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Mila’s test centre in Daventry has been awarded UKAS accreditation, allowing it to formally assess window and door hardware to both PAS24 2016 for security and BS EN1670 2007 for corrosion resistance.

According to Mila, this is the culmination of many months hard work by the specialist team behind the test centre, where the focus is exclusively on testing of windows and doors. It has reportedly centred around the fine calibration of equipment and the formalisation of procedures to meet the strict UKAS audit requirements.

In recent years, the test centre has been used primarily to test and validate Mila’s own products in development and to provide indicative testing for customers, before their windows and doors were submitted for formal testing elsewhere.

Now though, Mila says it is responding to requests from those same customers to provide a ‘one stop shop facility’, with both indicative and formal testing all available under one roof.

Danny Jones, testing engineer, said: “As well as our specialism in this sector, what sets us apart from other testing centres is the fact that we offer advice and guidance to customers at the indicative stage to make sure that their windows and doors are set up correctly in order to pass the various tests that follow. For security testing in particular, that might mean advising them on the combination of locking system and handle, or even which screws to use. We essentially make sure that customers don’t spend money on formal testing until we can be sure that their products will pass. That’s a huge advantage – not just in terms of money spent but also in time saved.”

Mila says the next stage in the development of its test centre is to achieve UKAS accreditation on its cycle and weather testing to BS6375.

The company then plans to announce a programme of incentives for customers so that they can make maximum use of what Mila believes is the only facility in the UK hardware sector offering this combination of indicative and formal testing together.

The post Mila facility awarded UKAS accreditation appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

ONS figures published recently show that construction output contracted 0.9% in the third quarter of 2017. This is a downward revision from the preliminary estimate of a 0.7% decline released in October and follows the 0.5% fall in output recorded in Q2.

Rebecca Larkin, senior economist at the Construction Products Association, commented: “At a headline level, today’s data shouts ‘construction recession’, marked by two consecutive quarters of falling output. However, output remains at relatively high levels – 1.1% higher than a year ago and 7.1% higher than 2015 Q3.

“There is also a clear variation in performance by sector, as highlighted in the CPA’s forecasts. Private housing output rose 1.8% to a record high during the quarter, with demand and confidence sustained by the Help to Buy equity loan. The £10 billion extra funding for the policy announced last month will maintain impetus in house building, with greater certainty over affordable rent-setting also supporting building by housing associations.

“Nevertheless, areas of weakness include private commercial, where new orders have fallen for three quarters and signal a lack of offices and retail projects to replace those now coming to an end. This is echoed in the public non-housing sector, which is suffering from lower volumes of work on schools and a dearth of new large hospitals projects.”

The post Construction output remains relatively high appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

As 2107 draws to a close, the Fenestration industry headed to London’s Park Lane Hilton to celebrate excellence at the G-17 industry awards. An audience of 800 industry professionals, gamely entertained by the energetic Russell Kane, gathered to witness the most anticipated awards ceremony of the year. The organisers paid tribute to the extremely high calibre of entries this year before announcing the category winners. They are:

COMPONENT SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR

Mila

CONSERVATORY INSTALLER OF THE YEAR

Thistle Windows & Conservatories

CUSTOMER CARE INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR

Glassolutions

FABRICATOR OF THE YEAR

Glazerite UK Group

GLASS COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Global Glass

INSTALLER OF THE YEAR

SEH BAC

NEW PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Heritage Flush Sash by Deceuninck

PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – RETAIL

SEH BAC

PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – TRADE

REAL Aluminium

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR

Epwin Windows Group

G17 UNSUNG HERO AWARD FINALISTS

Danny Barnett, Solidor

COMMERCIAL PROJECT OF THE YEAR

HSSP Architects & Oxted Window Systems: The Baily Building

Derek Bonnard Award

Thermoseal Group

FENSA INSTALLATION OF YEAR

Artisan Conservatories and Windows

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Greg O’Donaghue

The post Fenestration industry heads to London’s Park Lane to celebrate excellence at G17 Awards appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

Barrier Components popular SABCO frameless balustrade system has passed the rigorous 3kN test with flying colours, confirming it offers the quality and performance for ANY commercial or residential installation. What’s more, this system didn’t need any adaption to pass only requiring additional clamps, proving that this is a market leading design. SABCO can now therefore be specified with confidence for all installations from stadia, airports and railway stations to commercial, residential and domestic developments.

