Big News From The Glass Committee

I just received this update from Paul West about three events that will be taking place that will have a direct effect on all window cleaners.  As you might know the IWCA has been directly involved now with NGA/GANA regarding scientific studies.  This lab work has turned out some really fascinating discoveries.  Headway is being made and I think you will find the following as hard evidence of that fact.  Read on.

1) Annual NGA/GANA Conference - January 22-24, 2019. The IWCA has been invited to do a presentation on 01/24 to all the Glass Fabricators at their annual convention. The seminar will be dedicated to the history of IWCA/GANA relations and present future cooperation. The one hour presentation will discuss joint bulletins, industry relations and research - along with paving the way for future cooperative efforts. Dr Paul Duffer will present and both Jeff Klass and President Butch Chapman will attend. 

Here is link:

http://www.glasswebsite.com/annual-conference.html

2) Glass Expo Northeast - Thursday March 28, 2019. Dr Paul Duffer is scheduled to present the “Unique Vulnerabilities of Glass at Construction Sites” seminar for official AIA Continuing Education credit.

3) International Congress on Glass - Boston, MA in June 2019. Professor Seong Kim, lead researcher at PennState, has been invited to do a presentation. It will be called “Glass for Buildings and Transportation.” He has asked to include the results of IWCA funded research and how it impacts glass in buildings, window cleaners, architects, and general contractors.

These three events represent major exposure for the window cleaning industry and the IWCA to thousands of parties interested in glass including but not limited to: glass fabricators, glaziers, tempering companies, equipment companies, architects, designers, and general contractors. A huge step forward in getting our message out to a massive amount of people. Very exciting!

Paul West

Kohala Window Cleaning LLC

808.885.7600 (O)

808.443.3833 (M)

www.KohalaWindowCleaning.com

Information presented by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

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THERE WILL BE NO THIEVES !!!

For four years now I have been working on this blog (aprox 132 posts), written articles in the AWC, WCM, and the EClean, and met and conferred with many amazing people who own and work in the window cleaning industry.  My research goes back to the time when I began cleaning windows which was the spring of 1981 according to the best of my memory.  It was the very late 80s and early 90s when I discovered Rich Fabry and the AWC and started writing for it.  Some years after that I gave a couple of seminars for the brand new IWCA.  Met all of our industry icons of that time.  Had the opportunity to get to know and work with the Unger family.  Also I had the opportunity of getting to know other industry leaders through consulting work on some very famous buildings.  It has been a long time for some.  But it seems like a short time to me.

Here are some pictures that were taken from one of my many visits a long time ago.  It was one of my most enjoyable journeys.  I met many very interesting and amazing people.

At that time I didn't even have a cell phone.  Just a pager.  A few years later I got a flip phone.  There is absolutely no comparison between old tech and current tech.

Nonetheless I digress.  Let me say that it has been a very interesting journey.  Through my writings over the last four years I know that many people have been "mining" for information that they can use to develop products.  And some have been developed.  Twenty five years ago I put one manufacturer onto a certain chemistry that was being used to seal glass.  Which was ultimately abandoned.  But that chemistry was adopted by one of our industry icons who created a product from it.  It is still doing well on the market.  

I have experimented with many newsletters over the years, none of which ever lasted more than a year.  The last one call the Glass Smart Insider only lasted a month.  I tried selling products.  Unfortunately that did not work out as most of the packages were either stolen or were destroyed in transit.  Distributors absolutely earn their wages!  And no one else is very interested in picking up any of the "products" I have developed whether they be chemical or mechanical.  

I am very pleased that Chris and Alex Lambrinides have allowed me to continue with whatever ideas I come up with on their Community Forum.  I have met so many great people here.  We truly are a very innovative and honest group.  Window Cleaning has given me the money to pay my bills and the freedom to live my life.  Being able to reach out to others has only enriched my experience.

Very recently Paul West invited me to participate with the IWCA Glass Committee.  This has become one of the most fascinating endeavors of my work.  Having the opportunity to study very technical reports from a real science lab has been very satisfying.  I am also very grateful to Mike Draper for allowing me to join with Paul in writing a series in the AWC over the last year.  It has been a real treat.  And I hope it has benefited many.  Although my priorities have become very refined recently and I am not able to continue writing for any outside industry publications.  Nonetheless I am sure you will find the information presented in this blog very useful.  I will only be writing on the WCR Forum and this blog.  Chemical names and formulas will be given freely.  Which will make it most impossible to develop products from.  I do suppose it might be possible for manufacturers to mine my writings and decide to use certain chems in a formula they develop.  Then keep the actual name off their SDS by not using more than 1% of the chem.  Or some other trick.  I know right now they will add water and not mention it other than as a "proprietary" ingredient.  This just confuses people.  So that other manufacturers will not know exactly what the formula is.  This way they cannot "steal" the formula, and change the product name and label.  The end user doesn't care of course if they get a good product for a reasonable price.

So there will be no thieves.  No manufacturer will care to copy whatever I have developed and will develop because all of the information will be out there.  You will find it here on this blog and or on the WCR Community Forum.  I will not be working with any manufacturer on any product.  My love and focus will always be on custom products, chemistry, glass science, and glass Surface Maintenance And Restoration Technology (S.M.A.R.T.)

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

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