INDUSTRYNEWS
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Wall Street honour
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LINIAR’ S PARENT company, Quanex Building Products Corporation, celebrated its 50th anniversary of being listed on the NYSE on June 28. To mark the occasion, Bill Griffiths, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer was joined by Roger and other members of the Quanex leadership team on the infamous podium in Wall Street, New York City.
Bill had the privilege of ringing the bell at 4pm to signal the end of the day’ s trading before using the gavel to continue a longrunning tradition at one of the financial world’ s most renowned settings.
Quanex is a North American industry-leading supplier of cutting edge energy-efficient window and door systems and components, with $ 600 + million in sales listed on the NYSE. It acquired the Flamstead Group, which incorporates HL Plastics, the manufacturing company behind the Liniar brand, and Avantek Machinery, in June 2015.
“ It’ s not often that a lad from Derbyshire gets to help signal the end of trading on the New York Stock Exchange! We got to take a tour and it was fascinating to feel the buzz between the traders,” said Roger, CEO of the Flamstead Group.
The original signal was the gavel, which is still in use today, along with the bell, but during the late 1800s the NYSE decided to switch to a gong to signal the day’ s beginning and end. After relocating to its current premises in 1903, the gong was switched to the bell that is currently used. The daily tradition hasn’ t always been such a high profile event. In fact, it was only in 1995 that the NYSE began having special guests ring the bells on a regular basis. Before that it was usually the responsibility of the exchange’ s floor managers.
Roger joins an impressive list of people who have taken part in the bell ringing ceremony. Movie stars like Sylvester Stallone and Bradley Cooper, athletes such as Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees and Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, members of the rock band Kiss, and politicians such as Nelson Mandela and Hilary Clinton have all had the privilege.
There have also been several fictional characters that have rung the bell, including Mickey Mouse, the Pink Panther, Mr. Potato Head and Darth Vader!
You can watch the video of the ceremony at http:// bit. ly / RogerNYSE
We are now nearing the point at which exemptions to the amended Approved Document Q no longer apply, as any work which passed planning approval before 1st October last year, and was therefore exempt, must begin on site prior to 1 October 2016. If it doesn’ t, then it may be a case of back to the drawing board when it comes to planning, as you will need to ensure that all products comply.
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YOU MAY BE confident that your door has passed the much publicised PAS 24 cut through test, and the hardware complies with PAS 3621, 8621 or 10621, but what about the glazing?
You wouldn’ t lock your front door and then leave a large ground floor window open and, likewise, it is common sense for what is potentially the most vulnerable part of the door to be protected. We have all seen the videos demonstrating noncompliant doors, which show an intruder cutting through an unsecured slab in a minute and a half, so imagine the speed at which they could break through unsecured glass.
THE FACTS – A REMINDER:
The amended Document Q states that all doors and windows for use in new build projects must be“ manufactured to a design that has been shown by test to meet the security requirements of British Standards publication PAS 24:2012.”
Under PAS24:2012“ any glazing which, if broken, would allow someone to insert their hand and release the locking device on the inside of the door should be a minimum of class P1A in accordance with BS EN 356:2000. Double or tripleglazed units need to incorporate only one pane of class-P1A glass.”
To achieve a P1A classification, this glass needs to be at least 6.8mm laminated, not toughened.
Our Decorative Door Products( DDP) division has been offering 6.8mm as an option on laminates since August 2013, covering both our Signature imported units and those manufactured inhouse at our Hawick facility. We appreciate it might be tempting to source your door glass based on price alone, but as an integral part of the supply chain, it’ s important for suppliers to understand the changing legislation to ensure they are ahead of the game in providing the correct specification of units to customers. At DDP we pride ourselves on doing just that. Can every door glass provider say the same?
Guy Hubble, Joint Managing Director, RegaLead
Do you have something to say? Email becky @ cvgroup. co. uk
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