Volume 8, Issue 5 - May 2007
Volume 8, Issue 5 - May 2007
Annual New Products Guide
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Just Arrived: The Newest Products for 2007 One thing is consistent in the door and window manufacturing industry: there are always new products coming available. Did you know that GED has a new machine that can produce more than 200 leaded lites per shift, or that Stürtz Machinery’s new compact sash line can produce up to 900 welded and cleaned sash per shift? Did you know that Fenzi North America launched its Thiover® sealant only six months ago, or that Truth Hardware has come out with an upgrade to its EntryGard® window operators? There are tons of new products available to door and window manufacturers that weren’t here even a year ago. To learn more about what is new for 2007, DWM’s New Products Guide is for you. HARDWARE Kolbe’s New Hardware Lifts, Slides and Folds Exemplifying the essence of modern living, lift and slide door panels can either nest behind one another or recess into a pocket opening to disappear completely from view. Folding door panels fold back against each other to create a clear opening. Both door styles are available in energy-efficient glass options, numerous panel configurations, a broad palette of finishes and interior wood species and other accessories. www.kolbe-kolbe.com Handy Hardware for Vinyl Hung Windows With Flex-Fit™ technology, the connection bars flex laterally with the latch and lock units to create a custom fit into many profile designs. Sash fabrication for the entire system is also very simple, requiring a basic one-step route operation for both the latch and lock. www.ashlandhardware.com Hoppe Locks it Up A simultaneous retraction function enables all of the locking point to be retracted by pushing down on the handle with one simple motion. An exterior handle lock-out feature enables the user to activate the multiple locking points from the exterior of the door by lifting up on the handle. The new hardware also incorporates many new performance improvements, including an anti-back drive feature that prevents locking points from disengaging with excessive pressure changes or forced entry attempts. www.us.hoppe.com A Smooth Move by Truth Also new from the company is new handle designs for the sliding patio door market. The handle sets have an attractive new contoured shape which the company says is long-overdue in the patio door hardware market. Designed to be easy to grasp and with locking options that include placing the key lock above the handle, these handles are receiving rave reviews. Available in solid brass, and in the company’s complete palette of decorative and painted finishes, these handle sets also come with optional escutcheon designs and sizes to complement larger doors. www.truth.com MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT Erdman’s New Machine Has an Arm Up The new machine enables one person to do the job more efficiently than two or more people not using the machine, according to the company. www.erdmanautomation.com Fast-Cutting Decorative Application System from GED The company says that the benefits of the Decorative Application System includes fast, automatic application to produce more than 200 leaded lites per shift depending on pattern design.The patent-pending method for two-sided lead panels utilize the same zero point to ensure accurate inside/out application. Precision controllers and components provide professional, consistent unit after unit application. Exclusive dual-purpose application head provides flexibility to apply 6-, 9- and 12-mm width lead tape. www.gedusa.com Space is No Problem with Stürtz’s New Machine The line’s automated four-head pass-through sash corner cleaner cleans all four corners of the sash simultaneously. www.sturtz.com Stiles Offers Solutions for Packaging and
Profile-Wrapping Stiles has also announced a quick-change profile wrapping system that allows for profile changes within minutes. Available exclusively from Stiles, Friz profile wrappers feature a modular design and a wide range of configurations to meet all manufacturing requirements. www.stilesmachinery.com An “Intelligent” Line of Machinery from Dotul Company officials say its cold presses are ideal for applying veneers to a substrate or any type of core material. www.dilco.net It’s a Wrap: Exterior Laminating Adds Color to the Industry Window manufacturers know that in this competitive market, it’s all about differentiation, and suppliers of any product type are clamoring to offer customers ways to differentiate themselves. Though on the market for a few years, one of these technologies is just beginning take shape—exterior laminating (often called wrapping) of window profiles. This process offers manufacturers the ability to offers colors on the exterior of a window. Companies already do this through processes such as painting or co-extruding (or capstocking) but exterior laminating is another option that offers a variety of benefits. DWM has spotlighted this technology that is being embraced by more and more companies as their customers become increasingly interested in color choices. In fact, as vinyl continues to rise, the interest in color variety rises with it. The Product and Process The double-layer film consists of heavy-duty polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and acrylic. The product can be bonded using film preheating and hot-melt adhesives (one of which is manufactured by Kleiberit) that are suitable to film and substrate. While interior profile laminating has been available for years, Alan Shuey, sales manager for Kleiberit, points out that exterior profile laminating is a new phenomenon. In fact, it is only used currently on approximately 2-4 percent of window products in the United States. However, this percentage is significantly higher in Europe—where 30-40 percent currently use the technology. Harris says this is due to the fact that Europe uses a PVC product that wouldn’t hold up as well in the United States due to more severe weather conditions. He adds that a technology wasn’t available in the United States until the introduction of FAST which is acrylic-, rather than PVC-based says Harris. “This gives it resilience to the elements.” The company also has conducted real weathering and accelerated weathering tests, which is why the company offers a 10-year warranty on this product. Though it is only used on small percentage of windows in the United States currently, “It’s starting to snowball,” Shuey says. Competitive Offerings “We realize laminating is just one way,” Shuey says. But he adds that manufacturers can’t get the look of woodgrain from painting that is possible through profile laminating. Harris says the color won’t fade, chalk