Fabrication debris, metal scrapers don't mix

By Matt Slovick, editor in chief, Glass Magazine

During a presentation at Glass Performance Days in Finland this past June, a newspaper story was shown that stated 75 percent of the glass units at the University of Saskatchewan Spinks addition had to be replaced at a cost of $200,000 because of scratches during post-construction cleanup. The presentation discussed the problem of scratches when metal scrapers hit fabrication debris on glass.

In a nutshell, the glass industry says not to clean glass with scrapers because they can scratch the glass that has hard-to-see fabrication debris; the window cleaners say the scraper is their tool of choice and the scratches are caused by the fabrication debris and not the scraper.

Window cleaners also say fabricators should be following manufacturing guidelines with respect to maintaining their tempering equipment, which would be a huge step in resolving this issue. However, following those guidelines does not eliminate fabricating debris because of the nature of the process, according to those in the glass industry.

I’ve talked to people in the glass industry and the window cleaning business and continue to conduct interviews. The full story will appear in a future issue of Glass Magazine. In the meantime, excerpts have been published in the past two e-glass weekly newsletters.

Higher-performance tinted and coated glasses have been developed during the past decade, leading to more demand for them. Thus, as the making of glass has evolved, the methods of cleaning the glass generally have not.

I understand both points of view, and I hear the frustration in their voices. The scratching is hurting both industries. Many customers are not satisfied. Glass needs to be replaced. Lawsuits are filed.

Simply stating “don’t use scrapers” or “improve the quality of the glass” isn’t solving the problem that continues to exist. I talked to one window cleaner who is using powders and paint-thinner type solutions to clean glass without a scraper. It takes his cleaners more time and is more expensive, but the scratching is not occurring. And that saves money in court costs and replacement costs.

I found a quote recently that seems to fit perfectly in this scenario: “You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.”

Testing tries to ensure that glass structures don't court disaster

Look at a glass-clad building, and it's hard not to think the worst: What if there's a major earthquake or some other disaster?

The same question has occurred to architects, developers and building inspectors - which is why the wall systems for towers are tested extensively before construction begins.

"There's always the anticipation something can go wrong," said Ben Zelazny, a project manager at Benson Industries. The company fabricates curtain wall systems, the panels attached to the structural bones of high-rises. Benson is installing the curtain wall at 555 Mission St., a 33-story tower now on the rise.

For 555 Mission, testing was done at Construction Consulting Laboratory in Ontario (San Bernardino County), one of the nation's handful of accredited testing centers. Benson shipped the pieces for a two-story, 40-foot-wide set of panels; it also sent workers to assemble the mock-up and attach it to a metal frame inside a pressurized chamber.

The inspections begin with a check for gaps in how the panels are sealed, flaws that would allow heat or cooled air to leak from the building. Then comes the first hard-core test: a "rain rack" - a metal scaffold that's like an enormous sprinkler - is rolled into place. It drenches the wall for 15 minutes, followed by an inspection for leaks.

Next, an airplane engine is placed behind the rain rack and turned on, blasting the panels to see if their design can withstand the maximum wind forces, based on environmental studies of its height and location, and not leak.

The most important test - at least from California's perspective - involves what is called "seismic racking."

The frame to which the wall section is attached begins to move - the horizontal beam in the middle of the frame shifting back and forth, in and out, up and down.

The first round simulates a moderate earthquake, followed by another shot of sprinklers and a close inspection. Everything should slide back into place as if nothing had happened.

When the test resumes, the racking picks up force. Gyrations push several inches in each direction: The force is supposed to simulate an earthquake that's 150 percent greater than the maximum that seismologists anticipate in a given location.

This time, the panels aren't expected to stay airtight.

The gauge of success is whether they stay in one piece.

"Nothing can fall off the building - that's the easiest way to describe it," Zelazny said. "Joints can come apart, you can see through the mullions, but everything should still be attached. ... A panel should fail the way you want it to fail."

