Ply Gem brings colors, quiet to windows

Orlando, Fla. — Demand is growing for two-tone vinyl windows offering white interiors along with striking exterior colors — neutral on the inside, popping on the outside — and Ply Gem says it is ready with new co-extruded dark colors.

The Cary, N.C.-based building products manufacturer has expanded the Ply Gem 1500 series to include dark bronze in addition to beige and clay and soon it will introduce black. The lighter shades are PVC-based while the dark bronze is acrylic-based, as will be the black.

“We wrestled through different formulations with our vendor partners to get a black product that was able to get us out in the marketplace and perform at the heat levels you'd expect,” Mark Montgomery, vice president of marketing for U.S. windows, said at the International Builders' Show.

He described the solution as part “reflective technology that we build into the compound” and part manufacturing advancement.

“We're not painting. We're not foiling. We're coextruding the capstock directly onto the profile,” Montgomery said, explaining that another extruder feeds in at the hot die.

Ply Gem is one of the first companies out with two-tone coextruded products, Montgomery also said, adding that much of the competition offers costlier painted black and brown exteriors.

“I think it's work down the line,” the marketing vice president said. “We believe coextruding right in the manufacturing process will give you a more durable, longer-lasting, more fade-resistant product.”

Montgomery said he sees “big demand” for the vinyl window line's price and design possibilities.

“We've seen a transition over time, like in Dallas, where the market has gone from 60 to 70 percent white windows to now 85 percent beige and clay windows,” he said. “We've seen a dramatic shift. Folks are using more stone, brick and stucco and they want those earth tones to match it up.”

Demand for black exterior windows is expected to come from designers and developers turning industrial warehouses into high-end lofts.

“They're pulling out those old black steel hung windows and when they look at new steel windows its very pricey,” Montgomery said.

The black windows will be manufactured in Rocky Mount, Va., but aren't in production yet.

Ply Gem also is out with noise pollution controls for three vinyl lines, including the 1500 series, the 1100 Builder series and West Pro 200/700 series, in the form of variant glass thicknesses and a patent-pending asymmetric laminated glass.

The company says the technology significantly reduces outdoor noises like traffic, leaf, blowers, music, barking dogs and car alarms. A typical single-hung window without sound-control glass has an average sound transmission class (STC) rating of 27 while Ply Gem's new packages have ratings up to STC 35, reducing sound by up to 40 percent compared to windows with no protection.

“A couple years ago we went triple glaze — three pieces of glass with laminated glass — to get to an STC 33,” Montgomery said. “Now with our asymmetric configuration we can get an STC 35 in a dual-glaze configuration. So we took out weight, took out cost and improved performance.”

Window sound control is becoming more code-driven in places where builders are developing metropolitan in-fill lots.

“You're dealing with trains, planes and automobiles and noise control becomes an issue,” Montgomery explained.

After a 5-year hiatus, Bayport, Minn.-based Anderson Corp., which says it is the largest window and door manufacturer in North America, returned to IBS.

The privately held company won a Best of IBS Award for its new multi-glide door, which comes in all-aluminum or aluminum-clad-wood options, and it showed off additions from recent years to other product lines. The vinyl brands are SilverLine and American Craftsman. Anderson uses vinyl as a protective cladding for its wood core products.

The week following IBS, Gratz, Pa.-based MI Windows and Doors announced that it will offer an archtop configuration for its 1620 vinyl line of single-hung windows for home construction and renovations.

The series has good performance attributes and comes with an impact-resistance option, according to Tony Matter, MI's marketing director.

“The 1620 makes a compelling statement no matter the application,” Matter said in a press release. “Energy efficiency, safety and style are integral to the design.”

Founded in 1947 with four manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona, MI Windows and Doors says it is one of the nation's largest suppliers of vinyl and aluminum windows and sliding glass doors.