The latest version of Schueco’s ASS 77 PD.HI Sliding Door has new innovations

Britain’s leading building envelope specialist, Schueco UK, has announced the introduction of a new, updated version of its manually operated panoramic sliding door system, the Schueco ASS 77 PD.HI. Innovations include an integrated, full-height handle that improves the appearance of the door and makes it easier to open and close. The system is also equipped with an optimised locking concept that makes use of spring-loaded mushroom heads.

There are new designs, in particular a 90^o all-glass corner without a mullion, and new bi-parting four-pane versions with two sliding leaves and two fixed or four sliding leaves. In addition, the overall level of thermal insulation has been improved, with U_w values from 0.96 W/m²K with triple glazing now being delivered as standard. Installation of the Schueco ASS 77 PD.HI system is also significantly simpler thanks to a reduced outer-frame installation height of 58 mm and the ability to install the frame in buildings with minimal installation space at the side.

Newly introduced system-specific software assists designers in the calculation of asymmetrical units and modular solutions, while a new space-saving fabrication aid increases the bonding quality and reduces fabrication time of the glazing units in the workshop.  The glass panes can now be fitted to their frames in a vertical position rather the traditional horizontal method which uses up much more factory floor area during the 24-hour curing process. And to assist with installation, new adjustment devices are now available for the outer frame without removal of the glass panels.  This is a great benefit where there may be subsequent ceiling deflection.

The post The latest version of Schueco’s ASS 77 PD.HI Sliding Door has new innovations appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

Adrian Barraclough, Chairman of market leading window and door fabricator and VS specialist Quickslide, has given his unequivocal endorsement to Mighton’s Angel Ventlock®, one of the market’s preeminent window opening control devices designed to prevent children opening and falling from windows.

Adrian, a father of four including an 18-month-old boy, was in the process of reviewing his company’s hardware choices when he decided to go public with his support for the Mighton designed and manufactured product ‘as a father as well as a manufacturer of windows and doors to the trade’.

Originally designed for traditional sash windows, the Angel Ventlock® is a low-cost, easily fitted and highly effective device that prevents children from opening windows and thus avoiding the danger of falling; and yet it may be easily opened for egress by adults. Adrian says installing it is a ‘no brainer’ and that Quickslide will push its customers to ensure they offer it to their home owner buyers where young children obviously live in the property: “Of course I have always been aware of the dangers of children falling from heights but that has been heightened since I became a father again and have been reminded just how inquisitive and determined babies can be,” said Adrian. “The Angel Ventlock® really is the most effective product of its type in our opinion and we have no hesitation in offering the device. The cost of peace of mind where children are concerned is incalculable. Prayers might be the alternative,” he added.

The idea for the Angel Ventlock® came about following a customer query made at a Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) event in the United States, where Mighton was exhibiting. The customer in question had been looking at a regular Mighton Ventlock® product, one that had been available for the last 30 years, and queried whether it met standards set out by US building codes.

As a result of this enquiry, the team at Mighton ended up working on the ASTM (American Society for Testing & Materials) Sub-Committee to develop new standards of safety, work that ultimately resulted in the introduction of ASTM F2090-2008 and 2010, a specification that established the installation, safety, performance and labelling requirements for devices intended to address the risk of injury and death associated with accidental falls from windows by children aged 6 and younger. The US regulations, which are compulsory, exceed all similar UK and European standards.

Mighton has sold hundreds of thousands of Angel Ventlocks® to some of the largest window companies in the world, including market leaders in the United States. “We have continued to develop the Angel Ventlock since it went on sale in 2009, and now offer solutions for both sliding and casement windows,“ said Mighton’s Chairman Mike Derham and the driving force behind the device.

“Angel Ventlock is also a highly effective security device against forced entry,” added Mike, “approved as such by Secured by Design and the first device of its kind to offer such effective dual performance.” Mighton also offers customers a free drawing service to help meet security requirements of the Document Q of the Building Regulations when project specifications require a full suite of PAS 24: 2016 products.

Lorraine Balch of BSI visited the Veka stand on FiT Show Big Tuesday to present Veka’s Head of Product Management Steve Bakewell with certification for successful Invisifold testing to PAS 24 (Enhanced Security Requirements for Doorsets & Windows) and BS 6375 (Performance of Windows & Doors).