And if glass does break, whether the culprit is an earthquake or a crane from an errant window-washing unit? Towers have heat-strengthened glass, so it won't shatter into sharp shards; either there's a spiderweb effect with the pieces holding in place, or it crumples in a manner similar to an automobile window.

From assembly to certification, the testing process can take two weeks - "and that's if the testing is pretty successful," Zelazny said.

Some homeowners leaving holiday lighting to professionals

Holiday lights are fun to watch, but stringing them along roofs and trees can be a chore.

Some company's like Shine Holiday Lighting will do the sometimes tedious job — for a fee.

"We typically do 2 or 3 a day. We are booked through the middle of December," owner Chris Fisher told WZZM-TV.

As his window washing business slowed after the summer, Fisher decided to find something to do during the colder months. Now, he strings lights at homes across West Michigan.

Fisher's crew is putting up lights on an Ada Township home, about eight miles east of Grand Rapids, where the owner wants half to be LED.

"Then, at the end of the season, we'll come back take all the lights down, store it until next Christmas and pull them out and hang them up again," he said.

A small stringing job costs a minimum of $350. The price is $6,000 to $8,000 for an executive house and $15,000 for very large jobs.

Move targets squeegee kids

Squeegee kids on busy street corners could be driven away by new provincial legislation introduced today.

The issue has been a growing concern at city hall, where the request for a Safe Streets Act was made more than two years ago.

The biggest population of squeegee kids in Halifax is at the Willow Tree, the five-pronged intersection that marries Quinpool and Bell roads with Robie and Cogswell streets.

But other pockets of panhandlers have been cropping up on Bayers Road and Connaught Avenue, the area councillor said Thursday.

"It’s intrusive for our motorists for them to be there," Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) said in an interview.

"But it’s gotten to the point where the boulevards are ruined, fights have broken out, and motorists are being screamed at and their windshields pounded on. It’s enough."

As a result, the councillor says she’s "thrilled" that the province is finally moving ahead on a request introduced by regional council in June 2005.

At the time, Halifax was eyeing provinces like British Columbia and Ontario where violators can be fined up to $115. If someone becomes a persistent threat, he or she could wind up in jail.

The councillor, who represents downtown Halifax, said street-side panhandling has really become an issue over the last few years.

And while Coun. Dawn Sloane isn’t privy to the government’s proposal, she says she’s looking forward to seeing something put in place.

"People are concerned because they are dashing out in front of cars, walking around in traffic and that is unsafe.

"We tell our children not to do it, yet we see adults doing it all the time."

Thursday’s speech from the throne said legislation will be introduced to "make our streets safer by dealing with crosswalk safety, soliciting on public roadways and street racing."

Transportation Minister Murray Scott said he has several amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act he plans to introduce this morning, but didn’t want to give any details Thursday.

"I’m concentrating my efforts now on less distractions for drivers, (and I) also want to talk about education of drivers and pedestrians," he said at Province House.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said the Tories are ignoring the reason why squeegee kids are there in the first place.

"We’ll be pushing the government to deal with the real issue and that’s the issue of poverty and how we as a province move forward and handle it," the Grit said. Halifax’s anti-poverty coalition has said for years that Safe Street Laws have devastating effects on homeless people and the poor.

A squeegee kid at the Willow Tree Thursday afternoon said he’ll probably keep panhandling at the busy intersection even if it becomes illegal.

"I already have about $30,000 in fines from standing in traffic anyway," said Michael, who didn’t want to give his last name.

Intersections are "pretty much" the only place he can make any money, he said.

"When you are panhandling on the street, people don’t want to stop but here they have to."

Opposition Leader Darrell Dexter said the focus on squeegee kids is a strange priority for the government to have.

"There’s probably a couple of dozen of them in the city at best," he said.

"I think some people think of them as a nuisance. I don’t necessarily (see) them as any kind of a threat."

He questioned how much money would have to be spent on enforcement.

"What are they going to do, jail them? Fine them? They are poor people who are often on the margins of society," the NDP leader said.

Nanotechnology Research

A coating of fibers too small for the eye to see makes water droplets on a glass sheet act like marbles on a tabletop.

