Sternfenster strives to continually improve what they can offer their Approved Installers, with this outstanding door being their most recent fruit of labour. By joining the Sternfenster Installer Network, you’ll be in the hands of a national business that offers you all the benefits of innovation and expansion.

To illustrate this further, Sternfenster will be rebranding their aluminium products under ‘myALI Frame Solution’, which will include both myALI patio doors and myALI bi-fold doors. With Network Members in mind, this rebranding offers a generous collection of consumer based brochures for Approved Installers to utilise.

Mike Parczuk, Managing Director of Sternfenster, said “Our new Secured by Design aluminium bi-fold doors are a clear statement on the quality we strive for. We only offer the best for our customers and 2017 will not see an end to that. It really is the best time to join our Approved Installer Network”.

Expand your business, increase profit margin and guarantee customer satisfaction by becoming a Sternfenster Approved Installer, today. Give us a call on 01522 512 525 or visit www.sternfenster.com for more information.

Developments in UV-bonding technology are supporting glass processors in driving innovation in the built environment, delivering great architecture and higher margins.

Glass is the architectural material of the 21st Century. It defines our cityscapes, dominating the facades of commercial and office buildings. It’s also increasingly defining the architectural features of our homes.

This isn’t new, there have always been exponents of glass. The American architect and trailblazer Frank Lloyd Wright, writing as early as the 1940s of the merits of connecting indoor and outdoor spaces: ‘The outside of any building may now come inside and the inside go outside, each seems as part of the other.  Continuity, plasticity, and all the new simplicity they imply have at last come home’.

It’s only now, however, that we as homeowners are embracing glass in the mainstream of UK house design and that is driving innovation in the glass processing sector and the technologies to support it.

Bohle remains at the forefront of global leading innovation in UV bonding technology and has developed a complete range of cleaning agents, pre-treatments and curing adhesives to UVA lamps, bonding tables, rigid fixing and clamping devices.

But while the application of UV bonding is established in the manufacture of everything from glass furniture to shop fit outs, its use in external applications is only now beginning to establish itself – and that’s creating multiple opportunities.

“It was the quote from Frank Lloyd Wright, that got me thinking about how as an industry we handle corners in window design, especially when those windows are looking out onto panoramic views”, says Alex Simpson, Managing Director and owner, The Glass Man. “Pillars and supports interrupt and ruin them.

“The concept was simple – develop a glazing unit that turns a corner to maximize the view outside. It was doing it that was the hard part.”

Having initially developed the concept more than a decade earlier, The Glass Man manufactured its first 90-degree seamless Infinity Corner IGU in 2009. “It wasn’t delivered overnight”, continues Alex. “In part because I was developing the unit alongside running a business and in part because it took a lot of investment to get the process right. “

The patented Infinity IGU is suitable for use with timber, aluminium, composites and PVC-U frames, in either double or triple-glazed, argon-filled options. These are manufactured from 8mm toughened external glass and 6mm Pilkington K toughened internally.

“These units are invariably going out to somewhere sitting on top of a sea cliff or half way up a mountain so you need to factor in wind loadings”, adds Alex.

Creating a single IGU unit that in effect seamlessly ‘turns the corner’ of building, presented a unique set of challenges. “We worked very closely with Bohle to identify the right UV bonding solution”, says Alex. “There are other suppliers out there and they’ll all supply you with a product but what you get from Bohle is incredible technical expertise.

“We made a number of trips across to Haan in Germany to work with their technical team to identify the right bonding solution for what we were trying to achieve.”

He continues: “It sounds simple but in manufacturing a 90-degree unit, you’re applying at least five disciplines. You have to understand glazing, edge-working, polishing, toughening and bonding, before you even get to sealing and filling the unit.

“Manufacture at 90-degrees creates a lot of different challenges, not least how you turn spacer bar on a 90-degree angle.”

Manually manufactured, units also have to be specially packaged before shipment to minimize risk of damage in transit “you’re exposing the unit to stresses across three dimensions, so we use indicators and special packaging to make sure that units aren’t damaged”, says Alex.

This hasn’t, however, stopped the Infinity Window from ‘travelling’. For a window manufactured a stone’s throw from the banks of the River Clyde, this has included shipments as far afield as Penzance and Sligo and London to Estonia.

“It’s  more expensive than a standard IGU but as a percentage of a larger high-end installation it’s negligible and in defining a room, or even the architectural style of a property, it delivers a huge number of benefits to the end-user”, says Alex.

He continues: “The real opportunity here is for window companies. It’s such a stunning architectural product selling it as a fabricator or retail business delivers so many USPs and opportunities for high margin.

