Image courtesy Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA)
The Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) updated its 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 was last updated in 2016.
FGIA’s 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.
Glenn Ferris, fenestration standards specialist at FGIA, says, “Sash balances are hardware components used to counterbalance the mass of a sash in hung type vertical sliding windows. 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.”