Tilt the glass, and the droplets roll off.

Flip the glass over, where the nanofibers have been treated with chemicals that attract water, and water droplets flatten, turning a foggy glass clear again.

"The chemistry and morphology control the properties of the surface," said Arthur J. Epstein, director of Ohio State University's Center for Materials Research.

Cool? Definitely. Practical? Getting there.

With the right chemicals, these microscopic lawns made up of plastic fibers can make coatings that can repel dirt or oil, or uncoil and hold DNA outstretched for study.

Fibers can conduct electricity and light up plastics. Buried under the skin, they could work as an artificial muscle.

The list goes on.

The research is in the growing field of nanotechnology, a science that manipulates materials at the molecular level to make everything from sun blocks to stain-resistant clothing.

At Ohio State, researchers have built nanoscaffolding on which to grow human tissue, developed a process to squeeze DNA down to a size that might be usable for gene therapy, found that nanoparticles injected in animals might help detect cancer early and begun to develop new materials to gather solar energy.

Epstein's former postdoctoral student Nan-Rong Chiou came up with a process that grows plastic nanofibers -- about one-500th of the width of human hair -- in a uniform pattern.

"Nobody realized you could do that," said Ric Kaner, a professor of inorganic chemistry, materials science and engineering at UCLA and a director of the California NanoSystems Institute.

"People have been trying to figure this out for a number of years."

Under a powerful microscope, the nanofibers resemble a putting green. Chiou mixed weak concentrations of aniline, a component of dyes used in Oriental carpets, with an oxidant called ammonium persulfate.

He dipped a plastic film into the solution, and polyaniline fibers grew on the surface. Polyaniline is a chain that links simple aniline molecules into a complex molecule.

The chemical reaction was halted when the film was rinsed in water. That's when he got his uniform pattern.

"Anything you can do to get them aligned and get them to grow where you want to is a significant advance," said Sanjeev Manohar, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Manohar has used plastic nanofibers that grow randomly to build tiny transistors. He expects the OSU research to be useful in his work.

"If you have a bunch of wires going one way instead of (resembling) spaghetti, the electronic transport is more efficient."

Kaner said the process holds a lot of promise.

"It's certainly effective scientifically. Whether it makes things cheaper and more accessible, it's hard for scientists to know."

Epstein, Chiou and others at Ohio State are doing more research and have found that they can coat almost any kind of material.

Glass treated with the hydrophobic -- not capable of uniting with or absorbing water -- coating could one day become self-cleaning windows.

With L. James Lee, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor, the researchers have laid out patterns of hydrophilic and hydrophobic fibers that draw fluids through channels.

Epstein said if you put a light-emitting polymer on top of the nanofiber turf and connect the positive charge from a battery to the turf and the negative charge to the opposite end of the polymer, the device emits light using far less electricity than a traditional incandescent bulb or fluorescent tube.

Nanocoating also can be used to reduce static electricity. Epstein said that a walk across a carpet creates enough static electricity to shock us when we touch a doorknob. That can be reduced by coating a knob or even the soles of our shoes so that electrons are released into the atmosphere.

"You can change the properties so that you can conduct or insulate electricity under the skin, whichever is desired," said Chiou, who is now senior research and development manager for Nanomaterials Innovation Limited, a startup with Lee, with offices at OSU.

Chiou said he is particularly interested in medical uses, including artificial muscles.

When the researchers apply an electric charge to a film, one side can attract or repel ions from polymer fibers. The action changes the length of fibers. Shorten the fibers on one side, and the film curls like a closing fist. Lengthen them and the film extends, like a fist opening. The researchers must determine if the curling and opening action is strong enough to be useful.

The scientists have applied for a patent and expect to work with industry to further develop uses.

The research is funded by the National Science Foundation Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymeric Biomedical Devices.

Security guards, window cleaners launch contract campaign

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
11 November 2007
MINNEAPOLIS - Early this year the Justice for Janitors campaign helped thousands of Twin Cities workers attain family health coverage. Now security guards and window cleaners – who work in the same downtown buildings as the janitors – are mobilizing to improve their pay and benefits.

