Fenêtre Aluminium Wholesaler in China: AEV, Acotherm and RE2020 Specs with FOB Pricing

Fenêtre: French Terminology Map Before You Specify

Purchase orders and shop drawings in France use a vocabulary that does not map 1:1 onto English fenestration terms. Sending an RFQ without the right words produces the wrong quotation. The table below is the working vocabulary used on French fenêtre aluminium projects.

Two of these decide the manufacturing tolerance: cote de passage and cote tableau. French fabricators quote to the cote tableau (the masonry reveal), and the window is then built 10-15 mm smaller on each side for the fixing and sealing gap. State which one your number is, or the window arrives oversized.

What French Buyers Actually Ask For First

Order of questions on a first enquiry: (1) the AEV class required by the site, (2) the Uw value the thermal study (BET — bureau d’études thermiques) needs, (3) the Acotherm acoustic class if the site is near a road or railway, (4) the finish label and RAL, (5) whether a volet roulant is integrated into the same frame. Price comes after these five. A quotation sent before the AEV class is defined gets re-quoted.

Where the Window Sits in the French Project Timeline

• Étude / APS — the architect fixes the cotes and opening types; the BET sets the Uw and Sw targets.
• Consultation — the lot menuiseries extérieures tender is issued with the AEV classes attached.
• Étude d’exécution — shop drawings (plans d’atelier) are signed off before extrusion starts.
• Fabrication — 28-42 days from approved shop drawing, depending on volume and finish.
• Pose — installation on site per NF DTU 36.5, then the air-tightness test (test d’infiltrométrie) on the finished building.

Related French-Market Reference

For sliding configurations and the AEV data we publish for them, see the fenêtre coulissante supplier specifications, and for the wide glazed bays that pair with fixed fenêtres in the same facade, the baie vitrée size and Uw data.

Fenêtre Aluminium: Alloy, Temper and Profile Geometry

The frame of a fenêtre aluminium is extruded from 6xxx-series alloy. The alloy and temper chosen set the mechanical capacity of the sash, and therefore the maximum single-vent size the window can carry without a reinforcing mullion.

Alloy and Temper Selection

6063-T5 is the default for a standard residential fenêtre. Move to 6063-T6 when the sash area exceeds 1.6 m² or the sash height exceeds 2.0 m, and to 6061-T6 or 6082-T6 reinforcement when a coupling bar joins two windows into a single composé unit — the mullion then carries wind load from both bays.

Wall Thickness and Its Effect on Wind Class

NF DTU 36.5 sets the practical floor for exterior joinery profiles. In export practice the visible wall thickness is measured on every extrusion batch with an ultrasonic gauge, and the mill certificate is filed against the order. Specifying 2.0 mm on a low-rise inland project buys nothing — the limiting factor there is the glass, not the frame.

Finishing: Qualicoat, Qualimarine and Qualanod

• Qualicoat Class 1 — polyester powder, minimum average film 60 µm, for standard inland facades.
• Qualicoat Class 2 (Qualimarine) — 100 µm average film plus a chromate-free pre-treatment, for coastal sites within roughly 3 km of salt water. Cost add $12 – 18/m². Re-test: 1,000 h acetic acid salt spray (ISO 9227 AASS) with filiform corrosion ≤ 1 mm.
• Qualanod AA15 / AA20 — anodic oxidation, 15 – 20 µm, metallic tones. Less common on French housing than powder but specified on some contemporary facades.
• Sublimation wood grain — 20 – 40 µm transfer layer bonded at 200 °C, used when the facade is in a secteur sauvegardé near protected timber joinery. Cost add $9 – 16/m².

Bicoloration is standard on French housing: RAL 7016 anthracite or 9005 black outside, RAL 9016 white inside. It is produced by masking and a second pass, and adds $6 – 10/m².

Rupture de Pont Thermique: Thermal Break and the Uw Arithmetic

The thermal break is the polyamide bar that separates the inner and outer aluminium shells. It is the single component that moves Uw the most. Material is PA66 GF25 — polyamide 66 with 25 % glass fibre — roll-in bonded at 230 – 250 °C.