“That’s what we have always tried to do. Manufacture innovative high quality products that deliver high margin to us as a business and our customers.”

For more information on Bohle and its UV bonding technologies please call the customer services team free on 0800 616151 or email info@bohle.ltd.uk.

Alternatively, for to find out more about the Infinity IGU please visit www.theglassmanuk.co.uk call 01698 334545 or email info@theglassmanuk.com 

A free trial of Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacer is now being offered by Thermoseal Group, giving potential customers the opportunity to sample the UK’s highest performance flexible spacer with a lowest thermal conductivity rating of 0.135W/mK. Interested participants are encouraged to contact the Thermoseal Group sales team whilst this offer remains available.

Thermoseal Group is the UK’s multiple award-winning manufacturer and supplier of warm edge spacers and over 1,500 insulated glass (IG) components for use in the manufacture of premium IG units. The Group Sales Director, Mark Hickox, says: “After much investment to ensure its superiority, we are delighted to be able to offer UK sealed unit manufacturers this opportunity”.

“Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacer achieves the highest Passive House rating of phA+ for arctic climates and the best edge resistance within the Passive House component database of spacers – 6.30m K/W. Psi values are as low as 0.027 W/mK and are the result of continual investments in equipment and skills for testing and benchmarking Thermoflex in comparison to that of other leading flexible spacers.

“The nearest competitor thermal conductivity value is 0.15W/mK (as opposed to 0.135W/mK for Thermoflex), which means that Thermoflex can be exchanged within current Window Energy Rating (WER) simulations whereas competitor products cannot be exchanged within a WER incorporating Thermoflex warm edge spacer without a new simulation being required.

“Our innovation centre has enviable test facilities and we have employed specialists with the technical skills to test all of our products to exacting standards from the initial compounding of the raw materials, right through the process to packaging and delivery to the customers. Our testing gives us the confidence that our products will pass both independent tests and maintain the integrity of the compounded desiccant within the spacer as it continues to perform throughout the lifetime of the insulated glass sealed unit.

“We understand that the quality of the raw materials is crucial in securing the highest standard of spacer” says Mark. “As well as being produced from the highest quality materials, Thermoflex is also compounded and processed in the exact way to ensure the right tensile and compression properties and UV stability. We are continually investing in new technology and methods to improve and develop this product”.

For your free trial of Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacer, contact your Area Sales Manager now, or call 0845 331 3950 (Intl: 0044 121 331 3950) or email sales@thermosealgroup.com. Terms and conditions apply.

To find out about Thermoseal Group and its comprehensive range of IG components and machinery, visit www.thermosealgroup.com. For full information about the Group’s warm edge spacers see our multi-lingual websites at www.thermobarwarmedge.com and www.thermoflexwarmedge.com.

Having rapidly outgrown their current residence, Sternfenster has completed a move that allows them to better accommodate for their rapidly growing Approved Installer Network. This move promises a solid foothold for the national manufacturer, acting as the hub from which they will build upon their already strong influence throughout the double glazing market.

This move includes a cutting edge aluminium factory that has brought with it 25,000 sq. ft. of extra production space, allowing aluminium capacity to increase by over 100%. This not only brings increased strength to Sternfenster’s position in the aluminium market, it has also become the source of 47 new jobs in the Lincoln area.

This expansion has also seen Sternfenster’s staff move into a set of brand new offices, offering a better working environment for all. This will result in Sternfenster’s current staff count of 162 to grow by over a third in the next three years, allowing Approved Installers to enjoy a stronger foundation on which to grow their businesses.

With a happier team and greater production space at their disposal, Sternfenster promises to provide better prices, improved lead times and a better service for all of their customers. This means that becoming an Approved Installer has just become a better way to increase your profit margin with reduced hassle.

The addition of Sternfenster’s new aluminium factory has also allowed them to offer a brand new range of high quality, long lasting colours for their aluminium range. Becoming an Approved Installer today will allow you to meet customer demands and improve your installation flexibility, meaning there is no reason to send business away.

Mike Parczuk, Managing Director of Sternfenster, stated “Business growth is always exciting, so seeing one as substantial as this has been a fantastic result for us. It’s exciting to know we can meet the increasing demands of our customers, giving us the confidence to embark on important innovations for the Network”.

The reason to become a Sternfenster Approved Installer just got bigger. Offer your customers the best in class by giving us a call on 01522 512 525 or by visiting www.sternfenster.com for more information.

REHAU will be at the 2017 FIT Show in Birmingham this May (Stand J30) to launch the company’s new ‘It’s all in Hand’ vision, showcasing what makes the leading PVC-U window manufacturer stand out from the crowd. Visitors to the stand will discover everything from a giant profile tunnel, to a virtual reality experience, enjoy exciting new on-trend colours and style information, and discover more on REHAU’s industry-leading commitment to sustainability and to providing helpful new information, tools and support for customers.

