The Liniar name has become synonymous in the industry with innovation, known for the technical leaps and bounds that its profile and products have forged.
The Liniar system has been designed with fabricators in mind, helping them to save time and money throughout the manufacturing process with the help of several clever creations.
Early in 2007, Liniar CEO Roger Hartshorn sat down with a trusted team of designers and a blank sheet of paper. With a wealth of experience between them they set about creating a totally new profile design. They knew what already worked – and, more importantly, what didn’t.
While other companies could only attempt to modify and improve the old systems they already had, Liniar had the luxury of working without limitation, removing past faults and adding in elements that they knew would improve performance, plus making the fabrication process simpler and quicker.
Three types of window were available on the market at that time. Standard, high security (which was effectively the standard model reinforced with steel) or an A rated window – basically the standard window with uPVC inserts rather than steel.
What you couldn’t buy was a window that was all three in one.
It was Liniar’s mission to design a unique window that combined all of these features and offer fabricators the additional benefit of saving costs through quicker production times and reduced steel.
One of the biggest areas of cost for fabricators was steel, and the Liniar design team wanted to remove as much steel as possible without losing strength. The team identified that the weakest area of a window is generally where the hardware is located, at the front of the main frame. By adding a small pocket behind these areas they could insert a small piece of PVC.
When using the correct screw, through what is effectively three layers of uPVC, they succeeded in enforcing the profile with the same pull-out strength as if it were going into 1.2mm of thick steel.
With no reinforcing in the outer frame or the sash the window was independently tested by BSI to PAS 24 standards, achieving the accreditation first time. This now paved the way to make the window highly energy efficient – but first, the age-old problems caused by gaskets needed to be addressed.
Gaskets had long been a bone of contention in the windows industry. The two different styles of gasket, glazing and weather seal, had previously been inserted by hand into a gasket groove in the profile at the fabrication stage.
Co-extruded gaskets were introduced to save time, however they created a further problem. One type of gasket was attempting to do two different jobs and was succeeding at neither – and this caused serious fabrication issues, resulting in windows with hard points in the corners.
For a weather seal to work effectively it has to be able to compress to zero, while a glazing gasket should only compress so far before letting the bead take over. If this isn’t the case then the glass will move within the frame.
A glazing stop was used to prevent this, but if one gasket had been extruded fractionally larger than the other, which is often the case, it would only seal on one side. This resulted in a draughty, often whistling, window.
Liniar’s ‘eureka moment’ came when the team switched the pip of the gasket from the outside to the inside of the profile. This meant that the gaskets being used as weather seals would have 8mm cover on the profiles, while the simple bubble seal would carry on compressing to nothing.
So no matter what size the gasket is extruded at, a patented Liniar bubble gasket will always find the nominal compression and the glazing gasket will get more cover with the unit.
The major problem with traditional gasket grooves was caused when a gasket was positioned over the top, and led to hard lumps forming in the corners during the welding process. It was a lengthy and time consuming process for fabricators to clean these out.
The Liniar system was designed with this issue in mind. The back of the profile was hollowed so that any build-up of material was pushed into the groove. This meant that there were no issues at all with the corners, making the cleaning process far more efficient and removing the need for expensive machinery – yet another huge saving for fabricators.
Another big criticism in the windows industry was the lack of consideration given to drainage. To combat this, Liniar designed a unique yoke within its system. This clever little addition, combined with drain slots, allows the water to flow to the outside.
Other systems are designed to hit the wall at 45°, creating burrs and swarf that can cause the water to dam up over time unless cleaned out. Using Liniar profile helps fabricators to speed up operations as this simply doesn’t happen.
Another slick innovation with the yokes is that one is 3mm deeper than the other. This miniscule difference means that if a fabricator uses a hand drain slot machine, then the settings are identical whichever way the profile is – allowing for it to be symmetrically drained and removing the need for settings to be constantly altered.
Liniar increased the size of the drainage chambers in its profile, making them bigger than most of the others available, and also added slots to help the water escape quicker to avoid leaking.
The negative effect of this was that, despite this amazingly efficient profile, cold air could now bridge underneath the glass and sit at the back of the bead. Another seal was required to tackle this problem.
Liniar’s system has a centre ‘up stand’ which is used to locate hinges along with other hardware. Uniquely, the ‘up stand’ is a dovetail shape, and although small means that the glazing flipper can be clipped on to it on all four sides of glazed openings to prevent cold air getting in.
By including the glazing flipper, Liniar was able to achieve a Window Energy Rating of A+6 on the first attempt!
The Liniar window system had now achieved what had previously seemed impossible – a WER of A+6 without expensive triple glazing or spacers.
But rather than rest on its laurels, Liniar continued working on developing the system even further – and 18 months later launched its next generation of window profile: the EnergyPlus range, with increased webs and more chambers (six, versus the standard four).
To make the windows as energy efficient as possible, centre webs were added into the main frame of the sash to create even, symmetrical chambers inside the profile.
This had already been proved to vastly enhance thermal efficiency – not just the number of chambers, but the fact that they are symmetrical means the cold air has a more difficult job to travel inside to replace warm air.
Since the launch of the first window system in 2008, Liniar’s philosophy to create and innovate has continued relentlessly. A long line of new designs, products and ranges has taken the industry by storm – including the first bespoke uPVC bi-folding door, since re-launched with the amazing ModLok technology.
Liniar supports uPVC window fabricators by giving them access to a wide range of marketing literature, resources, point-of-sale items and support tools to help them to grow their businesses. Liniar Approved Fabricators also benefit from lead generation, as all Liniar website leads are passed to those who have been through our strict verification process.
