Aqua Glass launches innovative new bathing technology
BY MARY JO MARTIN
Editorial director
A new acrylic material that is strengthened with INNOVEX™ technology has been developed by Masco Bath — a subsidiary of Masco Corporation — and is now available for a number of its bathing system designs.
Launching with products designed for the Aqua Glass brand name, the new technology is designed to make bathing systems more durable, easier to install, and adds more features and style. The company is touting this material as, perhaps, one of the most impressive material innovations in the bathing industry in 40 years.
Described as both a new technology and a new material, INNOVEX is a patent-pending three-layer combination with a thick acrylic surface. The strength of the resulting material makes it resistant to damage, while its lighter weight makes it easy to transport and install. And the highly glossed acrylic finish should make cleaning a breeze.
Aqua Glass executives recently invited me to visit their 155,000-square-foot plant in Lapeer, Mich., to see how the sheets of INNOVEX are produced and quality tested. I came away very impressed by both the facility and the team working there. It was a pleasure to speak with Aqua Glass president Chris Yankowich; INNOVEX program director Andy Stokely; Garret Miller, manager of Health Safety & Environmental; Lapeer plant manager Craig Meade; and product engineer Nathan Craner. Following are highlights of those conversations.
MJM: Tell us about INNOVEX™ technology and why it is such a breakthrough material?
Yankowich: INNOVEX is an engineered acrylic material. It is thick, strong and considerably more durable than traditional gelcoat. It’s also more flexible than other materials, which is a great benefit for tight installations — and the lighter weight facilitates easier handling. Consumers love the easy-to-clean finish.
This new technology allows us to create more robust bathing system designs, with more storage options and bigger bathing wells.
And they’re priced well below current traditional acrylic systems.
We believe INNOVEX is a game-changing new technology that creates a value proposition for all customers:
• Plumbers and remodelers receive durable, light and easier-to-install products that can save cost and time on installation.
• Wholesalers benefit from the durable material. They want product to arrive damage free and, in turn, satisfy and serve their customers by delivering high-quality products.
INNOVEX technology units are more likely than traditional materials to arrive intact at the warehouse, showroom or jobsite. The material is designed to have a higher tolerance for rough handling to resist damage during transit, storage and installation. Because the units are level and lighter in weight, they can easily be stacked for storage, saving wholesalers valuable warehouse space. Also, the acrylic surface won’t discolor if stored outside.
• Builders have a reputation to uphold. The attractive and functional design options provide style that any builder can be proud of.
• Consumers want plenty of storage and a product material that makes cleaning easier. INNOVEX satisfies that need for both style and function. It offers spacious, contemporary design, with its rounded corners, generous shelving and extra interior space. Most gelcoat units don’t offer a lot of shelving. Our research shows that users have an average of 14 product bottles in their bath/shower. We knew we wanted to provide more shelving space, and that it was important to be able to accommodate the very large, economy-size shampoo bottles, as well as smaller recesses for soaps and razors. In the past, you would normally have to purchase higher end acrylic products for that type of design.
Stokely: INNOVEX products have earned a longer warranty with a 10-year limited residential warranty versus our traditional three-year warranty. We also provide a three-year commercial warranty for the new INNOVEX products. Before we would put a longer warranty on the product it underwent extensive testing and we believe it more than lives up to the warranty. It was subjected to an entire battery of testing that even I thought was over the top — and I’ve seen quite a bit. The longer warranty is there to assure customers that they are getting a quality product.
The superior material has a deeper, richer gloss. This not only gives it a depth when you look at the finish, but also makes it much easier to clean, since the surface doesn’t have the pits and grooves that cause soap scum and mildew to adhere.
I’ve been around this industry about 10 years and there can be a lot of puffery that goes on with new product launches. But this is the real deal.
During my career, I’ve launched products that have had more bells and whistles, but none that I’ve been more excited about or believed would really change the industry as INNOVEX.
MJM: Could you break down how INNOVEX works when installed?
Stokely: Its strength comes from layering, which also gives it a lightweight nature. The first thing that often comes into people’s heads is that lightweight means cheap or weak, but this is certainly not the case with INNOVEX. It’s a paradigm-shifting product. This technology is brand new; there is nothing else like it on the market.
With traditional gelcoat finishes, the finished surface that you see and touch is only the thickness of about six sheets of paper. It is brittle and scratches very easily. It gets its strength from the fiberglass or resins on the backside.