Under the theme "One Standard for All Building Service Workers," members of Service Employees International Union Local 26 officially launched their contract campaign Saturday at the Minneapolis Labor Center. They were joined by Local 26 janitors who conducted a highly visible and successful effort last winter.

"This movement is literally about organizing people out of poverty," Minneapolis City Council member Ralph Remington told the crowd.

Local 26 represents some 1,000 private security guards and window cleaners whose contracts expire Dec. 31. On Saturday, they approved contract goals that include higher wages, affordable health care, improved training and safety, job security and respect for diversity.

SEIU security guards
Members of the negotiating committee for security guards (above) and window cleaners represented by SEIU Local 26 cheer as the committees are announced.
SEIU window cleaners

A survey of the security guard members found that few could afford the family health insurance coverage offered by private security companies. Pay is so low, the union found, that one in 10 of the security guard members had been forced to file for bankruptcy.

John Graham, a security guard for the multinational Securitas, said the employee premium for the company's family health plan is $270 a week – adding up to more than half of what the average security guard earns in a year.

Retirement plans are small or non-existent, said Keith Pearl, window cleaner for another large corporation, Marsden. One cleaner who recently retired gets the grand sum of $150 a month, he said.

"All families in the Twin Cities deserve these things," said Harrison Bullard, a Viking security officer. "We must all stand together, security officers, janitors, window cleaners and all other working people in the Twin Cities and say that we need health care; we need fair wages; we need to be able to care for our families with dignity."

Like the Justice for Janitors campaign, which linked Twin Cities janitors with their counterparts across the country, the struggle for fair window cleaner and security guard contracts will also be a national effort, Local 26 President Javier Morillo said. Similar efforts are under way in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., he said.

"Our employers are national employers" and that means the union must coordinate across communities, he said. "Today's fight is not just about our contract. It's about organizing more workers . . . We know where we represent more workers, we are stronger at the table."

The Justice for Janitors campaign included several mass marches through the Minneapolis skyway system. The skyways will again be filled with the SEIU's signature purple for a march Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 11:30 a.m., starting at Minneapolis City Hall.

The union also plans a public forum Dec. 8 to put the spotlight on Hannon Security, a non-union company being investigated for possible racial and sexual discrimination. The Workers Interfaith Network will participate in the forum; no location has been set yet.

Neighbors unhappy with noise from business

By Jonathan Turner

ROCK ISLAND -- A neighborhood feud about a business in a residential zone erupted this week before the city council.

After more than four years of operating First Class Window Cleaning out of their home at 4314 28th Ave., Greg and Lisa Kerchner sought a special-use permit to continue operating under restrictions set by aldermen.

They have been operating 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and city staff recommended the business could gain a permit if hours started at 8 a.m. and/or employee vehicles parked off site.

In addition to the Kerchners, two employees work for the company - one of whom comes each morning to pick up a company truck. All the cleaning work is done off site, at 200 commercial clients and more than 300 residential clients around the Quad-Cities, including all local KFC, Hardee's and Taco Bell restaurants.

'We're open for whatever the council is happy with,' Mr. Kerchner said of the staff recommendation.

'The problem arises when you have employees coming into the neighborhood, picking up orders, leaving at all hours of the day and night, and disturbing the peace of the neighborhood,' said Dick Hollenback, who lives next door.

'Our rights have been violated in the last four years,' he said, noting there are many elderly residents on the block. Mr. Hollenback is 76 and still works as a Realtor.

'Did I not earn the right to live in a quiet, peaceful, residential neighborhood?' he asked. 'Apparently not.'

'It is very frustrating to be jolted from a deep sleep as early as 4 a.m., when his workers come to pick up the trucks, rev motors, slam truck doors and transfer equipment and/or supplies from one truck to another,' Mr. Hollenback wrote in a four-page complaint letter to the city.

