Andy Holland, Technical & Marketing Manager at Rapierstar, explains how fasteners, though small and low-cost, are crucial to window and door performance and impact long-term costs.
The performance capabilities offered by today’s advanced window and door systems, glass, and hardware help create warmer, safer, more energy-efficient, and more secure homes. But for all of these great products to deliver on their promise, the fasteners needed to hold windows and doors together and ensure they stay securely in place during their lifetime must be equally well designed and made.
Fasteners, though often not detailed in window and door specifications, are being increasingly scrutinised by specifiers to identify potential weaknesses. Our team can assist by recommending suitable metal grades to meet project specifications and local environmental conditions.
Manufacturing with Rapierstar. Image © Rapierstar
Three-quarters of window and door manufacturers choose Rapierstar
Specifiers can also benefit from Rapierstar’s technical expertise, ensuring access to proven solutions and support when partnering with the UK’s most forward-thinking window and door contractors, given the depth of our market penetration.
Our company has grown to be the leading technical authority in the UK and Ireland’s fenestration industry, supporting roughly 15.5 million window and door units each year. Holding a 75% market share, Rapierstar’s role reflects a long-standing commitment to delivering the engineering depth needed for high-performance fixings.
This means that windows and doors installed in social housing are now likely made using Rapierstar fixings. This includes window and door installations in modular or off-site constructed homes, an increasingly key approach for delivering social housing at scale. Rapierstar’s fixings enable frame installation into various substrates, providing a high-quality, MMC-compatible solution for reliable long-term performance.
Technical leadership that drives sector-wide benefits
Rapierstar plays a key, often unseen role by maximising supply chain value and providing reliable products for tenants and homeowners. As a technical partner bridging factory performance, product reliability, and regulatory compliance, we position fasteners as essential process controls rather than mere commodities.
It is important to remember that screws are not individual, unrelated pieces of hardware – they are integral system components. Their performance is determined by the standards set for the entire assembly, such as BS 7412:2024 and, where enhanced security is required, PAS 24. A screw is what ensures a 10-year guarantee does not become a recurring problem over a decade.
PVCu Window Manufacturing. Image © Shutterstock
Identifying and eliminating potential failure costs
Optimising fastener performance directly reduces failure risk and enables measurable whole-life cost savings. This is central to Rapierstar’s concept of Avoidable Failure Costs (AFC).
We have calculated that while total fastener investment for a standard sash window is about 69 pence, a single failure can be extremely costly. For example, head shearing, when the fastener top breaks off due to misuse of high-torque drivers. A 1.2 pence part failure can turn into over £600 in customer remediation costs.
Through our partnerships with leading social housing window and door installation companies, we quickly identify issues and provide targeted training to reduce them. This enables us to help fabricators address key manufacturing pressure points, such as thread stripping and profile deformation.
Rapierstar’s engineering backs our customers’ manufacturing claims, protecting reputations and bottom lines while reassuring specifiers that their windows and doors are optimised for quality and performance with Rapierstar-branded fasteners.
Learn more at www.rapierstar.com.
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