The company recently completed a test schedule for slide and fold doors fitted with the greenteQ Invisifold hardware system and VBH’s ‘PAS 24’ locking specification that includes the Yale Mantis door lock, greenteQ Alpha 2-Star security door handle and greenteQ Q-Star 1 star profile cylinder.

Testing was carried out at BSI on the Veka Matrix 70, WHS Halo System 10 and WHS Halo Rustique profile suites.

VBH Systems Sales Manager Rob Norman advises ‘Veka and WHS have really seen the benefit of the Invisifold slide and fold system and were fully committed to going to test with us. This certification is in addition to the recent work we have done together to get a wide range of VBH hardware tested and accredited to BSI requirements. The team at Veka and WHS really sees the importance of providing their customers with a range of Document Q compliant products.

‘To be able to receive the certification from BSI at the FiT Show is a real bonus for us all.’

Invisifold featured prominently on VBH’s own FiT Show stand with the company displaying a 4 pane PAS 24 door, and 3 pane casement and tilt & turn windows, which were both being shown in the UK for the first time. All three products were met with much interest.

Details of the greenteQ Invisifold system and a list of approved fabricators can be obtained by contacting VBH direct via sales@vbhgb.com or 01634 263300.

Tougher second-time replacement sells and the shift away from homeownership, are driving long-term change in the window and door industry according to one industry expert.

Speaking at last week’s FIT Show as part of its seminar programme, Robert Palmer of Palmer Market Research said first time window and door replacements had dropped from 80% in 2000 to less than 30% in 2015, with ‘replacement of replacement’ installations now accounting for 70% of all installations.

Arguing that this was driving increased focus on aesthetics, Palmer said: “Homeowners want something that is tangibly different and the appearance of windows is increasingly important in the market.

“That in turn is driving innovation in the industry and the shift to premium finishes and foils in retail markets.

“While there will always be a place for standard budget white PVC-U, there has been definite shift in consumer expectation.

“The industry has responded with foils and premium finishes as well as the very substantial growth that we’re seeing in demand for aluminium.”

To this end, Palmer forecast that aluminium is on course to reach a 17-year high by 2020, topping 220,000 frames by the end of the three-year period. This, he said, would be delivered by significant growth in the bi-fold market, which he forecast was set for growth of 30% through to 2020 in all material types to 55,000 door sets. Of these, Palmer predicted that aluminium would take the ‘lion’s share’ of the market at 35,000 units.

Palmer cited ‘exponential growth’ in the solid roof conservatory market as a second key area of opportunity. According to The Window, Door and Conservatory Markets in Housing in Great Britain, (October 2016) the market for replacement conservatory roofs was up 62% in 2015 to 11,200 installations and is forecast for continuing growth through to 2020.

Palmer also forecast continuing, if steady, growth in the composite door market, which he said would increase to around 850,000 door sets per annum in the next three years.

But while citing sizeable areas of growth, he tempered forecasts with predictions of continuing challenges. Alongside the shift to tougher second-time replacement sells, Palmer said that the long-term decline in homeownership was also driving a long-term change in the market.

This, according to figures, has dropped from a peak of 14.8million in 2005 to below 14.3million last year. Conversely the private rental sector was up from around 2million properties in 2005 to 4.5million.

“The private rental market tends to be again, that little bit tougher and price driven. There are however incentives – or perhaps more accurately disincentives, for not doing so – to improve the energy efficiency of their properties.

“MEES or Minimum Energy Efficiency standards give landlords just a year to bring the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of their properties to no lower than E for new tenants and to all existing tenancies from 1 April 2020,” said Palmer.

He concluded: “Brexit is clearly also an influence. What that influence will be right now is very difficult to predict as we know so very little about its potential shape.

“Regardless of this, however, the message is that the market, as always, never stands still and that product innovation but also end-user expectation, coupled with the impact of legislation, is reshaping how the industry does and will need to do business.”

www.palmermarketresearch.co.uk

The post Palmer forecasts long-term change in the window and door industry at FIT appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Image Above: Visitors to the Carl F Groupco stand at the FIT Show 2017.

High quality visits from decision makers, the launch of System 700 – Roto / PN’s new fully reversible hardware, freshly baked cookies and SmartSecure developments showcased on the stand combined to make this year’s FIT Show extremely successful for Carl F Groupco.