Barrier-SABCO is a balustrade hardware system boasting a hi-tech, sleek and minimal finish and offers the perfect cost effective solution for Frameless glass providing an installation that’s designed to be simple to install and achieve BS EN 6180:2011*.

The system offers some great unique features. It only requires 400mm fixing centres to achieve the 1.5kN performance which is reduced to 200mm for 3Kn. It allows for easy alignment of the glass during installation providing up to +/-15mm adjustment either way. Tightening is achieved using torx screws that can be tightened easily with a cordless screwdriver – speeding up the install time. The system includes removable covers (anodised to Marine grade 20 microns) to allow the installation of the channel without risk of damaging the finish. The natural or Satin stainless anodised covers are then simply fitted at the end of the operation.  The system can also be supplied in either a base mount or side mount and in two finishes – Natural Anodised or Stainless Steel effect Anodised.  Both finishes are 20 microns thick so perfect for coastal or clean room applications.

A popular addition introduced to complement the system is high quality RGBW LED lighting strip.  The strips can be used with either a 12v or 24v power supply and has an impressive 60 LED’s per metre.  The pure white LED’s are incorporated into the colour LED’s and not set alternatively along the string and the strip is Nano coated rather than silicone offering a slimmer alternative that doesn’t discolour.  It is IP68 rated for external use, comes with a 5 year warranty and can be purchased with a range of RF remote controls if required.

Developed by Sadev of France, it is stocked and distributed by Barrier Components Ltd based in Purfleet, Essex in the UK.  Barrier Components is an architectural hardware supplier that for the past 30 years has specialised in the supply of high quality hardware products.  For full specification and video footage of the system and how it works view Barrier Components e-commerce web site at www.barrier-components.co.uk.  The website enables users to order from a vast architectural hardware product range online, providing a one-stop-shop for high quality, great looking and effective architectural hardware products, all backed by adequate stock and an efficient service ethos.

For further information or assistance please contact the Barrier Components Technical Team on 03300 373 334 or sales@barrier-components.co.uk.

Following the news that the Nova Group joined National Glass Group (NGG) in September, the group has now announced a further two new members in the form of Crystal Units, based in the South East, and Ecoglass situated in East Anglia.

Collective member turnover for National Glass Group (NGG) is now reportedly in excess of £90 million – double that of 2016. According to NGG, this makes it the largest glass group in the UK, providing ‘unrivalled purchasing power, operational resilience and national reach’. Despite the scale of the group, all members are said to retain the agility and personal attention from being owner managed, independent businesses.

According to the NGG, it now represents the leading glass processors in the UK, including existing members Clayton Glass, Custom Glass and Northern Express Glass, Nova Group, Romag and Supaseal Glass and is the only organisation of its kind in the UK. Collectively, the members employ over 800 people across 12 sites, and with annual purchases exceeding £30million, it also claims to be the largest independent buyer of sheet glass in the UK.

The addition of Crystal Units and Ecoglass move the group significantly closer to its goal of representing 25% of flat glass purchases in the UK, achieved through organic growth of the members and through the introduction of new companies to the organisation.

Ryan Green, co-director of NGG, commented: “A key principle of the group is that we maintain the high quality and ethos as we grow, by ensuring the new members are independent, financially strong and excel through operational quality and service. The collective group now service the entire UK, operating in both commercial and domestic markets, along with niche products and markets.”

The post Two new members for NGG appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Windows Active talks to Synseal Group’s Andy Jones about how they continue to meet customer needs for PVC-U products

With the rise of aluminium products and a shift in advertising focus to value-added products like lantern roofs and entrance doors, PVC-U has taken a bit of a back seat in the glazing press recently – and yet it’s still the biggest seller for the majority of systems houses, including Synseal Group. PVC-U products are at the heart of our offer and we extruded more than 36 million metres of profile last year, making us one of Europe’s leading PVC-U systems houses. To put that into context, that’s enough PVC-U to cover the distance between our headquarters in Nottinghamshire to the other side of Australia and back again, with metreage for a quick trip to Jersey to spare. With more than 350 bar length customers and many more who buy our pre-fabricated Evolve range of PVC-U vertical sliders, patio doors and bi-folds, we need to constantly innovate to keep up with our customers’ growing need for colour variety, commercial solutions and product flexibility.

