Testing

Testing is at the heart of our philosophy on what makes a good window and door.

Over the past 30 years our window and door design has changed from just producing something that looks good to producing something that looks good for a long time with minimal maintenance with the highest levels of performance. This change is a significant one for a joinery company, as it moves away from basic plan and sectional drawings, to the constant optimisation of designs based on computer simulation, mechanical and chemical interactions and how these change over time. As a result the complexity of the design process is at the point where it cannot be done through the ‘if it looks right, it is right’ principle and it cannot be done by just using computer modelling and simulation.

As a company we realised this very early and have been designing, testing and developing our products and processes for 30 years, looking at techniques from the UK and Europe to understand different approaches. As a result we are confident that we now have the best designs in the market, use the best materials available, partner with the best suppliers and manufacture products using the best combination of sophisticated machinery and high quality craftsmanship.

The following outlines the testing processes and standards that we are working to, providing detail about our approach to the test. For test results on our windows and doors, see the technical tab on the product pages.

Weather Tightness (BS 6375 Part 1)

Classification and guidance on the exposure categories related to test pressure levels for air permeability, watertightness and wind resistance for external windows and doors.

This test ensures that the window is air and watertight and resists wind gusting.

 

 

 

Thermal Performance (BS EN ISO 10077 and BFRC Certification)

All window performance is calculated in accordance with BS EN ISO 10077-1 to provide a U-value, based on glass manufacturers’ data and a window frame value calculated by Finite Element analysis in accordance with BS EN ISO 10077-2.

For the BFRC rating, the window U-value (level of thermal insulation) is combined with the solar gain of the glass (positive energy from the sun) and the air leakage (energy lost through cold air entering and warm air escaping) to provide a comparison using energy rating bandings (A-E). This currently applies to windows in domestic installations only.

Security (BS 7950)

This is the specification for enhanced security performance of windows for domestic applications. Although the standard does not apply to all design types of windows, some of our standard windows are manufactured with enhanced security as standard and others can be specified to meet the requirements of the enhanced security standard.

Operational and Strength BS 6375 Part 2

Specification for operation and strength characteristics. This test looks at the forces required to open a window and also repetitively tests the process of opening the window. This ensures that the window is easy to open and remains that way after repeated operation and time.

Acoustic Performance

There are a number of acoustic standards and we have a wide range of test data to the following; BS EN ISO 140-3:1995, BS 2750:Part 3 and BS EN ISO 717-1:1997.

With excellent performing windows and doors and access to nearly all glazing systems available, it is possible for us to achieve exceptional levels of acoustic insulation and using test results it is possible to interpolate the performance.