Contact productcertification@fgiaonline.org. You will need to have your product tested at an AAMA-accredited or approved lab and have the test report and other supporting information sent to Associated Laboratories, Inc. (ALI) for validation.

Yes. There are sometimes significant differences in our standards. Climatic requirements for Europe do not include the extremes of temperature and wind we find in American and Pacific countries. There is no provision for resistance to hurricanes, arctic temperatures, or desert conditions because they do not exist in Europe.

Additionally, FGIA's standards development and certification philosophies are very different. We depend heavily on private development of standards, test methods and certification procedures, strongly resisting the influence of state and federal governments in setting requirements for product evaluation. We work closely with the EuroWindoor Association in Europe to compare standards and other issues, and we have a cooperative agreement with this association to share standards and marketing information on a regular basis.  Similar agreements exist with Australia and Japan, and we have harmonized our standards with Canada.

All versions of the NAFS document were written to make this task easy and consistent. Rather than specifying individual test methods for air leakage, water penetration, structural testing, and forced-entry resistance, simply use the Short Form Specification included at the beginning of these nationally recognized standards.

There are four parts to a performance specification. The first is the Operator Type (also called the Product Type); in the NAFS-11 document, 36 operator types are addressed (i.e. HS represents a horizontal slider; C is a casement window; H is a single-, double-, or triple-hung, etc.).

Next is the Performance Class; depending on the referenced version of NAFS, there are either five (for NAFS-05) or four (for NAFS-08 and NAFS-11). When specifying via NAFS-05, the included performance classes are: R, LC, C, HC and AW. When specifying via NAFS-08 or NAFS-11, the included performance classes are: R, LC, CW and AW

The third part is the Performance Grade, stated as a pressure in psf (pounds per square foot). Each Performance Class requires a minimum Performance Grade; for example, an R class window must pass testing for a minimum Performance Grade of 15 psf (720 Pa). More information on minimum gateway test sizes can be found on the Performance Class Overview page on the AAMA website.

The last information is the size tested in the lab to qualify the product for certification. The standard specifies a minimum test size for each Product Type and Performance Class. The sample to be tested must be equal to, or larger than, this size. If the manufacturer plans to certify a particular design in larger sizes, they must test to the largest size they plan to certify and label.

In the 2005 edition of NAFS, the five performance classes established in 1997 remained (R, LC, C, HC and AW), but the market sector descriptions were deleted, as the choice of Performance Class is increasingly made somewhat independently of the use of a building. For the 2008 and 2011 editions of NAFS, the C and HC performance classifications were eliminated. In their place is a “CW” classification, which reduces the total number of performance classifications from five to four.

• R class = Commonly used in one- and two-family dwellings
• LC class = Commonly used for low- and mid-rise multifamily dwellings and other buildings where larger sizes and higher loading requirements are expected
• CW class = Commonly used in low- and mid-rise buildings where larger sizes, higher loading requirements, limits on deflection and heavier use are expected
• AW class = Commonly used in high-rise and mid-rise buildings to meet increased loading requirements and limits on deflection and in buildings where frequent and extreme use of the fenestration products is expected

Since 1962, AAMA’s ANSI-accredited Certification Program — the original third-party fenestration performance verification program — has provided manufacturers with the means to independently demonstrate product performance quality to their customers. The AAMA Certification Label on a product tells customers that it has been verified as conforming to the standard’s requirements through independent laboratory testing and follow-up on-site inspection of the manufacturer’s product line. When a product has been tested and validated by AAMA, the manufacturer is authorized to certify the product by applying the AAMA label. A product must be labeled to be certified.

Test reports are a historical record of test results on specific test specimens, tested to a defined standard or standards; a “snapshot” of the product at a certain point in time.

Laboratories may include expiration dates on their test reports that reflect their individual policies. These expiration and/or test record retention dates will vary from laboratory to laboratory and test report to test report. As historical records cannot technically “expire”, these dates are arbitrary. In the event that no changes are made to the design and/or construction of the product as documented in the test report, it is the position of AAMA that the test report remains valid as a reflection of the facts as of the date of the test.

Test reports prepared by AAMA accredited laboratories are mandated throughout AAMA’s certification and verification programs and are referenced in its voluntary standards, specifications and test methods. Though some test reports may contain expiration and/or test record retention dates established by the testing laboratory, AAMA does not rely on these dates in its certification and verification programs. For the purposes of certification and validation, a test report is considered valid for the duration established by the requirements of the applicable certification or verification programs. For example, AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440 test reports are mandated to include test dates, report dates and a test record retention date.