The show marked the first anniversary of SmartSecure since its launch at last year’s ‘FIT’. As part of the anniversary achievements, Carl F Groupco has achieved its goal of providing a smart hardware hub based on its electronic locking and smart access solutions.

Commenting, Carl F Groupco’s Managing Director, John Crittenden said:  “We are very much about personalised service and support. The FIT Show is therefore the ideal opportunity for us to meet up with our existing clients and showcase our range to potential customers. The exhibition also offers the chance for people to try our products and technology – this is particularly helpful for SmartSecure: once people have seen first-hand how simple and effective our smart solutions are, it is much easier to convey its capabilities.”

Carl F Groupco had expanded its stand to 96 sq metres to include a larger number of hands on displays, hospitality and a hardware selector. The company has also secured a place for the 2019 show.

For more information, contact sales@carlfgroupco.co.uk

www.carlfgroupco.co.uk         www.smartsecure.co.uk

Follow Carl F Groupco on Twitter using the handles @Carl_F_Groupco and @_SmartSecure

Timber window fabricators and joiners at FIT Show were drawn to the AluWood stand because of the low set-up costs and fast lead times the aluclad timber window and door system manufacturer provides. Visitors to the show had the choice to add the proven system to their range or buy in AluWood ready-made.

AluWood featured its sophisticated and cleverly engineered aluclad window and door system on its stand at FIT Show. It demonstrated to joiners and fabricators how easy the system is to manufacture using existing tooling and impressed visitors with its really fast lead times.

“The fact that our system is made in the UK and that we can turn around orders really quickly, caught the attention of people we spoke to,” says Callum Grant, Commercial Director, AluWood Windows.

“There were some really key things that visitors liked. For joiners being able to do AluWood windows and doors in dual colour at no extra cost, provides real value to their business.

“Because we make our window and door system in Britain, there’s no import costs and this was a big plus for visitors who wanted to find out more. We will be following up the valuable leads we picked up at the show to help fabricators and joiners to start selling aluclad timber windows and grab their share of the £77 million market.”

The AluWood system is easy to manufacture and offers plenty of design choice to fabricators looking to offer customers more project possibilities. The aluminium profile uses a simple clip-on system which fits easily to the timber frame. The aluminium on the outside can come in any RAL colour and the time frame on the inside can be made of hard or soft woods, and engineered timber including Accoya.

“We’re looking to grow our network of fabricators around the UK to manufacture our proven low-cost system,” adds Callum. “The reaction to the stand proves aluclad is very much a growing market.”

To find out more about AluWood, visit www.aluwoodwindows.co.uk.

After an ‘extraordinary’ three days at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, the 2017 FIT Show has been hailed as another ‘momentous event’ in the series that first took place just four years ago.

The event was described by its organisers as an ‘unequivocal success’, with exhibitors taking ‘healthy numbers’ of sales leads from visitors ‘keen to engage and explore the hundreds of new products on show’.

The organisers have revealed that 9,935 unique visitors attended this year’s FIT Show, a number that rises to 13,285 when their revisits were counted across the three days of the event (multiple daily entries are automatically de-duplicated). This is an increase of almost 17% (16.85%) more unique visitors compared to the previous FIT Show in 2016 (8502), offering a massive boost of 62% more visitors in just two events.

Daily numbers were: Tuesday – 4808; Wednesday 5136; and Thursday 3341, figures described as ‘typical of business-to-business events’, with the middle day showing the highest numbers.

According to the FIT Show’s organisers, this year saw the most significant presence of aluminium at any fenestration industry B2B event for more than three decades. The majority of PVC-U systems producers were also in attendance, as were many machinery suppliers.

The organisers report that many exhibitors were keen to stake their place at the next FIT Show, which was confirmed as taking place in two years time on 21, 22 and 23 May 2019. Almost half of the available stand space for the next event was contracted or reserved before the doors closed, with this figure expected to ‘grow significantly’ during the weeks following this years show as companies consider their performances and look ahead to 2019.

The sold and reserved advanced stand sales figure was all the more impressive with the further 25% increase in space that was announced for 2019. This represents a doubling of the FIT Show in just two events.

The FIT Show’s Matthew Glover says that once again so much of the success of this year’s FIT Show is down to the efforts of exhibitors: “As our marketing campaigns emphasise, the FIT Show is all about the people and companies that exhibit. Exhibitors have once again worked hard to promote the event and those efforts, combined with the biggest FIT Show campaign ever, succeeded in boosting visitor numbers once again.

