NGA Releases Two New Resources Related to Decorative Glass

The National Glass Association (NGA) has published two new decorative Glass Technical Papers (GTPs): Guidelines on How to View Decorative Glazing Products in Interior and Exterior Applications and Guidelines for Measuring Color of Decorative Glazing Materials in the Field.

“Publishing new resources is a large undertaking by our volunteers that can take several years to develop,” says Urmilla Sowell, NGA advocacy and technical director. “Our members felt the issues covered in these GTPs stemmed from key questions that continued to arise in the decorative segment of our industry and they took great care in how they were addressed so they could provide the broadest benefit to our members and stakeholders.”

Guidelines on How to View Decorative Glazing Products offers inspection methods and acceptance criteria for factory and field evaluation. Viewing conditions for blemish detection, including for interior and exterior applications as well as for opaque and translucent products are addressed. Appearance criteria are outlined in a detailed table of allowable blemishes determined by viewing distance and viewing conditions. Finally, tiling tolerances and inspection viewing time based on panel size is explained.

“Our hope is that this document will help educate our industry about how to view decorative products,” says task group chair Bobby Chestnut, McGrory Glass. “Thanks to everyone who was involved in making this document happen and allowing me to be a part of it.”

Guidelines for Measuring Color of Decorative Glazing Materials in the Field was written based on the need to resolve color matching on a jobsite. Members of this task group developed a color survey procedure with recommended steps to measure and compare already-installed units with mock-up, stock or replacement units. This GTP addresses color measurement and the data produced from in-field collection to formatting color data.

Fabricating Committee decorative liaison Michael Saroka, Goldray Glass, says, “This document will be an important addition to the library of GTPs specifically about decorative glass. I’m excited not only about this one but other GTPs that also address color and quantify very complex topics.”