Tilt and Turn Aluminum Windows Wholesale Factory Direct: Every Sash Ships With a Millimetre Budget, and No Quotation Says How Much Is Left

Type tilt and turn aluminum windows wholesale factory direct into a search box and you get back a very consistent page. There is an aerial photograph of a roof. There is a row of machining centres. There is a paragraph beginning direct factory pricing eliminates middlemen, a percentage saving, a defect rate, a warranty in years, and a minimum order quantity expressed as a number of pieces. Almost none of those pages mention the thing that decides whether the windows work in year three, because the thing that decides it is not a selling point. It is a millimetre budget, and it is spent before anybody moves in.

This article is about that budget. It is the only part of a modern tilt and turn windows order that is consumed rather than installed, that nobody prices, that wholesale multiplies rather than averages, and that buying direct from a factory puts squarely in your hands instead of somebody else's.

The two selling words do two different jobs, and neither one is the hard part

Wholesale is a quantity word. It says you are buying repeat units rather than a one-off, and it carries a genuine promise: unit two hundred should be the same as unit one. That promise is real and it is worth money, but it is a promise about sameness, not about correctness. A factory can make three hundred identical windows that are all identically out of adjustment, and wholesale will have been honoured perfectly.

Factory direct is a relationship word. It says there is no trader between you and the people who cut the aluminium. What it actually buys you is access to a person who can answer a technical question, and that is worth more than the discount most pages advertise. What it does not buy you is the removal of any step in the chain. Every step is still there; you have simply become the party responsible for several of them.

The hard part sits underneath both words and is mentioned by neither. A tilt-and-turn window is the only common window type that arrives with a finite, published, consumable allowance of movement built into its hardware. A sliding window has rollers and a track; when they wear you ｒｅｐｌａｃｅ them. A tilt-and-turn window has a set of eccentric screws, cams and hinges, each with a travel of a millimetre or two, and that travel is the entire maintenance reserve the window will ever have. Every correction you make spends it. Nothing puts it back.

So the honest version of the search phrase is this: you are buying a quantity of a relationship in order to obtain a stock of millimetres, and the millimetres are the only part that runs out.

What the wholesale pages promise, and what it would take to check any of it

Before writing this we read the pages that rank for the phrase. They are not bad pages. They are unusually generous with numbers — MOQ, lead time, defect rate, warranty length, weekly output, container size, cost advantage — and a buyer who has never imported before will find more concrete figures there than on most factory websites. They name their hardware brands. They say how long a standard order takes. They say what a container has to contain. Those are real merits, and any serious supplier should be willing to do the same.

The weakness is structural rather than dishonest: every number on those pages is a conclusion number, and not one of them is a process number. A conclusion number tells you what somebody claims the result was. A process number tells you what was measured, on what, by whom, and against what limit. Only the second kind can be written into a contract.

Claim printed on a wholesale tilt-and-turn page	What you would need in order to verify it	What it actually tells you as printed
A percentage of imported windows fail mid-term durability tests	The test standard, the sample size, the population, and a definition of mid-term	That durability is a selling argument. No test is named, so the number cannot be re-run
A percentage cost advantage over domestic European brands	The comparison basket, the specification of both products, and a date	That the author expects you to be comparing on price. It says nothing about which two products were compared
Full onsite inspection before shipping, plus an outgoing defect rate below half a percent	The inspection checklist, and what counts as a defect	Something important: if inspection really is total, the outgoing rate is a statement about the inspection, not about the lot. Two numbers printed together where one should make the other unnecessary
Minimum order of tens of pieces per model for standard sizes	A definition of model	Very little, because the word doing all the work — model — is the one left undefined
Faster installation because hardware is pre-fitted	A counterfactual: a tilt-and-turn window sold without its fitting	That the writer needed a differentiator. Pre-fitted hardware is how this window type is built; there is no version where it arrives loose
A warranty of ten years on profile and hardware, upgradeable	Which of three industries is warranting what, and under whose terms	That one sentence covers an extruder, a hardware maker and an assembler, and only one of those three is the party you are paying
Thousands of units per week, or a seven-figure annual piece count	The configuration list those units were drawn from	A rate, measured in a unit that rewards exactly the wrong behaviour for this window type
Sub-millimetre precision with inline quality control	What is being measured: cut length, mitre gap, or the installed reveal	A machining tolerance. It is not the same quantity as the gap between sash and frame in the finished wall

