Energy Efficient
Governments across the world and in different jurisdictions have set minimum energy efficient standards which must be met. These programs are enforced and supported by organizations and programs like the “Energy Star” rating program. Some energy efficiency standards are absolutely required for some products. In other cases if a product exceeds the required energy efficiency level and becomes ‘super energy efficient’ there are occasionally special incentives for these products too, sometimes offered in the form of government subsidies or price discounts.
Because windows and doors play a huge role in the energy management of buildings and homes, (it is estimated that windows and door account for 30% of the energy lost from the regular home), minimum energy efficiency requirements have been instituted wold wide.
Energy Efficiency requirements inspire manufacturers to invest more money into their products and manufacturing practices. Unfortunately, for most of the window and door industry products are designed to ‘just meet’ their requirements and no more.
So governmental influence inspires window and door manufactures to invest (spend) more money into the making of their products, simply by making laws which require it to be so, public safety and energy efficiency are two examples.
Competition
Window manufactures know that window buyers will not always look for the lowest price but will search for a window or door which has an attractive blend of “nice features and good price”. This buying behaviour forces manufactures to always be looking for ways to add value to their products and to keep their product offering in comparison with all the other manufactures. Blinds between the glass is a good example of a competitive advantage in the industry, at least is was when it came out but by now it is commonly available in most products.
There’s a long list of of competitive features which manufactures invest in hoping to define their product as different or better than the competition. Paint coatings and colours, materials, improvements in functionality are all examples.
But ultimately it comes down to the fact that if a manufacture is not always looking for some way to make their product better than or equal to the competition, then the competition will slowly and surely take all their buyers away.
Apart form these reasons most manufactures don’t have any incentive to invest more money into their products. Their business model is to churn out as much product which is ‘just good enough’ and go to the bank.
How SwissShade + Security thinks about design
On the other hand, there are a very small group of manufactures (like the ones SwissShade works with) who design, engineer and manufacture their products against a different set of criteria. These other criteria don’t mean that the products are over-priced, what it means is that the approach to creating a beautiful and functional security windows is **not** “How cheap can we make it?”. Rather it’s,
“How well can we design this window or door, where we use the best materials available, and combine those materials with leading manufacturing practices to achieve the most desirable product our customers want at a price they can afford.?”
This is the philosophy which has driven German manufacturers to become world leaders in many industries.
When it comes to high security windows and doors we are inspired by a variety of influences and healthy curiosities.
For example,
“How can we make this window as secure as possible against a break and enter attack, even when it is open a bit to let air in?”
or
“Now that we have designed this window to withstand bullets, how can we make sure it looks attractive and has fine lines?”
or
“This window has many sophisticated security features (multi-point locking for example) how can we ensure that the operation of the window is simple, consistent and reliable, while at the same time looks great?”
At SwissShade, the custom high security windows and doors we design and build for our valued clients are always loaded with features and functionalities which are never skimped on. This is clearly demonstrated with the hardware we have selected as a key part of our engineering and design.
What you get
The hardware you get with SwissShade windows and doors is industry leading. It has been designed and is manufactured according to exacting standards which are inspired by robust functionality, meaning that they not only work, but that they work really really well. And on top of that they must also look and feel of craftsmanship and quality.
You may choose to protect your family and property with SwissShade security windows and doors, and if you do, you will know each time you look at or touch the hardware that you are protected by and using the absolute best engineering and craftsmanship available.