The Role of Commercial Glass and Glazing, Today and Tomorrow

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The year is coming to a close rapidly, and it’s a time that I find valuable to reflect on where our industry stands today, and where we have to go in the future.

Anyone reading this will be closely familiar with the collective challenges we’ve faced around supply chains, labor and more over the past few years. Despite these issues, we’ve largely been able to make the best of it — and I’m confident we’ll be able to successfully navigate any choppy waters that may be ahead of us.

According to the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), an economic indicator for nonresidential construction activity published each month by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), October marked the first decline in billings since January 2021. This tells us two things: That 2022 has largely been a good year for the architectural industry, and that we’ll need to remain watchful headed into 2023.

“Economic headwinds have been mounting and finally led to weakening demand for new projects,” the AIA writes. “While one month of weak business conditions is not enough to indicate an emerging trend, it is worth keeping a close eye on firm billings in the coming months.”

Commercial glass and glazing professionals should do just that. But no matter the economic conditions we’re faced with — ideal or not — it’s worth remembering the critical role we play in the modern world. The glass and glazing technologies we help bring to bear are an integral part of modern architectural marvels around the world. But we’re also a critical part of more modest commercial buildings that people around the world depend on. Grocery stores. Schools. Banks. Office buildings. And so many more.

As we look toward 2023 my message is this: Stay focused on the fundamentals. The modern world depends on our ability to deliver uncompromising quality and reliability in critical applications, whether the construction market is booming or otherwise.

I’ve detailed a few of those fundamentals in a couple of my favorite posts for this blog over the past year. They include:

Quality. There are a number of ways we can ensure the quality of completed glass products. Whether it’s following established best practices for commercial glass fabrication or going the extra mile via testing to ensure long-term performance, continuing to explore how we can make quality improvements is an essential part of our industry’s future.

Read: Three Tips to Ensure High-Quality Commercial Insulating Glass

Read: The Increasing Importance of Mock-up Testing

Efficiency. Buildings are responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption and about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, modern construction can and must be more efficient than ever before. We have the potential to make meaningful contributions with innovative new glass technologies. Seizing that potential will require incorporating those technologies into our finished products.

Read: Today’s Decisions Impact Long-Term Success

Read: Meeting New Demands without Compromise

Let’s remember the essential role we play and commit to always delivering quality, innovative work for commercial applications everywhere.

Joe Erb is national account manager for Quanex.

Today’s Decisions Impact Long-Term Success

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Allow me to borrow an example from the residential window market for a moment. Talk in the industry has revolved around the critically stringent new ENERGY STAR 7.0 criteria, set to take effect at some point in 2023. Window systems meeting the current criteria will in most cases need to make significant design alterations to achieve the thermal efficiency performance required to maintain the ENERGY STAR label.

The question for window manufacturers is this: How to go about making these changes? There are options, and some of them are more complicated than others. To date, residential manufacturers have typically relied on their insulating glass units to meet previous ENERGY STAR criteria; low-E coatings and high-performance spacer systems have gotten the job done.

But the new ENERGY STAR 7.0 numbers — requiring a < 0.22 u factor and > 0.17 solar heat gain coefficient in the Northern Zone, which covers much of North America — will trigger more dramatic changes. My colleague John Ryba has written extensively about the options manufacturers have at this magazine’s sister publication for the past year. Triple-paned IG could be a necessity if manufacturers don’t want to alter their window systems completely. Elsewhere, switching to energy-efficient vinyl systems can help manufacturers meet the new figures with greater confidence.

The latter process involves a greater upfront investment. Changing your vinyl systems is a big shift — but one that might be worthwhile over the long term for residential manufacturers who want to remain at the forefront of energy efficiency trends in the industry.

What does this have to do with the commercial glass industry? First, it’s important to remember that energy efficiency standards, barring some major regulatory shakeups, never go backward. ENERGY STAR is just one example. Government bodies around the world, from the local level to the national stage, are more concerned than ever with fostering greater sustainability in all areas of society. We’ve seen the effects in North America as new building codes in major municipalities are implemented, demanding higher and higher levels of performance from all types of buildings. That, of course, includes glass and glazing codes.

It means that the case is strong for commercial fabricators (both window and door and glass) to invest in innovative and forward-thinking technology today — before it simply becomes the cost of doing business. For example, high-performance vinyl systems have proven themselves to be viable in commercial window and wall applications, while delivering an outstanding thermal performance that metallic options can’t match without major modifications. Warm-edge spacer systems have likewise delivered outstanding efficiency gains in major commercial applications, including architectural glazing. The right products can also provide nice efficiency improvements in manufacturing.