or scratch easily as is the case with painting of profiles. The other option, co-extrusion, is expensive and an extremely slow process, he says. Working with a Contract Laminator Premier Profile Lamination in Youngstown, Ohio, is a contract laminator. Its owner, Robert Kingston points out that “lamination is an art.” He adds that there are tight parameters with this process. “If you don’t have the right temperatures you will have failures,” he says. “If you don’t know what you are doing you can create a lot of scrap and go out of business.” Luckily, American Renolit has faith in Premiere Profile. “Renolit came to me because they know the way I run my process. They know how we test/monitor on a day-to-day basis,” says Kingston. Kingston also talks about the advantages of laminating over other methods. To illustrate this point he tells the story of a brickmould product that he was given to laminate recently and admits that he was skeptical as it has lots of curvatures. “It came out beautiful,” he says. “The president of this company is now saying to me, ‘Why am I doing capstocking when I can do this?’” “With this process you don’t have to worry about tooling costs,” he says. “You don’t have expensive equipment sitting on a shelf that you don’t use, should demand ease or if the product doesn’t take off as you anticipated.” He does admit that even working with a contract laminator is a significant expense for manufacturers and says this will really take off as demand increases and as the consumer starts asking for this. “The larger manufacturers can handle the inventory on their floors,” he says. “The smaller ones can’t. The larger manufacturers will get on board initially, the smaller ones will stand back until it takes off.” He says there is one thing that will definitely cause sales to surge, should this item occur. “If a large manufacturer introduces this in a big-box store that’s what it will take. Three to four years ago this happened with the interior laminates.” He thinks this will happen in a few years. “It will take about two years after that for manufacturers to see the full effects of this,” he adds. Why? If someone sees it in a big-box store they will ask other manufacturers about this when shopping for windows, says Kingston. Extruders and Manufacturers are Adding This to Offerings One extruder that offers exterior laminating is Deceuninck North America. The company laminates their own profiles in house. Sales technology manager Lori LePera says the company has been offering Renolit’s Exterior FAST product for five years. She says that 20 percent of Deceunick’s customers use the exterior laminate. It started with one color, brown, and now they offer green, clay and earthtone as well. “We started offering the brown as an alternative to extruded brown,” says LePera. “There were problems with extruded dark colors due to UV fading.” She says that customers started purchasing the exterior laminate as an alternative to extruded brown because of its excellent UV resistance but then “fell in love with the durability and finish.” LePera also sees tremendous growth potential for this product. “The United States traditionally follows Europe where color is very popular, so we anticipate that there so there will be a big expansion of this product in the U.S. market. This is especially true since the market has flattened. This gives manufacturers another way to differentiate themselves,” she says. Although many extruders are offering this product to their manufacturer customers, manufacturers can also do this in-house as is the case at Heartland Windows in Aplington, Iowa. Larry Ricke, president, says the company has offered exterior laminating for two to three years. It offers three colors currently—bronze, cocoa and green. The company has offered a woodgrain on the interior for years. “We then tried exterior painting but didn’t like the process,” says Ricke. “We already offered interior wrapping [laminating] so adding this to the exterior was a natural extension.” Though currently dominating a small portion of the market, the growth possibilities are endless. “If it is used in 5-10 percent of vinyl windows in the next few years, that’s phenomenal,” says Harris. “And, it has even more potential than that … This is gathering momentum as many of the top vinyl manufacturers are exploring this option.” “Almost everyone offers this process in the interior. Give it a little time and you’ll be there with the exterior also,” says Kingston. “In a few years it will catch on fire.” www.kleiberit.com or www.americanrenolit.com SPACERS Edgetech Places Grids Accurately Currently, the IntelliClip system is available as an option on Lisec, For.El and Billco automated Super Spacer lines and as an upgrade to some existing Super Spacer automated lines. Additionally, Edgetech I.G. and Nupro Products Inc. in Selah, Wash., have partnered to develop the EZ RAD grid placement system, which reduces production time by assisting in the assembly, transportation and placement of grids on washed or unwashed glass. The EZ RAD system is made up of an upright easel/table and D-ring. www.edgetechig.com www.nuproproductsinc.com Nordson Keeps it Consistent GLASS ClimaGuard 55/27 Cuts Down on the Glare The product’s energy efficiency is accomplished through a reduction in solar heat gain and lowering glass temperature during the cooling season. Guardian says it also offers low U-factor and warmer glass surfaces. www.guardian.com Pilkington Launches New Architectural Product Guide A brief company history as well as tips for selecting the right glass introduces the guide. The bulk of the brochure comprises details of all products and beautiful project photos. Lastly, the booklet closes with performance data and technical information. www.pilkington.com ADHESIVES AND SEALANTS VHB Tape Provides a Bonding Experience Available in gray or black, with a paper or film liner, VHB™ window tape is precision slit to meet custom requirements. www.franklowe.com DOORS Simpson Looks to French Designs Simpson has also added a media room door to its collection of interior decorative doors. The new door style features a glass design depicting a classic movie camera and director’s chair sculpted on a dark gray frosted glass background- lending an artistic, enduring image to the contemporary trend of dedicated home media spaces. www.simpsondoor.com DOOR AND WINDOW COMPONENTS Invisible Balance’s Benefits Can be Seen A Smart Solution to Fire-Rated Louvers WINDOWS Pollard Windows Upgrades to Solarban® 60 Although it has the appearance of clear glass, Solarban 60’s microscopic metallic coatings also reduce the transmission of ultraviolet rays. www.pollardwindows.com Simonton Has the Right Retrofit
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