To Document L And Back

Mark Hickox, Thermoseal Group’s Sales Director has looked at the spacer bar market and predicted future trends.

Hickox writes, spacer bars have seen significant development and a change in market demand over recent years.  There has long-been a widespread decline in the demand for aluminium spacer bars and an increase in the demand for the more energy efficient, warm edge spacers. This is primarily because changes in legislation have required improved energy efficiency in windows.

The drive for ‘A’ rated windows and now ‘A+’, ‘A++’ and in some cases even ‘A+++’ rated windows has influenced the specification of warm edge spacers and any other window components which contribute towards increased energy efficiency.

In 2008, Thermoseal started developing two energy efficient spacer bars,  Thermobar warm edge spacer tube and Thermoflex flexible warm edge solution. Currently warm edge sales account for approximately 77% of our spacer bar sales.

 

Document L - and triple glazing

The demand for warm edge spacers and other more energy efficient insulated glass (IG) components is likely to be escalated by revisions to document L. The current consultation document suggests energy levels which may require the specification of triple glazing in new properties. Should this go ahead, it will mean a significantly higher volume of spacer bar and fittings within each IG unit.

The worldwide spacer bar market is currently in excess of a billion metres of spacer per year so spacer bar manufacturers will really need to raise their game to meet the new volumes.

To cope with this we recently purchased a new 2-acre production site in Wigan. The new site is currently undergoing extensive reconstruction to provide expansion for our warm edge spacer production and the development of our technical centre and EN1279 test facilities.

Triple glazing will have a major impact on sealed unit manufacturers and therefore the implications in terms of logistics, equipment, time and potential costs should already be up for discussion. At Thermoseal, we are already looking to the future.

Picture: Thermoseal's Mark Hickox.

 

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
24th February 2020

Share



Related Articles