Clearview National December 2014 - Issue 157 | Page 55

AL UMINIUM

Warm
Aluminium
»»Mark Schlotel, Head
of Marketing at Synseal, looks
at the latest targets for cutting
carbon emissions and explains
what Synseal is doing to help
make aluminium ‘warmer’ with a
brand new innovation...
“UK demand for bi-fold doors
is rising steadily, with Palmer
Market Research forecasting
that 35,500 installed units in
2012 will double by 2017 and
aluminium’s volume share of this
growing market will strengthen
to 35%. This is excellent news for
fabricators and installers alike,
but with amplified pressure to
reduce carbon emissions and
homeowners’ ever increasing
awareness of energy efficient
windows and doors, the
aluminium industry is left with
the challenge of coming up with
more thermally efficient solutions.
A challenge we feel we have met
with our new “warm aluminium”
folding sliding door product,
which features an innovative 3rd
generation thermal break.
“EU leaders reached a
landmark deal to cut greenhouse
gas emissions by 40% by 2030
compared with 1990 levels at
the recent Climate and Energy
Policy Framework review.
Environmentalists welcome
the deal but argue it doesn’t
go far enough, while member
countries that are still heavily
reliant on coal, fear it could
have a significant impact on
their business growth. Promises

have been made to financially
support the poorer countries to
help them achieve the goal. The
Deal also agreed to boost the use
of renewable energy to 27% in
the total energy mix and increase
energy efficiency to at least
27%.
“When it comes to energy
efficiency, UK homes have already
seen a great improvement. The
EST reports that the number of
F and G rated homes (the homes
which are extremely energy
inefficient) has fallen from 29 per
cent in 1996 to just six per cent
in 2012, with the average energy
performance across the entire
housing stock now achieving a
D.

‘When it comes to
energy efficiency,
UK homes have
already seen a great
improvement’
Old News or an
Opportunity
“Energy efficiency may feel like
old news in the window and door
industry because we have been
talking about it for a long time,
but these home energy efficiency
statistics and the renewed
legislative targets show that there
are still opportunities to be had.
“While our industry has spent a
lot of time and money on making
PVC-U windows, composite

Wishing you a merry
Christmas and a
prosperous New Year

doors and sealed units more
energy efficient, we seem to have
missed one of the biggest growth
sectors, that has the hardest
time achieving lower u-values –
aluminium. Synseal identified the
need for the popular aluminium
bi-fold door to be more energy
efficient so we tasked our highly
skilled technical research and
development minds to start with
a blank sheet of paper and come
up with a brand new “warm
aluminium” option.
Next generation
thermal break
“To date, aluminium-framed
fenestration products have used
Polyurethane resin or Polyamide
separators as thermal breaks,
but we have introduced a 3rd
generation barrier system. Using
a radically different thermal
break design that has never
been used in aluminium before,
WarmCore’s innovative “warm
aluminium” frame construction is
key to offering unrivalled thermal
performance with U-values as low