The Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC) is partnering with The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) with an official memorandum of understanding that will help both organizations connect the full value chain — from manufacturer to design professional and end user.
The ASC and NIBS partnership is intended to connect the built environment with sealant technology guidance.
The aim is to educate and create awareness on selection and guidance on sealant technology in vertical wall assemblies.
The WBDG is the only web-based portal providing government and industry practitioners with one-stop access to up-to-date information on a wide range of building-related guidance criteria and technology from a “whole building” perspective.
ASC recently repositioned and revised the sealants section of the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG). Currently, i’s organized into four major categories:
1. Design Recommendations
2. Project Management / Operations & Maintenance
3. Federal Facility Criteria
4. Continuing Education
ASC and NIBS have worked collectively on an updated section for sealants.
“The effort to update the sealants section of the WBDG is intended to provide specifiers, design professionals, and personnel making important decisions related to sealant technology guidance on performance metrics and access to important industry documents,” explained Steve Duren, managing director of Membership & Industry Programs at ASC. “As sealant chemistries evolve and find new uses in vertical wall systems it is important that the industry has resources that go beyond standards.”
Duren also noted that working with industry experts Jerry Klosowski, formerly with Dow Corning, and Steve Rosenberg, formerly with Sika Corporation, as lead authors for the effort along with the ASC Task Force plus leadership from Chairman Dave White, P.E. of Sika, Chris White with Exponent and Paul Majka of Henkel, made the process seamless and added tremendous value using their experience in the industry as subject matter experts.
“With the WBDG being a free industry resource, our intent was to update the sealant section from 2010 and inject state-of-the-art information that a specifier, design professional or architect would find extremely valuable when making material choices in vertical wall systems,” said Dave White, P.E., senior VP of Sika and Chairman of the ASC Growth Wall Interface Task Force.”
These objectives were successfully accomplished through dedication and expertise of the task force.
ASC’s website, in tandem with the NIBS/WBDG effort, includes a landing page specific to the B&C market. The Building & Construction landing page includes white papers, blogs, industry standards, articles, and member videos, as well as topical reports from independent consultants.
Areas of focus on sealant technology in vertical wall systems includes joint sealants, aerosol foams, tapes, fluid applied systems/liquid-based flashings, self-adhering flashings, and adhesive-based weather resistive barriers. Additionally, ASC published a Building and Construction focused report with Ducker Worldwide in 2019 that triangulated on opportunities in vertical walls, roofing, interior finishes and below grade waterproofing.
The report is free for ASC members and can be found in the ASC Store. ASC also recently launched it’s 2020-2023 North America Market Report, which has a section dedicated to joint sealants.
Filed Under: Fastening + joining