Most Innovative Window

2012 Crystal Achievement Award Winners

Large Manufacturer

	Blinds and shades can be controlled by a remote, a smart home system and any internet-enabled device.

Designer Series Windows with SmartSync Technology

Pella Corp.

Pella, Iowa

Shades or blinds offered in the manufacturer’s Designer Series windows can now be controlled by a remote control or by a home or building automation system using its SmartSync technology. The system enables homeowners to quickly and conveniently adjust blinds or shades in their windows to control light and glare and provide privacy.

The integrated system works with Web-enabled devices like computers and most smart phones to help save energy as well. Pella suggests homeowners open southern-facing window treatments in the winter to help let in the sun’s warming rays during the day, and close them at night to help keep heat in as outdoor temperatures drop. Likewise, closing blinds or shades during the day in the summer helps limit interior heat gain, helping reduce potential cooling costs. Between-the-glass blinds or shades featuring this technology can manage the sun’s light and heat over two times more efficiently than windows without blinds or shades, the company reports.

First introduced this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, SmartSync technology can be integrated with Iris, a cloud-based home management system being developed by Lowe’s Home Improvement, and the Nexia Home Intelligence System developed by Schlage/Ingersoll Rand.

The Vision House at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center features Pella windows, incorporating
SmartSync. Designed to highlight green building technologies, the exhibit showcases how the
technology enables a home automation system to automatically raise and lower window shades
or blinds to help conserve energy.

Small/Medium Manufacturer
 

HSW60 Window/Door Combination

NanaWall Systems

Corte Madera, Calif.

	Windows can fold-away and disappear along with door panels to create a wide-open expanse between the indoors and outdoors.

A custom window/door combination, the HSW60 system opens wide, seamlessly bringing the outdoors in. It can go beyond opening just one wall to open three sides of a structure without corners in both window and door heights in the same opening. This enables the unit to offer a complete outdoor feeling, but maintains aesthetics, weather protection and the simplicity of operation.

A system of individual sliding panels that all ride on a single track, the panels can all operate and slide to any location, even a location that physically resides beyond the plane of the opening itself. The panels when stored or stacked are done so via various parking bay layouts that can store the panels in almost any position, parallel, perpendicular, or to some angle in-between. Multiple parking bays can be used in various locations to allow for the most optimized use of space, while complementing the design aesthetics.

There are multiple roller configurations used in conjunction with a custom head-track that provides intelligence to the system. The different roller combinations intelligently direct the panels when moving to their appropriate parking bays. Behaving much like a train-track switch, this innovation is not visible to the user but creates the ease of operation, and allows a single-handed motion to move and park each panel where needed.

Seamless transitions and various flooring and countertop constraints are also solved with the ability to operate without the need for a sill or floor track. Adjustable sockets are available where the panels need to lock when closed and eliminates the need for a continuous sill when surroundings and design demand otherwise.

The panels feature a multi-point locking system that is completely concealed and is a single-handed motion to engage. In addition, each panel shares a male/female interconnect that locks the panels into each other along with the locking rods that are placed in the head and sill.

Other 2012 Crystal Achivement Award Winners:

TECHNOLOGY

Most Innovative Door

Most Innovative Component

Unique Innovation

MANUFACTURING

Most Innovative Plant

Most Innovative Machine

MARKETING

Most Innovative Marketing Progam

Best Product Literature

Best Industry Website

Back to the 2012 Crystal Achievement Awards main page.