One more observation from the same search, and it is the most useful thing on those pages. Two suppliers advertising factory direct for the same product type published minimum order quantities that differ by two orders of magnitude: one listed a single square metre, the other listed tens of pieces per model. That is not generosity on one side and stinginess on the other. It is two different definitions of the word model, and whichever definition your supplier is using is the one that will govern your order.

The millimetre budget: what a tilt-and-turn sash actually ships with

A tilt-and-turn sash hangs on an integrated fitting set: a bottom hinge that carries the weight, a side hinge, a stay, a corner drive, an espagnolette carrying a row of locking cams, and a gearbox that decides whether the handle position gives you tilt or turn. Every one of those parts is adjustable, and every one of them is adjustable by a small amount.

That small amount is the budget. It exists because the window has to be made to a tolerance, installed into an opening made by a different trade to a looser tolerance, and then remain weathertight while the building settles, the aluminium expands and contracts, and the gaskets take a compression set. The hardware absorbs the difference. It can only do so once, in one direction, up to the limit printed in the fitting maker's catalogue.

Three consequences follow, and all three are invisible on a quotation. First, the budget is finite — there is no fourth turn of the screw. Second, it is directional — a sash that has been lifted to its maximum has no lift left, only ｄｒｏｐ. Third, it is consumed by mistakes made by other trades — an opening out of square does not damage the window, it spends the window.

If your search began with upvc tilt and turn windows or a timber alternative, note that the mechanism is the same and so is the arithmetic. Everything below is written about aluminium, because aluminium is the only material we build in.

Four published adjustment budgets, and they do not agree with each other

This is the part of a wholesale enquiry that almost nobody asks for, and it is freely available. Hardware makers and window manufacturers publish the travel of their adjustments in installation and service documents. Here are four we found, kept as their own numbers and not blended.

Published source	Height adjustment	Lateral adjustment	Compression adjustment	Other published figures on the same document
A tilt-and-turn hinge maker's own product page	+/- 1.5 mm	+/- 3 mm	Not published there	Operating torque below 5 Nm; life test 25,000 cycles at 80 kg to EN 1191; application range 800 to 1600 mm sash height, maximum width 2000 mm, sash weight to 80 kg; ｄｒｏｐ test with one hinge removed at 80 kg; C-slot depth 28.5 mm; salt spray 7500 h to ISO 9227 and cyclic test 240 h
A European balcony door and window installation manual	+/- 1/8 in, roughly +/- 3 mm	+/- 1/16 in, roughly +/- 1.6 mm	+/- 1/32 in by turning the octagonal mushroom valve, roughly 0.8 mm	Also +3.5 mm and -2 mm on one frame element; and the sentence that every time the fittings are adjusted it is also necessary to check whether that element has been set properly
A North American window service guide	Stated as part of a range of about 2 mm to 5 mm covering height, side movement and sealing pressure together	Same combined range	Same combined range	Target reveal gap of 2 to 3 mm; target gap on the vertical edge of 0.5 to 1 mm; quarter turns only, re-measure after each
A European tilt-and-turn installation guide	Listed in fractions of a millimetre against the rotation position of the locking cam	Adjusted with a hex wrench to bring sash and frame parallel	Steps of a few tenths of a millimetre, keyed to cam rotation; the largest step is under one millimetre	Standard tilt depth 140 mm with an 80 mm option, and a note that the 80 mm depth calls up an anti-slam device; a lifting mishandling device operated as part of hanging the sash

Now do the only division that matters. The smallest published height budget on that table is +/- 1.5 mm, so three millimetres of total travel. The largest is +/- 3 mm, so six millimetres of total travel. Two hardware platforms, both sold for the same window type, and one of them gives you twice the reserve of the other. That is a two-to-one difference in the thing that decides how much of your building's settling the window can absorb, and it appears on no quotation, no drawing and no comparison table anywhere in this industry.

