The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) named the winning products in its seventh annual Best of IBS Awards during the 2019 NAHB International Builders' Show (IBS) in Las Vegas. Andersen Windows’ Easy Connect Joining System won the Best Window and Door Product award, as well as the most prestigious Best in Show award.
Awards were given to IBS exhibitors with a product or line that shows the best combination of design, functionality and innovation, as well as its usefulness to consumers and/or home builders, according to conference organizers.
"Judges evaluated an impressive array of more than 300 product entries in nine categories up for consideration for this year's Best of IBS Awards," Buddy Hughes, NAHB conventions and meetings committee chairman, said in a prepared statement. "The competition was fierce, but these winners truly represent the best of the best in terms of innovation, design and functionality of the products going into today's homes."
Andersen Windows’ Easy Connect Joining System, which was launched in May 2018, enables large window and door combinations to be pieced together by smaller combinations at the job site. This, the company states, facilitates the installation process and improves builders’ safety.
[Video produced David Myron.]
As an example, an 8-ft x 12-ft window combination (consisting of eight individual units), with a fully joined weight of approximately 540 pounds (standard glass), can be delivered to a job site in four combinations of two units—each weighing 135 pounds.
“This allows us to mull large combinations right in the opening with a clip joining system,” said Steve Berg, technical marketing manager at Andersen Windows, from the company’s booth at IBS. “Because this is a clip-mull system, we’re able to run a continuous string of windows—a ribbon of windows, if you will—as far as you want, because each of those windows [is] joined to the rough opening at the mull location.”
According to an Andersen survey, 69% of 156 builders and/or general contractors in a 2018 survey stated they could reduce the number of installers by 50%, using the Easy Connect Joining System when comparing the installation of a 12-ft wide x 8-ft-high pre-assembled window combination unit with four individual 3-ft wide x 8-ft high window combination units.
“Also, more importantly, it’s much safer,” Berg said. “Trying to lift a [540-pound] combination…off the truck into an opening is dangerous. It could drop and someone could get hurt, so the smaller 135-pound combination is much more manageable.”
