News

The OptiClose closure system for Intercept has passed testing for the ASTM E2190-10 Standard Specification for Insulating Glass Unit Performance and Evaluation. The tested units were dual pane insulating glass built with standard Intercept, filled with argon, closed with OptiClose and sealed with butyl.

Tests conducted were ASTM E2188-10 Seal Durability,  ATM E2189-10 Volatile Fog and ASTM E2649-09 Argon Gas Retention. The units passed all tests. See the full test report from Intertek/Architectural Testing: OptiClose ASTM test report.

“As OptiClose creates a better initial seal and its lower profile enables a more optimal sealant platform, these results are as we expected,” said Ryan McHugh, vice president of sales for Integrated Automation Systems who is also an engineer. “Nonetheless, we are pleased to be able to announce the findings and share them with those adopting or considering OptiClose.”

OptiClose provides a larger opening for […]

Announcing OptiClose for Intercept

You’ve been living with the gas fill opening on the left . Now, you can get the benefits of the Intercept gas-filling breakthrough in the right-hand photo: OptiClose.

OptiClose features:

• A fill hole 350 percent larger than the 4mm hole you’re using now—in the same spacer width!
• A punch kit engineered and built by GED.
• A nozzle designed to take advantage of the engineered opening.
• A custom designed insert/closing system that is quicker and tighter.
• With OptiClose, you can fill units with argon in 10 seconds or less. And the entire process is automatable.

See more photos and details.

The benefits of automated argon filling with OptiClose

1. Higher quality and capacity with lower labor cost.
2. Faster and more complete fill.
3. A better metal to metal seal that reduces gas loss

[…]

To really evaluate the insulating performance of your IG, you must be able to accurately and reliably measure it.

To avoid expensive rework, you need to detect gas filling errors as they happen, not tens, hundreds and certainly not thousands of units later.

To protect yourself from liability, it is extremely valuable to have quality documentation of your production filling process.

Likewise, if you want to promote your accurate and reliable thermal performance as a competitive advantage, you want to be able to verify your claims.

Low on gas

Yet even in these days of enhanced Energy Star scrutiny, too many windows and doors ship with IG containing less than the promised thermal performance. The existing technology to assist you in managing gas fill content has not made this job easy.

And here’s the kicker: Many fabricators still do not realize that there is an easy, in-line and inexpensive way to achieve this: our ThermalCHECK […]

Glass fabrication is getting more complex.

It’s not just size and shapes. There’s an explosion in the variety of coated glass. More glass inventory lowers efficiency and increases space needs.

In the typical facility today, you have no space to manage additional glass inventory. Dense storage of glass use to be nice to have. Now it’s essential.

But that’s not all. You also need to move glass efficiently from storage to loading. And increase yields. And improve safety. And reduce labor costs.

Your cutting department is feeling the pressure

Sales are growing industry-wide. Many of you are at capacity. Yet the average CNC glass cutter is operating only one-third of the time.

That’s right. In a typical cutting operation, two-thirds of the time your machine is idle, waiting for glass to be loaded or breakout to be completed!

You could install more lines, but that costs money and takes even more floor space. And your manual loading […]

We’ve heard from you. And we get it.

Auto calibration, non-depleting sensors, thermal verification, and data storage are highly attractive features that come with our top of the line super-fast argon-filling system FastGas.

Also compelling is the ability to immediately and precisely tune the thermal performance of your units for various Energy Star zones with our flagship OptiGas II system (which includes all the FastGas features and has proven valuable for differentiating product lines).

What we’ve heard from you

While in the right situations these machines can pay for themselves in months, we understand in others they might be more than you need. Whether it is your plant layout or unit volume or something else, it’s hard to justify the investment quite yet.

Many customers have told us that while they would very much like to have the auto calibration, accuracy, and reliability used in our higher end equipment, they’re comfortable with the production […]

To be Energy Star qualified in the northern zone by January 1 (just seven months away) you’ll need a U-factor of .27.

If you have units currently rating .275 to .285, your choices to achieve .27 include changing spacer systems, putting foam in your sash or switching low-e coatings.

These could work. But they could also require new equipment, add a production step and make your units too expensive. Alone, they might not be enough.

And none of them allow you to readily tune individual units.

What if there’s a simpler, flexible and more affordable way?

What if your order entry system could know to adjust the gas mix to reach .2749 (which gets rounded down to .27) without making any changes in your plant?

And what if each unit in your production sequence could actually get a different gas mix and thermal performance depending on the zone where it will be installed?

It’s not hypothetical—it can […]

Do you fabricate even modest numbers of Intercept units? Then most likely you have a sea of carts at the end of the Intercept line taking up floor space while you wait for them to cool in front of a fan before argon filling.

It would be nice, instead, if all those units were immediately and consistently cooled to the same temperature and were ready for gas filling. Yes, but we know it this is nearly impossible to do.

Or, at least, it has been.

That sea of idle carts is obviously inefficient

Labor is wasted constantly re-shuffling carts. Space is wasted. Time is wasted. Your glazing department needs these units that are still waiting to be cooled and filled.

It’s easy to inadvertently fill hot units. We’ve all seen collapsed IG in a house full of new windows! It’s not that this is done intentionally. It’s just a difficult task to manage.

Wouldn’t it be […]

What if you could, in each of the following areas, solve these glass fabrication issues this year?

Glass Cutting

• Increase the number of inventory SKU’s while decreasing your space?
• Increase your cutting capacity without adding additional CNC equipment?
• Increase your cutting yields by more than 5%?
• Pay for these improvements in less than a year?

Energy Star requirements

• Meet the upcoming 0.27 northern zone requirement with minimal cost and change.
• Optimize the cost and performance of your glass options

Sleep well with your quality tracking systems

• Make argon QC easy and reliable
• Insure and document that you are following ASTM standards for tempered

Revolutionize your Intercept line

• Cool your Intercept units in-line before anyone touches the IG
• Don’t stop there, automatically argon fill the units
• And then, why not close the hole and patch the unit before you even rack it….
• Even automate the racking!

In every case, you can this year. And not only that, but in most cases your payback is just months. How do […]

Cascade Windows has become one of the 60 largest window and door makers in North America and a major player in the Pacific Northwest by delivering performance, style and value with every product they sell.

This summer, Phil Mahaney, plant manager at Cascade’s Salt Lake City Plant, talked with us about the FastGas argon filling station they brought on line this spring. His testimonial is featured in an ad in Door and Window Manufacturer magazine.

Phil says:

“I’ve worked for window companies for two decades. Cascade is the first to invest in capability like this.

With changes in Energy Star and more focus on thermal performance, there is more demand for argon in our vinyl windows and patio doors throughout the Northwest. FastGas enables us to meet that demand and avoid bottlenecks in production.

Speed is good. But I tell everyone the biggest […]

Beginning July 1 all windows, doors and skylights for new construction, remodels and additions in California must have a U-Value of 0.32 or better.

Whether you’re facing thermal performance regulations like Title 24 or responding to competitive pressure or consumer demand, argon filling could be your solution. Combined with the proper low-e coatings, argon can achieve better than 0.32.

Which is something to think about, as some California cities and counties already require exceeding the state standard by 15 percent.

Why argon?

• Argon is less expensive than the alternatives.
• Argon works.
• Argon is proven.
• Argon is verifiable.
• Consumers understand the benefits.

And you can implement it quickly.

The smartest and fastest argon filling solution?

FastGas from OptiGas. With the integrated ThermalCHECK™ module, FastGas gives you a permanent computer record […]