It is also a difference you can buy, deliberately, for the price of asking. Which is precisely why the phrase factory direct matters here — not for the discount, but because it is the only purchasing structure where you can ask a question and get an answer from the person who chooses the fitting.

What one installation spends, worked out in millimetres

Take an ordinary case. A sash arrives, is hung, and the installer finds the latch side sitting low. He puts a 4 mm key into the bottom hinge and lifts it. He lifts it by 2 mm, which is an unremarkable amount — smaller than the reveal gap that one service guide tells you to expect as normal, and well inside the 2 to 5 mm range that another guide gives for total adjustment.

Height budget on the platform	Total travel available	A 2 mm correction on day one	What is left for the life of the building
+/- 1.5 mm	3.0 mm	Out of range. The correction cannot be made within the published travel	Nothing. The remedy is no longer an adjustment
+/- 3 mm	6.0 mm	Two thirds of the travel, in one direction	1.0 mm in the direction you have not used, and none left in the direction you have
Combined 2 to 5 mm range	Not separable from the published figures	A large fraction of a budget that also has to cover side movement and sealing pressure	Whatever is left over from three jobs that were described with one number

Read the first row again, because it is the one people do not expect. On a platform with a published height travel of +/- 1.5 mm, a two millimetre correction is not a large adjustment. It is an impossible one. The screw reaches the end of its travel before the sash is where it needs to be. At that point the job stops being an adjustment and becomes something else: a different hinge, a re-machined frame, or a sash that is accepted as slightly wrong. All three cost more than the hardware saving that factory direct was supposed to deliver.

The second row is the normal case, and it is still severe. A sash corrected by 2 mm on the day it is installed has spent two thirds of its entire height reserve before the building has a single occupant, and it has spent it in the direction that gravity will keep pulling. What remains is the direction nobody needs.

There is a size effect here too, and it is the reason the largest tilt and turn window in your schedule deserves its own line in the enquiry. A wider, heavier sash puts more of its travel into the same job at the same hinge, and the hinge maker's application range — the one above caps sash height at 1600 mm, width at 2000 mm and weight at 80 kg — is a statement about load, not about whether the adjustment will reach. The biggest unit in the order is the one with the least slack, and it is usually the one everybody looks at first.

The gap you are trying to close is bigger than the tool you are closing it with

This is the shortest and most useful piece of arithmetic on the whole page. The locking cams on a tilt-and-turn espagnolette are eccentric: turning one changes how hard the sash presses against the gasket. The published travel of that adjustment, on a European installation manual, is roughly 0.8 mm, and on a hardware installation guide it is described in steps of a few tenths of a millimetre with the largest step under one millimetre.

Now compare that with the thing people try to fix using it. The reveal gap that a service guide tells you to aim for is 2 to 3 mm; another guide describes a normal reveal of 3 to 5 mm. The gap on the vertical edge that one guide calls optimal is 0.5 to 1 mm.

So: the adjustment can move under a millimetre, and the irregularity people hope to absorb with it is measured in whole millimetres. The compression cam is not a gap-filling device. It is a fine-tuning device for a sash that is already geometrically right. If a window is draughty and the fix is being sought at the locking cams, the diagnosis is almost certainly wrong — the sash is out of square or out of height, and the cam is being asked to do a hinge's job.

One installation manual makes the dependency explicit in a single sentence: every time the fittings are adjusted, it is also necessary to check whether another element has been set properly. Adjustments on this window type are not independent. Moving one moves the case for checking another, which is why the adjustment sequence in those documents is ordered and why the order is printed.

