HOUSTON-Marvin Windows and Doors plans to build a 150,000-square-foot plant in Fargo, N.D., this year to assemble its new Integrity brand of composite windows, pultruded at Tecton Products in Fargo, according to a Tecton official. Construction of the plant should begin this spring, Tecton President John Jambois said in an interview Jan. 27 at the Builders' Show in Houston.
Marvin, which held private, off-site showings at the 1994 show, this year formally unveiled the Integrity with a large booth.
Integrity boasts wood on the side facing the interior of a home. On the exterior is a material Marvin is calling Ultrex - a profile of glass fibers pultruded through a polyester resin bath.
Tecton is a partnership between Marvin, based in Warroad, Minn., and Jambois-whose plastics background includes work at GE Plastics of Pittsfield, Mass., and Intek Weather Seal Products Inc. of Hastings, Neb.
Although the use of fiber-reinforced plastic components has been growing in residential windows and doors, they most often have been internal parts not openly touted by the manufacturer.
Integrity is billed as a composite window, with Ultrex as the key structural component.
Jambois said Tecton has developed a way to pultrude complex, thin-wall profiles with a high rate of productivity.
``It's competitively priced with standard clad wood windows,'' he said.
Integrity is available in casement, awning and picture windows, plus a variety of bows, bays and multiple windows.