Break Width to Uf

Uw Calculation, Reference Window 1.23 × 1.48 m

Uw for the whole fenêtre is not the glazing Ug. It is the area-weighted sum of glass, frame and the linear thermal bridge at the glass edge, per EN ISO 10077-1:

Uw = (Ag·Ug + Af·Uf + lg·ψg) / (Ag + Af)

For the reference window of 1.23 × 1.48 m (area 1.8204 m²), with a 100 mm frame profile the frame area Af = 0.502 m² and the glass area Ag = 1.318 m²; the glass perimeter lg = 4.62 m. Running the numbers:

The same calculation is the one a French BET runs in its thermal study. Sending them the Uf, Ug and ψg inputs rather than a single Uw number lets them reproduce the result and accept it. See the aluminium window frame and triple-glazed specifications page for the same arithmetic applied to larger openings.

AEV Classification: Air, Eau, Vent per NF EN 12207 / 12208 / 12210

AEV is the three-part performance notation printed on every French window quotation. The star notation (A*4, E*7A, V*A4) is the French transcription of the EN class. Getting this wrong is the most common cause of a rejected delivery on a French site.

A* — Perméabilité à l’Air (NF EN 12207)

A*4 requires three continuous gasket planes and a compression-sealed sash. It is achieved with EPDM or TPE gaskets in three chambers, a welded corner on the central gasket, and a multi-point lock pulling the sash against the frame at 4 – 6 points. Single-point espagnolette locks do not reach A*4 on sashes above 1.2 m².

E* — Étanchéité à l’Eau (NF EN 12208)

The A / B distinction matters more than the number. Class A is tested with the window in a protected position; class B is tested unprotected, which is what a bare west-facing Atlantic facade actually is. The B series only runs to 300 Pa, so a genuinely exposed coastal elevation is specified as E*7B rather than E*9A. Drainage geometry is what decides it: a drained and vented frame with a minimum 25 mm² free drainage area per sash and weep slots cut at a 5° inward slope.

The same water-tightness methods are documented for the sliding range in the porte patio and baie vitrée coulissante AEV data.

V* — Résistance au Vent (NF EN 12210)

French wind regions (NF EN 1991-1-4 with its national annex) run 1 to 4 on reference wind speed. Indicative mapping — always confirm with the project wind study:

Fenêtre Double Vitrage: Glazing Builds, CEKAL and Acotherm

A fenêtre double vitrage is the default in France; single glazing has no place in a heated building under RE2020 or in any CEE-funded renovation. The glazing unit carries the Ug, the solar factor Sw, the acoustic class and most of the unit weight.

Glazing Builds and Performance

Argon fill is 90 % minimum at production; the residual 10 % air costs roughly 0.05 W/m²K. Warm-edge spacer (stainless or composite) replaces the aluminium box spacer and removes the condensation line that appears at the glass edge on cold French mornings — the internal surface temperature at the spacer rises by 3 – 5 K.

CEKAL and Acotherm

• CEKAL — the French certification mark for insulating glass units, covering durability of the seal (moisture penetration and gas retention) plus optional thermal and acoustic classes. Units carry an etched mark in the corner with the fabricator number.
• Acotherm AC1 – AC4 — the French acoustic classification for the complete window, expressed as Rw (C;Ctr) measured per EN ISO 10140.

Acoustic performance is a whole-window property, not a glass property. An AC4 glazing built into a frame without three gasket planes and a correctly compressed sash will test at AC2. For roadside facades the frame and the glazing have to be specified together — see the soundproof window data for the gasket and compression details.

Safety Glazing Rules

French practice requires safety glazing where a person can walk into the pane: low-level glazing in circulation areas, and any pane with its lowest edge below 0.90 m in a dwelling, uses laminated (44.2) or toughened glass. Toughened is to EN 12150; laminated uses a 0.38 mm or 0.76 mm PVB interlayer. For upper-floor windows the inner pane is commonly laminated to resist fall-through.