Offering customers a choice – One of our biggest assets at Synseal is having four distinct PVC-U systems: Shield, SynerJy, Legend and Sheerframe. Crucially, this not only gives our customers access to a choice of both ovolo and chamfered profiles, but also enables them to remain competitive regionally by opting for a system which their competitor down the road is not fabricating. We’ve remained loyal to the systems house-fabricator-installer supply chain model, so our customers don’t compete with their own supplier, and often retain exclusivity of one of our systems regionally. This helps them maintain a steady localised supply chain with their installers, many who choose to stay loyal to their one preferred system.

Commercial advantage – We also give customers the commercial advantage of a system like Sheerframe 8000 which has been the long-standing product of choice for specifiers looking for a thermally advanced, eight-chambered PVC-U system with integrated curtain walling solutions. Working with SE Controls and Vulcan Windows, we have recently tested and received accreditation for our very first chain actuator PVC-U smoke vent which will finally give fabricators aesthetic uniform, removing the need for an unseemly aluminium smoke vent.

Recycled PVC-U – Across our Shield, Legend and SynerJy multi-chambered profiles we have implemented our 30% recycled EnviroCore as standard and are in the process of phasing out older profiles which we believe no longer meet the needs of modern day installations in terms of thermal efficiency and performance. Recycled PVC-U products have conventionally caused problems with colour consistency and production capacity, so we developed EnviroCore to ensure neither of these factors becomes an issue for our customers.

EnviroCore is coloured in a solid, dark grey so there is no inconsistency during production. The recycled core is also completely hidden away within sash, frame and sill so there is no visible difference to the end consumer. Most importantly, incorporating EnviroCore into our profiles has no impact on product performance as all our recycled material comes from our production waste rather than inconsistent post-consumer waste streams traditionally used. Our customers get the same outstanding thermal efficiency, same look and finish across all our leading profiles while gaining from the dual benefits of reducing waste and minimising costs.

Wall of colour – It has now been a year since we implemented our ‘Wall of colour’ scheme, offering more than 80% of our foiled colours from stock. This has reduced lead times for our customers and given them a quicker, more reliable supply chain of popular foiled colours like golden oak, Chartwell green and anthracite grey to meet the growing demand for these among consumers. We will shortly also be concluding our ‘One White’ project which gives customers more flexibility through the consolidation of our various white shades into one single shade. This colour-match guarantee across our four PVC-U profiles gives customers the ability to mix and match ancillary products from different ranges in total confidence. It will also make us one of the few suppliers who can offer complete colour-matched conservatory solutions. As a multi-product supplier, we can’t rely solely on the consumer advantage we offer through a comprehensive product range – although this certainly is appealing to the majority of our customers who also purchase aluminium, composite door and conservatory roof products from us. As a long-standing systems house founded on PVC-U extrusion, we see it as our responsibility to lead the way in PVC-U innovation and continue to meet the needs of our core customer base, as well as providing them with the wider benefits of a complete package of fenestration products. Aluminium may be dominating the headlines, but there’s still a lot we can do in the industry to improve PVC-U product performance for our customers.

The post Looking after customers’ core PVC-U needs appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

Pilkington Spectrum, one of the industry’s most popular glass specifying tools, is now available to use on-the-go following the launch of a new smartphone app.

The app is available for download on iPhones, iPads and Android devices and allows users to find Pilkington products that most closely match their project requirements.

The calculator was previously only available through the Pilkington website, but has now been optimised for use on mobile devices to make the process of specifying glass quicker and easier.

Users of the app can search parameters including U-value, g-value, light transmittance and sound insulation to help find products that meet their needs.

The app can be used to specify glass for a variety of configurations, including single glazing, insulating glass units (double, triple and quadruple glazing), secondary glazing and double window configurations. Customers and specifiers can build up their own library of favourite configurations and, for CE Marking, access the Declaration of Performance.  For convenience, results can be emailed direct to the mailbox.

The database includes a comprehensive range of Pilkington products, provided by benefit-led categories such as solar control, thermal insulation and self-cleaning.

Phil Brown, European regulatory marketing manager at Pilkington, said: “We’ve received great feedback for Pilkington Spectrum over the past few months, but we wanted to make sure it is accessible to everyone, no matter where they are. We’re pleased that the new Spectrum app now offers customers an advanced, online technical service that can be accessed via mobile device.

“The app will make it quicker and easier for users to find and select the products they need, regardless of their level of glass product knowledge.”

The new Spectrum app for iPhones and iPads is available to download from the Apple iTunes store here: https://goo.gl/px2hVi

It can also be downloaded from the Google Play Store for Android devices here: https://goo.gl/Dc777i