Health care facilities with high-performance windows and framing systems support patients, caregivers and communities
- Resilient Community -
Resilient Community
High-performance window systems promote mental health and well-being, as well as physical safety and security. Communities depend on these essential facilities to remain operational under the worst circumstances. Continuing our blog series, we address how fenestration systems can meet these challenges to protect people and property from both natural and man-made disasters.
As standard, EFCO and Wausau systems are tested for air and water resistance, structural integrity, condensation resistance and thermal cycling. Where heightened security performance is required, fenestration and framing systems are engineered to withstand greater challenges. These systems undergo additional testing, such as to demonstrate resistance to hurricane impact, seismic events, forced entry, active shooters, blast hazards and more.
For coastal areas and regions affected by powerful storms, EFCO and Wausau hurricane impact-resistant windows protect against windborne flying debris and wind-driven rain. These products are engineered and tested to meet the Florida Building Code’s impact and cycling requirements, in accordance with relevant Testing Application Standards (TAS) and ASTM standards.
Florida Product Approval (FPA) ensures products perform as required for some of the most demanding environments. For example, EFCO 6621/6621G Series impact fixed aluminum-framed windows have a Design Pressure rating up to +120/-140 psf. These products have successfully passed large missile impact and cycling testing to meet High Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) Wind Zones 3 and 4.
Hardening facilities against man-made emergency events, blast hazard mitigating systems meet specified testing levels for the VA, Department of Defense (DoD) and General Service Administration (GSA) Interagency Security Committee (ISC) criteria. EFCO and Wausau window systems have been tested in accordance with ASTM, ISC and UFC 4-1010-0 Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings.
Wausau INvent 4250i-BHM window performance, for example, withstands shock tube testing at 10 psi peak, 89 psi-msec impulse, 129-foot standoff distance. Our in-house technical assistance team analyzes each project’s unique factors to ensure compliance.
For main entrances, check-in and waiting rooms, pharmacies, behavioral care spaces and transitional zones, interior framing systems can maintain line of sight with transparent separation and added security for patients, medical teams, staff and visitors.
Behavioral Care Considerations
Unlike conventional windows, windows in behavioral and psychiatric specialty care facilities often must be designed to withstand high impacts from the interior, to contain patients, restrict their passage to unauthorized areas, or delay and frustrate escape attempts. These windows typically are specified as fixed units with insulated, laminated double or triple glazing and with integral, between-glass blinds.
Wausau 4000i-DT Series casement and fixed exterior windows, and 2187-DT Series interior accessory windows (IAWs) are tested to meet AAMA 501.8. This means they are subjected to 2,000 foot-pounds of energy, as imparted by the human impact “drop test” apparatus, to simulate shoulder impact of a 200-pound person moving at 25 feet per second.
When existing windows are weather-tight, IAWs provide an economical solution to enhance sound, energy, air and light control, along with human impact resistance. In new construction, IAWs can be added on to a curtain wall or storefront for integral blinds or for interior impact performance in hurricane or blast applications.
For more than 40 years, the Wausau DT Series has answered customers’ needs for window solutions in behavioral care and psychiatric facilities. Customized psychiatric fenestration systems also have been engineered through development programs with state agencies and their architectural consulting partners in New York, Missouri, Tennessee, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Check back soon for part four in this blog series on how windows, doors and framing systems contribute to both health care facilities and healthy communities.