'It is apparent Mr. Kerchner has no respect for his neighbors,' he wrote. 'I have listed our home for sale. We can no longer tolerate this man and his actions.'

Neighbor John Justice, who got into an argument with Mr. Kerchner one time after being awoken at 4 a.m., said the business is not in character with the neighborhood. There already is limited parking on the street and the business trucks reduce that further, Mr. Justice said.

Greg Klema, another neighbor, wrote that Mr. Kerchner 'is not, nor has he ever been a good neighbor. He has aggravated the Hollenbacks to the point of putting their retirement home up for sale. If Mr. Kerchner is allowed this permit, I too will probably be looking for new residence, and it will not be in Rock Island.'

'I just don't trust him,' Mr. Klema told the council, claiming Mr. Kerchner parks his trucks in front of neighbors' homes and on nearby yards. If he parked the vehicles somewhere else, the neighbors could get along with a home office, Mr. Klema said.

'I've been woke up a couple of mornings,' he said. 'He has a propensity for slamming doors all the time, moving the ladders.'

'We give heavy consideration to what the neighbors' concerns are, to prevent the kind of disturbances these neighbors raise,' Mayor Mark Schwiebert said of special-use permits in general. A 5 a.m. start time in a residential area 'could be pretty offensive,' he said.

Mr. Kerchner had rented another location to store the trucks, but said it was costing the business too much. He hasn't pursued other storage options since then.

'My wife takes care of the billing and office duties, and she has everything at home,' he said. 'To have a storefront would just be an unnecessary expense for my business. We don't need a storefront to draw business. We draw business by referrals. We don't advertise.'

Ald. Chuck Austin, 7th Ward, said the council should try to meet the concerns of neighbors and the business. If they can't park trucks off the street, it's incumbent on the business to find another place to store them and for employees to meet for work, he said.

'When we look at a special-use permit, we take into consideration the neighbors and the feelings of the neighbors,' said Ald. Joy Murphy, 6th Ward. 'It's very important you rally your neighbors in your defense.'

Mr. Kerchner expanded his driveway to allow more vehicles to park there, rather than on the street. One employee doesn't typically start until after 8 a.m., he said.

Starting everyone at 8 might hinder some of the restaurants they serve, Mrs. Kerchner said. They require the cleaning crew to be done before they open, which is usually at 10:30, she said.

'We could do it. It would just make it harder on us,' Mrs. Kerchner said. 'It is doable.'

Ald. Murphy also encouraged them to find a business location to store their trucks and proposed denial of the permit.

Ald. Austin asked that the denial be deferred for two weeks to allow the Kerchners time to find alternate arrangements. That motion was approved 4-3, so the issue will be brought back to council at its Nov. 19 meeting.

Halloween with Spider-Man and Venom in downtown Madison

Spider-Man and his arch-nemesis Venom were spotted swinging around downtown Madison yesterday, perched on the glassy sides of the new office building at Main and Pinckney streets on Capitol Square. For just one day, the pair set aside their differences and focused on the task at hand of washing windows. As would be expected on the eve of Halloween, they were a hit with the pedestrians passing by all day long.

Inside the superhero and supervillain costumes were Pat Roper and Jeff Henderson, respectively, who regularly work cleaning the buildings on Block 89 while balancing on the end of a rope. On October 30, though, they decided to have some fun in the spirit of Halloween.

"Everybody calls us Spider-Man on the job," says Henderson once he's back on the sidewalk, "so we just decided it would be a nice idea to dress up in these costumes." He notes that people shot photos of the pair all day long, not only from the sidewalks but from inside the bank building as well. A dozen photos of the pair scaling its glass face can be viewed in the gallery above.

The sight was Halloween as it should be, a flash of the unexpected that makes perfect sense once you stop and look at it. Set aside all of the hype over State Street, countless parties, trick-or-treating, and seasonal store displays only a day away from installing St. Nick, this was the holiday at its most basic, a simple transgression of the ordinary that cracks smiles and gets people talking.

"This is the first time we've done this," declares Henderson, "but it won't be the last."