Fenêtre avec Moustiquaire: Integrated Insect Screens

A fenêtre avec moustiquaire is specified on more French projects than five years ago, driven by the spread of Aedes albopictus across metropolitan France. The surveillance list published each season covers most metropolitan départements now, so the screen is moving from an accessory to a line item. Check the current list for the project département before deciding.

The important decision is whether the screen is integrated into the window frame at the factory or added on site. Factory-integrated units keep the RAL colour, do not reduce the daylight opening, and survive the ten-year service interval; site-added cassettes are cheaper but need a fixing surface that often does not exist on a modern facade.

Screen Types and Mesh Specification

Mesh density is given as threads per inch in two directions. A 18 × 16 fibreglass mesh has an aperture near 1.0 × 1.4 mm, which stops Aedes (body length 4 – 7 mm) with margin. Anything coarser than 16 threads per inch lets the smaller species through; anything finer than 20 × 20 starts costing measurable airflow.

Ventilation and Cleaning Service

• Airflow: a screen reduces free opening area by 35 – 42 %. When the room is ventilated through the window rather than a VMC system, size the opening accordingly — this is the argument for the pleated type on bedrooms.
• VMC interaction: on French housing with mechanical controlled ventilation (VMC simple flux or double flux), the window is not the primary air path, so the screen does not affect the ventilation calculation.
• Cleaning: fibreglass mesh is cleaned with a soft brush and water every 12 months; aluminium mesh tolerates pressure washing. Ultraviolet degradation is the failure mode — expect 8 – 12 years on fibreglass, 15+ on aluminium.
• Spare parts: order 2 % spare cassettes and one extra roll of mesh per container. Replacement mesh is a 10-minute job; waiting for an imported cassette is 6 weeks.

French Standard Dimensions and Opening Types

French housing works to a modular dimension grid. Quoting to the grid avoids custom tooling charges and keeps the order inside standard extrusion lengths.

Modular Cotes Commonly Ordered

The vertical grid runs 600 / 750 / 900 / 1,050 / 1,200 / 1,350 / 1,500 / 1,800 / 2,150 mm and the horizontal grid 400 / 500 / 600 / 750 / 900 / 1,000 / 1,200 / 1,350 / 1,500 / 1,800 / 2,150 mm. Staying on those numbers keeps the unit inside standard extrusion stock.

Manufacturing Limits

Above those limits the unit is built as a composé with a coupling bar. Note the 50 kg glass limit on a 1.4 mm sash: a triple-glazed unit at 30 kg/m² reaches it at 1.67 m², which is why triple glazing generally forces an upgrade to 1.8 mm or 2.0 mm wall thickness.

Opening Types and Hardware

• À la française — two inward sashes meeting without a central mullion. Full clear opening, 3-point lock on the traffic leaf, espagnolette on the fixed leaf.
• Oscillo-battant — the French default for bedrooms and kitchens; tilt first (~100 mm), then turn. This is the same hardware family covered in our European tilt-and-turn window engineering notes.
• À soufflet — bottom-hinged, opens inward at the head. Used for WCs, cellars and stairwells where the sash must not project into the room.
• Fixe — non-opening. Always cheaper per m² and always better air-tightness; specify it wherever the cleaning strategy allows.
• Hardware: 16 mm Euro-groove multi-point locks, 3 – 6 locking points, stainless friction stays (304 standard, 316 for coastal), sash stays rated for the sash weight plus a 25 % margin.

Compliance: CE, NF CSTB, RE2020, CEE and MaPrimeRénov’

Four layers of paperwork sit between a fenêtre leaving Foshan and being accepted on a French site. They answer different questions: product conformity, product certification, building energy performance, and subsidy eligibility. Confusing them costs time and money.