“And when the show opened visitors were greeted with the most creative and beautiful stands; everyone involved with the building of this event commented how impressed they were with the efforts made by exhibitors.”

The post More visitors than ever at FIT appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

The first FIT Show to take place at the National Exhibition Centre will remain in the minds of many of its participants but few will remember the event with such fondness as David Keates & Jonathon Mountford of DK Windows after they were declared the overall winners of this year’s gruelling Master Fitter Challenge. The results were announced live just hours after the competition closed at the FIT Show Gala Dinner, by celebrity host Nick Knowles.

Six teams competed to install windows, residential and bi-folding doors and a lantern roof in just two days and before the critical eyes of hundreds of their peers and a tough team of assessors, again provided by GQA. And in the face of such pressures David and Jonathon prevailed in what was declared the most professional MFC competition yet to win a cheque for £5,000 and, more importantly, the top prize in this increasingly prestigious competition. The judges also thought the duo were the best at installing bi-folding doors and were also declared winners of that section of the competition.

The runners-up were David Shaw & Nathan Daw of Shaw Home Improvements who took home a prize of £3,000, also winning the Lantern Roof section of the event, with the final cash prize of £2,000 being scooped by Dale Harrison & Colin Stubbs of West Yorkshire Windows, who also won the Window Fitting section. Mark West & Mark Hardy of Sherborne Windows won the Residential Door fitting section.

Products installed by the teams were fitted to specially designed and built competition rigs that were designed to replicate real-life technical installation conditions, although the pressures of being observed by visitors are probably less than encountered from beady-eyed homeowners. Products for the competition were supplied by FIT Show exhibitors, including AluK (bi-folding doors); Epwin (windows); Apeer (residential composite doors); and Atlas (lantern roofs). In an interesting twist, Edgetech’s new installation tape Trufit was introduced as an additional test. Once again FENSA provided their support for the event, having maintained their involvement continuously for all four competitions.

Renolit has scooped the top accolade in The VEKA UK Group’s second annual Supplier of the Year awards.

The VEKA UK Group is committed to quality in every aspect of product and service, and the team are proud to celebrate suppliers that go above and beyond in providing the materials needed for VEKA and Halo’s industry-leading PVC-U profile systems.

Other category winners included; Chick Plastics for ‘Ancillaries’ and EWS (Manufacturing) Ltd for ‘Technical In-House Design’.

Renolit won best ‘Manufacturing Consumables’, as well as being named ‘Supplier of the Year’. The company provides the high spec foils that make up The VEKA UK Group’s enviable ‘Variations’ colour collection.

Renolit’s CEO Dave Hall commented: “We are honoured to have received The VEKA UK Group Supplier of the Year Award. We have a long-standing trading relationship with the Group of over 20 years. In this time, VEKA has grown and developed its business model significantly. This has naturally led to higher expectations in terms of service, quality and innovative products. VEKA’s collaborative and professional approach has allowed our business to develop, adapt and grow with them. For this reason in particular, we are proud to receive the award.”

Purchasing Manager for The VEKA UK Group Nicola Woods explained: “The VEKA UK Group is the UK’s No.1 for PVC-U profile, and there’s a whole lot of work that goes into maintaining our position as the country’s leading supplier.

“A good example of this commitment to quality is how stringently we select our suppliers. Each one must meet a host of requirements and undergo constant monitoring to ensure these standards don’t drop.

“At the end of every month, our key suppliers are provided with a ‘vendor rating report’ which outlines how we have judged their performance. They are graded on quantitative data such as number of non-conformances and ‘on time in full’ (OTIF) deliveries, but also on qualitative data such as customer service, flexibility and timely responses to queries.

“This means we can keep a close eye on the supply chain to make sure no problems arise, allowing us to continue providing the best possible customer experience. Suppliers must achieve or exceed a benchmark score each month – without fail – in order to remain on our approved suppliers list. This data also enables us to offer well-deserved praise where it’s due! These awards help us to acknowledge the hard work of our top suppliers.

“Along with the entire team at The VEKA UK Group, I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations to Renolit on being named our ‘Supplier of the Year’. This is certainly not easy to achieve and shows a great deal of commitment to exceptionally hard work and fantastic service on their part.”