FGIA Releases Updated Specification for Sash Balances

The Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) has updated a specification establishing the requirements for materials, testing and performance for sash balances used in hung type windows conforming to AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440, North American Fenestration Standard (NAFS). AAMA 902-24, Specification for Sash Balances, an FGIA document, is now available for purchase in the FGIA online store. This document was last updated in 2016.

In this new edition, the Sash Balance Review Task Group added performance levels C and D to a table laying out cycle life requirements. The group also created a decision tree for product line testing guidance and added a nomenclature tree in Section 11.5 for the eventual Verified Components List (VCL) listing of sash balances.

“Sash balances are hardware components used to counterbalance the mass of a sash in hung type vertical sliding windows,” said FGIA Fenestration Standards Specialist Glenn Ferris. “The purpose of this document is to establish a universal method for characterization of the performance of sash balances as well as defining the method, or methods, by which these characteristics are to be tested.”

The multitude of factors that a fenestration product experiences in a real-world application makes prediction of lifespan extremely complex. This is also the case for window components such as sash balances used in hung windows. This test method is not intended to prescribe the useful life expectancy of balances in service as a result of the data obtained during the test. It will, however, provide hung window manufacturers a representative indication of the effects that cycling will have on the balance and provide minimum performance criteria to be used by hung window manufacturers when specifying balances used in their products.

AAMA 902-24, as well as other documents available from FGIA, may be purchased from the online store at the discounted member rate of $20 or the non-member price of $60. NAFS, which references AAMA 902, is also available for purchase.

For more information about FGIA and its activities, visit FGIAonline.org.