CE Marking — EN 14351-1

• Windows and exterior pedestrian doors placed on the EU market carry CE marking under EN 14351-1, with a Déclaration de Performance (DoP) listing the declared values: water tightness, dangerous substances, resistance to wind load, load-bearing capacity of safety devices, acoustic performance (or “NPD”), thermal transmittance Uw, radiation properties, air permeability.
• The essential characteristic that French reception control checks first is Uw, because it feeds directly into the building energy calculation.
• System 3 (for most characteristics) requires an initial type test by a notified body; factory production control is self-declared under ISO 9001.
• The CE label is fixed to the frame or accompanies the delivery documents. A unit without a traceable DoP number will be stopped during reception on a public project.

NF CSTB, CEKAL and the French Marks

NF marking is not mandatory, but a CCTP (Cahier des Clauses Techniques Particulières) on social housing or public works frequently asks for it. It requires audit of the production line and regular retesting, so it applies to a specific manufacturer rather than to the unit bought from a catalogue.

RE2020, RT2012 and the Element-by-Element Threshold

RT2012 governed new buildings with permits filed before 2022; RE2020 replaced it and additionally accounts for embodied carbon. Both work as whole-building calculations — there is no single mandatory window Uw. In practice a BET typically asks for Uw ≤ 1.3 W/m²K on new residential, which the arithmetic above shows is reachable but not free.

Renovation is different. Replacement windows are subject to element-by-element requirements, and those are also the technical conditions attached to subsidy eligibility:

Practical consequence for procurement: if the project targets renovation funding, the specification has to land at Uw ≤ 1.3, which means either the FEN-75 + warm-edge + 20 mm cavity route or triple glazing on the FEN-70. Budget the warm-edge spacer ($6 – 9/m²) rather than discovering the shortfall at reception.

Fenêtres en Aluminium: FOB Pricing Tables

Fenêtres en aluminium are quoted FOB per square metre of window area, glazing included, hardware included, ex-works finish in stock RAL. Prices below reflect export orders shipped from the Foshan plant; they do not include freight, insurance, duty or installation.

FOB Price by Series and Volume Tier

Option Costs

What Moves the Price

1. Thermal break width — 14.8 mm to 34 mm is a 70 % profile cost increase.
2. Wall thickness — every step from 1.4 to 2.0 mm adds extrusion mass and CNC time.
3. Glazing — triple glazing costs 40 – 55 % more than double and adds shipping weight.
4. Finish label — Qualimarine certification carries an annual licence cost passed through per m².
5. Sash geometry — shaped heads, arches and angled cuts add CNC setup; standard rectangles do not.
6. Order size — the step from 99 m² to 100 m² is worth roughly 8 %; from 299 to 300 about 7 %.

For comparison against the sliding range, see the sliding window wholesale pricing, and for the door versions sharing these profiles, the aluminium glass door specifications.

Procurement Data: MOQ, Lead Time, Payment, Crating

Terms below are the export standard applied to French orders shipped from Foshan.

MOQ, Lead Time, Payment

• MOQ: 30 m² or 8 window units per configuration, whichever is reached first. Mixed configurations can be combined into one container as long as each individual configuration clears its own MOQ.
• Lead time: 28 – 42 days after receipt of deposit and signature of the plans d’atelier. Add 7 days for non-stock RAL and 5 days for Qualimarine pre-treatment documentation.
• Samples: one 1.0 × 1.0 m unit with the specified finish and hardware, 15 days, deductible from the production order.
• Payment: T/T 30 % deposit, 70 % against copy of bill of lading. L/C at sight accepted for orders above USD 60,000. Partial shipments allowed on multi-container orders.
• Incoterms: FOB Shenzhen / Nansha as standard. CIF Le Havre, Marseille-Fos or Antwerp quoted on request for the current booking window.
• Warranty: 10 years on profiles and hardware, 10 years on the insulating glass unit against internal condensation (CEKAL-equivalent test basis), 15 years on Qualimarine film against filiform corrosion.

