Members of the Skylight Sloped Glazing Council reported on a variety of product-specific topics and document work, including design guidelines, preventing skylight falls, what NAFS could mean for skylights and more. Get updates on these items and more during the Fall Conference in Greenville, SC.

Task Group Narrows Focus on ASCE-7-16 Impact on Skylights

A new task group, ASCE 7-16 Impact on Skylights White Paper Task Group (chair: John Westerfield [CrystaLite) has been formed by the Skylight/Sloped Glazing Codes and Regulatory Affairs Committee (First Officer: Paul Simony [Skyco Skylights]) to determine the impact of the newly published ASCE 7-16, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures, on skylights and roof windows.

Preliminary reviews indicate that wind speeds may have been reduced but factors applied to the roof create more stringent requirements, in particular within four feet of the ridge or edge of a roof. Products that passed before may not continue to pass.

The task group’s goal is to publish a white paper outlining the implications of ASCE-7-16 for skylights.

Updating Fall Protection Measures Under Development at ASTM and OSHA

At ASTM, the first ballot of a fall protection standard reaped 92 percent approval, although recommended changes generated the need for a second ballot. The status of that ballot is at this writing unknown. The ASTM E06 group will meet at the ASTM meeting October 8-12 to review the second ballot comments, at which time the open issues should be resolved.

Meanwhile, a new OSHA fall protection standard is being issued. This may necessitate an update of the current AAMA Fall Protection web page to address the new OSHA standard, or the development of a new white paper or web page. The current version of the web page was successfully balloted to the Council and will be sent to the Marketing Steering Committee for final approval later this year.

Design Guideline Documents Consolidated

The Skylight/Sloped Glazing Document Coordination Task Group (Chair: Roger LeBrun [VELUX]) is looking to streamline and consolidate the suite of documents addressing skylight glazing design and ensure that all the documents are in agreement with one another. So far it has been determined is that:

• A new document (or documents) on design guidance for sloped glazing and components needs to be created.
• Plastic guides are published in the form of PGGS-16, Selection and Application Guide for Plastic Glazed Skylights and Sloped Glazing, but it needs to be reviewed for consistency.
• Changes to TIR A7-11, Sloped Glazing Guidelines, are on hold until reviewed and it is determined how much of its information is moved to other documents.
• Three documents, their content having been absorbed into other documents, will be retired: TIR A6-1981, SHDG-1-88, and DDGA-89, Daylighting Design Guidelines for Roofing Glazing in Atrium Spaces.

A key aspect of the review will be to make certain that the documents are in agreement with one another.

In a related development, a ballot of the updated Glass Design for Sloped Glazing (GDSG-1-1989), is to be balloted to the task group (chair: Paul Bush [PPG]) after the group addresses some issues in the draft such as whether or not to include the chart from ASTM 1300. If ASTM does not approve, the chart will be removed. It was also noted that the scope of the document needs to be clarified to indicate that it covers only those products intended for non-residential use. The group will be scheduling a conference call to continue work on the draft.

Also, the new Skylight Selection and Daylighting Design Guide successfully passed the task group ballot that closed June 28. The task group (chair: Randy Heather [WASCO]) will review results and move for product group ballot.

Finally, the Structural Design Guidelines for Aluminum Framed Skylights (SDGS-1-89) Task Group (chair: Bob Sampson [RCS Consulting]) released the funds collected from AAMA members and return them to the contributors. These funds were release because the consultant agreed to do the document revision free of charge. The group will be having a conference call with the consultant prior to the Fall conference.

NAFS Changes Have Little Impact on Skylights

The Skylight NAFS Task Group (chair: Roger LeBrun [VELUX]) notes that, while changes to vertical fenestration are significant in the controversial proposed new version of NAFS, skylights will be affected little if at all.

The task group reviewed the combined editing efforts underway by AAMA, WDMA and CSA, which so far have resulted in reducing the document from 226 pages to 100 pages, removing requirements for hardware, sealants, weatherstrip, and insulating glass units, eliminating 11 auxiliary test requirements, removing gateway minimum test sizes for R and LC products, increasing the water penetration test pressure cap to 15 psf, and eliminating requirements to indicate product type on the labels.

During the summer conference, the NAFS Committee voted to put the ballot of the new standard on hold for up to 120 days to give staff time to complete a voter’s guide for the ballot, and to identify the impact of the simplified NAFS on certification programs. Balloting will resume after members have had 30 days to review the requested material.

Updated Daylighting Web Page Pending Publication

In September, a draft of the language for the Daylighting Web Page was balloted to the AAMA Marketing Steering Committee. Comments have been received and will be reviewed during an early October conference call prior to the AAMA Fall Conference.

Pursuing Revitalized Smoke Vent Standards

As reported earlier this year, during the evaluation of proposed revisions to UL 793, Standard for Automatically Operated Roof Vents for Smoke and Heat (which included a proposed revision regarding plastic glazed smoke vents), the opportunity has surfaced to renew the development of favorable language in National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) 204, Standard for Smoke and Heat Venting. In further pursuit of this opportunity, the Smoke Vents Committee notes that Bob Sampson (RCS Consulting) has reached out to Craig Beyler (Jensen Hughes Risk Engineering and Consulting) for its past modeling research, has met with the NFPA Research Foundation staff, and attended an NFPA meeting in June in Boston. More information will be forthcoming.