INNOVEX allows us to gain much more space for the interior bathing well. The new design process allows us to design the product back to the stud wall which picks up space that has traditionally been hidden. Because it can be installed direct-to-stud, we can recapture that interior space on the walls of the unit that go back to the stud and give that to the consumer in the bathing well. We’re picking up about 5% more interior space in the unit. While that may not sound like a whole lot, when you’re standing in the shower or tub, you can really tell. There are several other installation benefits with INNOVEX:
• The unit fits in a standard 60” by 32” alcove and arrives in one piece, eliminating the need to square individual pieces and reducing the time needed to caulk. That, in turn, greatly reduces the chance of leaks and fewer seams mean less accumulation of soap scum and mold.
• The factory-leveled base doesn’t require a lot of shimming and the material is flexible enough to, in most cases, accommodate slightly out-of-plumb pockets.
• The smooth polyurethane backing doesn’t contain fiberglass irritants, which makes for easier handling.
• The material is very flexible, so you can maneuver the corners making it easier for the unit to be installed.
• The acrylic surface also resists fracture.
• Pre-notched flanges are designed to help direct installation, and screw guides built into the flanges reduce the risk of cracks and breakage.
MJM: How does Aqua Glass fit into the Masco family, and how does being part of such a large organization benefit the brand?
Yankowich: Aqua Glass was formed in 1969 as a manufacturer of houseboats and a year later manufactured its first bathtub with a gelcoat finish. In 1984 Aqua Glass became a member of the Masco Corporation family of brands. Ten years later, Masco acquired American Shower & Bath, a leader in the do-it-yourself bath and shower products. American Shower & Bath and Aqua Glass were merged in 2009, which led to the formation of Masco Bath. As a full-line supplier for customers, Masco Bath is well positioned to be an innovative leader in bathing systems.
Today, Masco Bath manufactures and sells products under the Delta, Peerless, American Shower & Bath and Aqua Glass brands.
Aqua Glass is our wholesale trade brand and has a long respected heritage of quality and value with the traditional wholesale distributor. Being part of the Masco family has contributed significantly to the Aqua Glass brand. The company has a very structured R&D process and a great culture of innovation, which is leveraged across all platforms and brands. Masco is infusing resources for continued innovation into the Aqua Glass brand. Masco Bath is a fully vertically integrated manufacturer, which allows us to create new technologies by leveraging and combining our manufacturing processes.
MJM: Describe the process your R&D department went through in coming up with this final solution.
Yankowich: The innovation team is comprised of Masco R&D, Masco Product Design and Masco Bath teammates. The purpose of the team is to develop long-term strategies, look at pipelines of products and materials, and then strategically decide how to execute our new product and technology launch schedules
Everything we do at Masco Bath begins with the customer. For this project, the company spent significant time and resources conducting thorough research among our customers to find out what they thought of gelcoat. We interviewed plumbers, remodelers, wholesalers, builders and consumers. The common thread was that the product material was a challenge in several ways to their business and they wanted an alternative. Quality issues and pricing also mattered to them. Masco Bath conducted more research on this innovation than on any other product in the history of the company.
The Innovation team reviewed the research acquired by our sales team and outside consultants. Our Innovation team went through many trials that took years before coming up with the final product. The process was intense and rigorous, but necessary in developing an alternative to traditional gelcoat. The Quality team conducted stringent functional tests to help ensure that the material attributes exceeded what we understood to be the expectations of our customers. The end result is that this new material delivers what the customers want in a material, product, installation and price point.
MJM: What makes INNOVEX so strong?
Meade: With INNOVEX, its strength comes from sandwiching the layers together. If you think of plywood, its layers are what provide strength.
MJM: Describe the process the Lapeer factory went through in making all of this happen?
Craner: Aqua Glass invested in new equipment, designed a quality lab and sourced new raw materials for this project. While most of the new equipment purchased for the line was off-the-shelf, we customized other items to meet our needs.
Aqua Glass conducted significant research on the type of testing equipment we would need, and how we could ensure the quality of what we produced here. We’ve invested in lab equipment and resources that test every batch of our raw materials — this is key in controlling the quality of the final product. We measure everything we do. In the lab, it has to be right every time between certain parameters.
This facility is the first stop in the process; we produce the sheets of INNOVEX and we take great pride in providing our piece of the pie — a consistent quality material — to the rest of the group.
Meade: All of these investments that we made during the recession have positioned us for even greater success coming out of the recession. Rather than investing in buildings or other internal changes, we invested in technology that would put us at the forefront.
Here at Masco Bath, we operate under the Kaizen Lean philosophy, which helps us run more efficiently. Lean is a corporate philsophy that Masco has embraced; it is, quite simply, the endless pursuit of perfection. We don’t waste time, effort, materials or talent. It’s a continual challenge to do more with less.