Crating and Container Loading

• Each window is wrapped in 8 – 10 mm EPE foam, then stretch film, then corner board; units are stacked vertically in a plywood crate with an ISPM-15 stamp.
• Standard crate: 2,200 × 1,100 × 2,200 mm, holding about 38 m² of finished window at roughly 1.9 tonnes.
• A 40 ft high-cube holds 13 crates ≈ 494 m² of window at about 24.7 tonnes — payload is reached before volume, so heavy triple-glazed orders are weight-limited and light ones are volume-limited.
• Glass-heavy configurations: run the loading math before fixing the container count, since triple glazing at 30 kg/m² adds roughly 10 kg/m² over the framed unit.
• Every crate carries a packing list with the unit numbers matching the plans d’atelier, so reception on site can be checked crate by crate against the shop drawing.

Damage-in-transit runs below 0.3 % of units on FCL shipments with this packing method. LCL consolidation raises that figure substantially — ship FCL whenever the order exceeds about 120 m².

Pose: Installation per NF DTU 36.5

NF DTU 36.5 is the French code of practice for installing exterior joinery. It covers the three installation positions, the sealing method and the tolerances. Installation is the point where a correctly manufactured window fails an air-tightness test.

Three Installation Positions

With external thermal insulation (ITE), the window is normally positioned in line with the insulation layer and fixed with proprietary brackets or a preframe, so the frame does not bridge the insulation. This is a design decision made before the reveal is formed — retrofitting it on site is the origin of most thermal-bridge complaints at reception.

Eight-Step Installation Sequence

1. Check the reveal: squareness ≤ 5 mm over 2 m, moisture content of the masonry, and that the rejingot under the sill is formed.
2. Dry-set the frame with shims, level and plumb; check diagonals within 2 mm.
3. Fit the fixing anchors every 600 mm maximum and within 150 mm of each corner.
4. Apply the air-sealing membrane (bande d’étanchéité à l’air) on the inner side, continuous around all four sides including the corners, pressed onto a primed surface.
5. Fit the external weather-sealing: either a pre-compressed sealing tape or a bead of neutral-cure silicone over a backer rod. The outer seal must be vapour-open relative to the inner one.
6. Set the sill with a continuous bead and a 5 mm slope away from the building; check the weep slots are not blocked by mortar.
7. Glaze or fit the sashes, adjust the friction stays and multi-point lock; each locking point must engage with the same hand pressure.
8. Run a water test (hose at 100 L/h·m² for 5 minutes per unit) and cycle each sash 20 times before handover.

The sealing principle is inner seal more airtight than outer seal. Air that does get in must be able to get back out. Reversing the two — a silicone bead inside and a loose tape outside — traps moisture in the joint and produces the black staining at reveal corners that appears two winters after handover.

Three Failure Points Seen on French Sites

• Corner folds on the air membrane — the membrane is cut at corners instead of folded, leaving a gap of 10 – 30 mm. This alone can move an A*4 window to A*3 in the building’s infiltrométrie test.
• Blocked weep slots — mortar droppings from the sill bed. The frame then fills with water and the E*7A performance is lost in the first storm. Tape the slots during masonry work and remove the tape at handover.
• Fixing through the thermal break — an anchor driven through the polyamide bar instead of through the outer aluminium flange creates a direct thermal bridge and a condensation point at the anchor head.

Building-level verification: the finished building is tested by test d’infiltrométrie (blower door, NF EN 13829) at reception. For a single-family house the RT/RE reference is 0.6 m³/(h·m²) under 4 Pa; the window perimeter is the dominant leakage path if the membranes were not folded.

French Project Data: Lyon Renovation and Arcachon Coastal Villa

Two delivered orders with the numbers as invoiced, in euros, converted at the exchange rate applying on the invoice date.

Case A — 62-Apartment Renovation, Lyon

A social housing renovation in Lyon Métropole replaced 418 fenêtres across 62 apartments. The project targeted CEE funding, so the element-by-element threshold governed the specification.

The decisive specification detail was the warm-edge spacer. The first BET calculation with an aluminium box spacer returned Uw 1.37 and the dossier was refused; replacing the spacer and widening the cavity to 20 mm brought it to 1.27 at a cost of $8/m², about €6 per window.

Case B — Coastal Villa, Arcachon

A 340 m² villa on the Atlantic coast, exposed to salt-laden westerlies and to road noise from the D259.