The It’s all in Hand concept is part of REHAU’s new approach for 2017, focusing on the needs of the windows market and how the company’s strengths can support its customers in the sector.

As part of its approach is a new face to the marketing team – Emily Tippins, Head of Marketing UK. As a newcomer to the industry Emily is looking forward to her first FIT Show and launching a strategic approach marrying together the product strategy of the business with the marketing plan.

Emily said: “This year will be my first at the FIT Show and while I’m looking forward to experiencing the whole event, we have a really exciting stand this year highlighting REHAU’s innovative approach to the industry.

“Visitors to our stand will be able to enjoy a virtual reality experience and a giant profile tunnel. These particular elements echo our intent as a business to stay at the forefront of development in the windows industry. And they should provide something new and different for everyone at the show.“

Another of the highlights will be a showcase of colour trends for 2017. At this year’s FIT Show REHAU will be showcasing all 25 of its colour range including the new 100% black option. The brand new Midnight Black foil will be on show for the first time joining the other 24 solid and woodgrain laminate finishes currently offered. The introduction of this new black follows a surge in demand for shades of grey and black foils to replicate the look of aluminium windows.

Visitors to the REHAU exhibition space will also find new products on stand as REHAU introduces its co-extruded TOTAL70 profiles, which tick the boxes for customers looking to demonstrate their environmental credentials. REHAU has a long history of sustainable manufacturing and has recently purchased a PVCR post-consumer recycling company in the Manchester area. This means that REHAU is now able to produce co-extruded products like the new additions in the TOTAL70 range, which further reduce waste and maximise resources.

A perfect companion to the TOTAL70 system, is the AGILA Door range, which was launched at the FIT Show 2016. The star of the range and taking pride of place at the stand will be the AGILA Sliding Door. This year REHAU will be showcasing how it is suitable for large single sashes as it has an impressive 4m wide by 2.4m high 2 pane door. REHAU have an ever growing network of fabricators currently manufacturing the door and with the introduction of a new consumer brochure it is expected the demand will continue to increase.

To show it is always on hand to support its customers, REHAU will also be providing information to FIT Show visitors on Energy Efficiency and 360 Performance online platforms. The energy efficiency website – www.rehauanswers.co.uk – enables customers to calculate the U value or WERs rating for any REHAU system, while the 360 Performance platform provides customisable marketing materials and downloadable literature, to make installers‘ lives a little easier.

Gareth Jones, Marketing and Technical Director at REHAU said: “There is a lot for visitors to discover about REHAU at this year’s FIT Show. We have new products on stand, advice on the latest colour and finish trends alongside information on how we support both our customers and the environment. We have put a lot of work into listening to the needs of the market and our customers, and we wanted our approach at the show to mirror the new approach of the business. We look forward to sharing the ‘It’s all in Hand’ vision with existing and new customers alike at FIT Show and throughout 2017.”

Visit REHAU on Stand J36 at FIT Show at the NEC from 23-25 May 2017.

Over 100 business leaders and VIPs recently attended the official opening of a new HQ for Purplex, the PR and digital agency for the glazing industry. The new building is part of a £1m investment by parent company the Ascot Group, founded by Managing Director Andrew Scott in 2004.

The HQ was officially opened by high profile MP John Penrose, who was Minister for Heritage and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture and Media.

John commented; “The thing that always impresses me about Andrew since I first met him 10 years ago is the level of energy and ambition. There can’t be many people who are leading an organisation that has grown as fast as Purplex. That gives an indication of the man’s determination and drive, and frankly we need more people like that.”

The official opening also attracted leaders from business, education and government. Justin Smith, Corporate Director of RBS Bank, said; “We’ve worked with Andrew and his team for a number of years and the new HQ will act as a springboard for future growth.”

Other guests included media advisor and ex ITV Director Peaches Golding OBE, as well as Andrew Charter, Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Grant Thornton. He said; “Purplex has been on our radar for some time, the clients they work with outperform the market.”

The new HQ gives the Group 10,000 ft2 office space across three sites in London and Bristol, with plans to expand the current team from 58 to 100 employees over the next year.

Purplex Managing Director Andrew Scott said; “We set out to create a world-class PR, marketing and digital agency and our new HQ reflects this commitment. Investment is a key part of our growth strategy; by having the best facilities, resources and people we can help our clients grow faster and more profitably.”

Purplex works closely with suppliers and installers in the fenestration and related sectors to create sustainable growth.

For more information call Purplex on 01934 808132 or visit www.purplexmarketing.com