Technologies like these represent not only a way for commercial fabricators to prepare themselves for a future where more stringent efficiency standards come into effect; they’re also a means to create separation from the competition. As we round out 2022, it’s worth keeping these things in mind while making plans for 2023 and beyond. It’s incumbent upon the commercial glass and glazing industry to remain innovative as codes and regulations change. Investing in high-performance technology is one path to get there.

Joe Erb is the national account manager for Quanex

Three Tips to Ensure High-Quality Commercial Insulating Glass

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October is national manufacturing month — an opportunity for manufacturers everywhere to celebrate the important things we make, do and deliver for applications around the world. It’s also an occasion to help shepherd new young professionals into the field, where there are plenty of rewarding, lucrative careers to be made.

When I think about manufacturing in the commercial fenestration industry, I tend to focus on the craft of it. Making high-performance insulating glass (IG) that must stand up to the rigorous demands of forward-thinking architecture is no easy task. It requires precise attention to every part of the process, and everyone involved in production on your shop floor should be familiar with the proper best practices. Their ability to understand both how and why certain elements of production can lead to unit failure is important.

With all of this in mind, I thought it was worth casting some attention to what our teams at Quanex frequently see as pain points in the fabrication process for commercial IG of all edge seal construction types. And while all parts of IG manufacturing are important, uncompromising quality on the following three points can best help you prevent unit failure:

Ensure a Good Primary Seal
A good primary seal, which acts as your unit’s main moisture/gas barrier, starts with a good sealant profile. Make sure your primary sealant is properly placed and not over- or underfilled. Avoid skips or voids in the primary sealant.

After you have a good seal profile, it’s essential to close the start/stop points or joints. If these are not joined/sealed properly, you’re creating a potential path for moisture/gas — and potential for desiccant to get into the air space. After you’ve pressed the unit, verify that the primary sealant is fully pressed out and wetted to the glass and spacer. Fully wetted PIB should be a solid, flat black. Checking these criteria on the first few units out of your press should indicate whether you need to make any adjustments to your processes.

Properly Applying Your Secondary Seal
Your secondary seal ensures the structural integrity of the unit, helping it to withstand the inherent temperature fluctuations and dynamic pressure changes of demanding commercial applications. First, the spacer should be consistently inset to allow for a proper secondary sealant depth. Work with your sealant supplier to identify proper sealant depth recommendations to meet structural performance standards. And remember that thicker glass, larger units or units intended for highly demanding applications may require more sealant depth.

Next, be sure that your inset is properly filled — structural effectiveness is at stake. Avoid slumping or dishing in the center. Sealants can sometimes flow up the sides of the glass, making the inset appear fully filled when the center might in fact be too shallow. Once the proper depth is achieved, check for and close any joints or gaps, and fix any bulges that extend past the glass edges.

Finally, good racking can help protect your units while the sealant cures. Your racks should be clean and free of dust, debris and old sealant material that can become embedded in a freshly applied secondary sealant, compromising performance. Support strips should be firm and wide to fully support the weight of your unit without compressing. If your unit sinks into the support, the strip can displace the secondary sealant. Poor racking can cause an otherwise good unit to fail earlier than expected.

Protect the Desiccant
Desiccant prevents moisture accumulation within the unit’s interior. Even a perfectly sealed IG unit can begin to show condensation in the air space shortly after it’s been assembled if the desiccant has been compromised.

Whether your desiccant is a separate, powdered component or is incorporated into the spacer material, its job is to adsorb moisture from its surrounding environment. Molecular sieve is the most common desiccant used in IG, which has a very strong affinity for moisture even at very low humidity. A desiccant-filled spacer left out and exposed long enough, to even a modest 20% relative humidity, can potentially adsorb up to 80% of its total moisture capacity before it even makes it into your IG unit.

What to do? Protect the desiccant from exposure to fresh air as much as possible at all stages of production. Storing it properly when not in use limits its potential to waste desiccating capacity before it’s applied, helping it to deliver proper performance once sealed into the unit.

These are some things to keep in mind throughout your manufacturing processes. Keeping a keen focus on the craft of IG fabrication can help ensure high-quality units that will last. Happy manufacturing month!

Joe Erb is national account manager for Quanex.