Note the Uw: 1.45 W/m²K, above the 1.3 element threshold. This is a new build assessed under the whole-building RE2020 calculation, where the BET traded a higher window Uw against other envelope improvements. The element-by-element 1.3 rule applies to renovation and to subsidy eligibility, not to a new-build performance calculation — knowing which regime applies decides how much insulation you have to buy.

Landed Cost Model: 320 m² Foshan to Lyon via Le Havre

Comparatif: Aluminium vs PVC vs Bois-Aluminium

French housing uses all three. The choice is usually made on sightline and maximum size rather than on price alone.

Nine-Parameter Comparison

Selection by Scenario

• Wide openings above 1.5 m per sash: aluminium. PVC needs a mullion and loses the sightline advantage it has on small units.
• Budget-driven social housing on small openings: PVC wins on Uf and price where the module is under 1.0 m.
• Protected timber-look sectors and high-end individual houses: bois-aluminium, where the interior timber is the brief.
• Coastal within 3 km of salt water: aluminium with Qualimarine. Neither PVC nor timber matches the film life.
• Recycled-content requirements in public tenders (RE2020 carbon indicator): aluminium, with the recycled-content declaration attached to the DoP.
• Renovation with subsidy funding at Uw ≤ 1.3: aluminium with a 30 mm or 34 mm break, or PVC with triple glazing; both reach it, aluminium keeps the slimmer frame.

RFQ Checklist and French-English Glossary

A complete enquiry removes two full quotation cycles. Send the items below in the first email.

Technical Items — 12 to Specify

1. Cotes: cote tableau or cote passage, L × H in mm, per opening type, with a unit schedule.
2. Opening type per unit: à la française, oscillo-battant, à soufflet, fixe.
3. Wall thickness or the sash size that implies it (1.4 / 1.6 / 1.8 / 2.0 mm).
4. Thermal break width, or the Uw target the BET requires — if Uw ≤ 1.3 is needed, say so explicitly.
5. Glazing build: pane thickness, cavity, gas fill, Low-E position, laminated or toughened, Sw requirement.
6. Spacer type: aluminium box or warm edge. State it; it is worth 0.10 W/m²K.
7. AEV class required: A* / E* / V* including whether the E* class is A (protected) or B (unprotected).
8. Acoustic target: Acotherm class or Rw (C;Ctr) in dB.
9. Finish label and RAL: Qualicoat Class 1 / Qualimarine / Qualanod, plus bicolour if required.
10. Hardware: opening type, number of locking points, 304 or 316 stainless, sash weight class.
11. Moustiquaire: type, mesh, and whether it is integrated at the factory.
12. Documents required with delivery: DoP with Uw, AEV test report, Acotherm certificate, CEKAL reference, packing list matched to the plans d’atelier.

Commercial Items — 8 to Confirm

• Total area and unit count per configuration; volumes determine the tier.
• Incoterm: FOB Shenzhen / Nansha, or CIF Le Havre / Marseille-Fos / Antwerp.
• Target delivery date on site, working back from production plus sea transit plus inland haulage.
• Payment: T/T 30/70 or L/C at sight, and whether partial shipments are acceptable.
• Sample requirement: finish, hardware and one full-size unit before production release.
• Packing: crate dimensions vs the site access (a 2,200 mm crate needs a 2,300 mm stairwell).
• Crane or scaffold availability at reception — decides crate weight limits.
• Spare parts: gasket, mesh, handles, cylinder — order 2 % at the same time as the container.

Glossary — Product Terms

Glossary — Compliance and Commercial Terms

Where to Continue

Related specifications on this site: the fenêtre coulissante sliding range, the baie vitrée sizes and Uw data, aluminium casement window factory pricing, European tilt-and-turn engineering, and the aluminium doors and windows supplier overview.

Full technical enquiries go to the Foshan engineering desk with the unit schedule, the AEV class and the Uw target attached; a first quotation including the EN ISO 10077-1 input sheet comes back within 48 hours.