During the AAMA Conference, a number of committees held their annual meetings to discuss all aspects of the fenestration industry, ranging from Energy Star compliance and codes, energy efficiency and product life cycle, lobbying and public communications efforts, as well as security glazing.
The 78th annual conference of the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) took place 15-18 February in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with a series of committee meetings covering all aspects of the fenestration industry.
The Residential Technical Steering Committee’s meeting addressed Energy Star compliance, among other issues. Maureen Knight, AAMA’s regulatory affairs and product stewardship manager, pointed out that early discussions of Version 7 of the Energy Star codes are already underway. (Version 6 was just implemented in January.) She said that she didn’t expect there to be significant changes to the regulations. The committee also discussed window industry position papers.
The Aluminum Materials Council (AMC) Marketing Committee worked on several issues, including a review of the Wikipedia page about the metal and a progress report on an energy white paper that would address energy efficiency and the product life cycle. The committee is seeking more feedback from industry stakeholders, who’ve indicated that dealing with code compliance for both thermal efficiency and impact safety remains a major issue.
The Glass Material Council Marketing Committee discussed the evolution of Glassdocs.com, a partnership between AAMA, the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) and the Glass Association of North America (GANA) that comes to an end this month. The group is also working on a Consumer’s Guide to Understanding Glass Standards that aims to translate highly technical terms into easy-to-understand language.
The Vinyl Institute updated attendees on the organization’s lobbying efforts in 2014 and its public communications efforts, including pushing back against environmental advocacy groups.
The Architectural Finite Element Thermal Modeling Group attempted to hash out language changes to a proposed AAMA standard which deals with substrates and condensation. Committee chair Steve Fronek of Apogee Enterprises said it’s been “an interesting process” getting the document fine-tuned.
The Security Hazard Mitigation for Fenestration Products Committee discussed the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Disaster Resilience Framework Document, which aims to develop standards for resilient infrastructure, says AAMA’s Knight. The group also discussed revisions to AAMA 512, “Voluntary Specifications for Tornado Hazard Mitigating Fenestration Products,” specifically the sections that deal with impact location, missile size, tornado versus hurricane language and test unit size.
The committee is also working to develop a white paper on security glazing for schools, and will seek feedback from the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS).