Fond farewell

Synseal Group has bid a fond farewell to David Strang who has retired after more than 30 years working with the Sheerframe window system.

During a lifelong career in the plastics industry, David has seen it all – from fond memories of his early days in the British Plastics Federation to the height of Sheerframe’s success as the most specified commercial window system in the UK.

David was instrumental in driving some of the key innovations in PVCU manufacturing we take for granted today, including the first lead-free profile, co-extruded weather seals and the first UK designed reversible window system.

Starting his career at the BPF, David remembers working with raw material suppliers to campaign for window performance standards, leading to BS 6375 standards, and going to the advertising standards agency to dispute false claims about PVCU discolourment by aluminium suppliers.

In 1983 he moved to LB Plastics to take up the new role of product manager for Sheerframe, soon after they launched the first 70mm window system. It was successful both in retail and in the public sector, where Sheerframe became the go-to PVCU window supplier for local authorities.

David continued to head up the Sheerframe division when acquired by Synseal Group in 2014, helping the systems house to tap into the specification market for sheltered housing, educational buildings and inner city housing developments.

“It was like riding the crest of a wave in the 1980s and 90s,” David said. “A lot of the time we were working it out as we went along, crystallising ideas in marketing meetings, working out what we wanted to achieve and putting them into action. These were times when there were no performance standards for weather tightness or thermal efficiency – steel and timber windows predominantly had no seals and glass was held in place with putty.

“It was an exciting time to be non-conformist, and to lead the way in PVCU innovation. It was a time when everything you touched turned to gold.”