Discover how Dow Quality Bond™ certification drives best practices in the glazing industry, empowering architects to specify with trust and assurance
Here Chris Fletcher, Geocel’s Dow Quality Bond™ auditor, highlights how the programme raises standards of best practice in the glazing industry and why architects can specify with confidence when they chose a Quality Bond certified fabricator for their next project.
Glazing plays a crucial role in modern building design, with glass facades shaping and dominating the skylines of our cities. Silicone sealing and bonding technologies have developed over the past 50+ years and now help to enable high performing building designs with enhanced design and aesthetics, increased durability and improved energy efficiency.
Modern silicones offer unrivalled durability, movement capacity, adhesion and strength, as well as performing well under challenging climatic and weather conditions. A structural silicone can be the primary connecting element that secures a glass façade, so maintaining high standards of quality and application amongst fabricators is of the utmost importance.
What is Dow Quality Bond?
Dow Quality Bond is a membership programme for fabricators of structural glazing, insulating glass and non-glass panels, that has become an industry benchmark of excellence. It is widely recognised by architects and specifiers who now rely on Quality Bond members to uphold the highest standards of quality, safety and application.
To ensure that they employ best practice and quality workmanship, Dow Quality Bond members receive training on quality management and control, and regularly receive audits of their production facilities. On passing these stringent requirements, fabricators receive a Quality Bond Certificate that is valid for 14 months. When those 14 months have expired, it is necessary to repeat the audit process to renew programme membership.
What is being audited?
The comprehensive audits carried out during production of structural glazing, insulating glass or panel bonding projects scrutinise everything from cleanliness of the production area and sealant application, to production, quality assurance and control. At every stage quality control documentation is required to demonstrate traceability and compliance.
The first stage of the audit – product selection and application – is often the most straightforward to verify. This is because a fabricator must submit samples of all project substrates to Dow for adhesion and compatibility testing prior to production – this must include all substrates and materials that will come into contact with the structural silicone sealant. The fabricator will then be given product recommendations for cleaning, priming and sealant selection. It is then the auditor’s job to check that these recommendations are being followed correctly.
The next step is to audit the fabricator’s quality control procedures. There are four tests a fabricator will carry out daily to ensure their mixing equipment is set up correctly, as incorrect ratios of base and catalyst of the silicone sealants can lead to structural issues. During the audits, fabricators need to demonstrate that tests are being carried out and recorded according to Dow’s recommendations. The procedures for these tests are also inspected.
Finally, all documentation created throughout the fabrication of a project is inspected. Delivering quality assurance to customers on every project is vital and a key component of this is to ensure an accurate record of testing and traceability is kept.
Auditing also delivers a continuous process of education and allows the auditor to share know-how, experience and expertise as well as offering the potential to further improve project quality.
Helping architects
Launched in Europe in 2007 for high-performance silicone applications, Quality Bond has gone from strength-to-strength and has a high level of fabricator and applicator membership around the world. The value of Quality Bond is widely recognised by architects and consultants who request and depend on Quality Bond members to uphold the highest standards of application for best performance. By specifying a Quality Bond member on your project, you gain the assurance and peace of mind that your sealant applicator has been trained and audited to meet the highest quality standards set by Dow.
With accelerating architectural creativity and fast-growing requirements in energy efficiency and transparency fuelling demand for advanced glazing and bonding solutions, Quality Bond supports the very best in performance, safety, and durability.
To learn more about Dow Quality Bond and access Dow’s certified sealant applicator member listing, please click here.