The Lapeer plant has three shifts, and runs 24 hours a day, five days a week. Our philosophy is to engage everyone in the plant to take out wasted time and effort. An employee who is not overworked can think about the processes and contribute ideas toward improvements. It’s our goal to reduce their stress and workload so they can engage more in the process.
MJM: What do you currently offer with INNOVEX?
Stokely: Using a thermoform technology, Aqua Glass has launched one design family. Thanks to the consumer research we’ve done, we feel confident the design will connect with them.
INNOVEX is available in five different units:
• 60"x32" one-piece tub-shower design that fits a standard 60" bypass bathtub door
• 60"x36" tub-shower
• 36" shower
• 48" shower
• 60" shower
The shower units are all available with or without seats.
MJM: I understand that in addition to this first unit you are launching, there are several others in the works. What can you tell us about future launches, and when they will roll out?
Stokely: Aqua Glass continues to broaden its offering of INNOVEX with new designs already on the drawing board.
We’re in the process of conducting some additional national research to make sure the product we bring forth in the future will have just as much value as what we’ve just launched.
MJM: How does the pricing compare to your other bathing products?
Stokely: INNOVEX is about 20% higher than our gelcoat products but this product is so superior and offers so many benefits that we believe that higher pricing will not be a deterrent. Over the years, we’ve found that acrylic is a great showroom product, but is often twice or three times as expensive as traditional gelcoat. Because of that, acrylic represents a very small marketshare. But with INNOVEX, we’ve been able to keep the pricing way down thanks to internal efficiencies and our vertical integration, which makes it very affordable.
MJM: I understand this product has been certified by GREENGUARD. What is GREENGUARD and what does this certification mean for Aqua Glass?
Miller: The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is a third party that conducts testing and verification for environmental certifications. Our INNOVEX product is the first bathing system to obtain GREENGUARD certification by meeting strict limits for chemical (Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), dust, etc.) emissions that impact indoor air quality.
GEI is part of Underwriters Laboratory. The Innovex products with the GREENGUARD certification are found under the bathroom fixture category or the link at right.
As any valid third party certification process should be, the GREENGUARD certification process was very thorough and required our INNOVEX products to pass a series of stringent tests.
First, GEI conducted an on-site assessment of the manufacturing process. Next, we provided GEI representative samples of the INNOVEX material for laboratory analysis to determine the levels of VOCs and other chemicals released.
Finally, a full-scale finished product was placed in a dynamic environmental chamber and tested by GEI for emissions according to established methods. Test results were then compared to strict emission limits. We were especially pleased to not only achieve the standard Indoor Air Quality Certification, but also the more stringent Children and Schools Certification. The Children and Schools Certification defines low-emitting materials suitable for environments where people, particularly children and sensitive adults, spend extended periods of time. Applicable installations may include schools, daycares, healthcare facilities, homes and commercial spaces.
The entire process took several months with retests periodically to maintain the certification.
MJM: And what does having that certification signal to your customers and end users?
Miller: The certification demonstrates our commitment to providing environmentally preferred products for our customers. The INNOVEX process also significantly reduces the emissions of VOCs during the manufacturing. Our Masco Bath facilities have also obtained the ISO 14001 environmental certification.
For our customers, low-emitting products carrying the GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality® Certification can contribute to points in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the US Green Building Council.
The green movement of recent years has expanded customer and end user knowledge and concern for the environment. Consumers desire products and materials that are environmentally friendly. The GREENGUARD certification is a highly recognized certification that represents environmental sustainability. INNOVEX is the first bathing system to obtain the GREENGUARD certification and we anticipate that informed customers and end users will gravitate to our INNOVEX products for all of the positive attributes mentioned.
Yankowich: As a company, we are looking to launch good environmentally safe, sustainable materials, and this product launch contributes to our goal.
MJM: Any closing thoughts?
Yankowich: INNOVEX is an exciting new game-changing innovation which is a critical component to our strategy to win. The development of INNOVEX has been a team effort all around. The entire team at Masco Corporation, Masco Bath and Aqua Glass worked tirelessly in bringing this to market. The entire process — and end result — has exceeded everyone’s expectations. All the teams worked countless hours during development and test phases; also we had the support of our parent company from a financial and encouragement standpoint all along the way. I really appreciate everything people throughout the organization did to bring this product to market and I look forward to the results. n
For additional information, visit aquaglassinnovex.com. And be sure to check out the video interviews that Mary Jo Martin shot while on location at the plant in Lapeer, Mich., in the “On the Road” section of www.thewholesaler.com.