Four adjustment points, and not all of them are reachable once the room is finished

Counting the budget means counting where it lives. On a typical tilt-and-turn set the reserve is spread over at least four places, and they are not equally available to the person who eventually needs them.

Adjustment	Where it lives	State the window must be in	What it costs you later
Height	An Allen screw on the bottom pivot, commonly 4 mm	Sash open, weight on the hinge	Needs clearance to swing the sash. In a furnished room with a deep reveal this is the one people postpone
Lateral	A hex screw on the side hinge, or an eccentric at the corner drive or scissor linkage	Sash open	Same clearance problem, and the eccentric is often the least documented part on the set
Compression	Eccentric mushroom cams along the espagnolette, and slotted striker plates on the frame	Sash closed, to test	Reachable, and therefore the one that gets over-used on problems it cannot solve
Tilt depth	The slider on the sash stay, set at 140 mm standard with an 80 mm option	Sash in turn mode, stay connected	At the 80 mm setting one installation guide calls up an anti-slam device. Changing the depth is not a free choice

Two of the four need the sash open. That is a trivial requirement in a factory and a real one in a bedroom with a bed under the window. The budget is physically available but practically rationed by the room, which is another reason it gets spent late and spent badly.

There is a fifth item that is not an adjustment at all but belongs in the same list, because it decides whether you can reach the others. If a sash has to be de-glazed to ｒｅｐｌａｃｅ a part, the glazing beads come off in a printed order. One installation guide states it plainly: with mitred beads, fit the shorter bead first and then the longer one, and on removal start at the centre of the longer beads and work along. That sequence is not a preference. It is the difference between a bead you reuse and a bead you have to order, from a factory, in a colour batch, months later.

The state no factory can find: half-tilt, half-turn

A tilt-and-turn window is the only common window type that can be put into a condition that is neither open nor closed nor locked. A sliding window is somewhere along a line. A casement window is open or shut. A tilt-and-turn window has two independent modes sharing one handle, and when the selector is operated out of sequence the fitting tries to do both at once. A service guide describes exactly this: the hardware is trying to do two things at once.

This matters for a wholesale order for one specific reason: it is the single failure mode that a factory cannot detect and a buyer cannot inspect. In the factory, the sash is operated by someone who knows the sequence, on a bench, with the window upright and unloaded. The selector never gets a wrong input. In the building, the first wrong input arrives within a week of handover, from somebody who has never been shown anything.

The hardware industry knows this, and the evidence is that they designed a part specifically against it. Installation sequences for these sets include a step described as operating the lifting mishandling device before bringing the handle into turn mode. A component whose only purpose is to defeat mishandling is an admission that mishandling is the expected case, not the exceptional one.

For a wholesale buyer this converts directly into a document requirement. You cannot test it, so you have to buy it: a one-page operation card per window type, in the language of the occupants, showing the three handle positions and the one thing not to do. It costs almost nothing at the factory and it is the highest-return item on the whole order.

Multiply it by the order: the labour line that appears on no quotation

The arithmetic below is ours, and the assumptions are stated so you can ｒｅｐｌａｃｅ them with your own.

Take an order of 300 sashes. Assume four adjustment points per sash, two passes per point — one to set, one to check after the operation test — and thirty seconds per pass including walking to the window and operating the handle. That is 300 x 4 x 2 = 2,400 individual adjustments, which at thirty seconds each is about 20 hours of a trained person's attention.

Add the operation check. Three full cycles per sash — tilt, turn, lock — is 900 handle cycles across the order, and each cycle is the only test that will find a sash that is geometrically wrong rather than cosmetically wrong.

So the sentence to carry into your next negotiation is this: you are buying three hundred windows and roughly twenty hours of somebody's skilled attention, and only one of those two quantities appears on a price. The twenty hours are real, they have to happen, and the only question a wholesale contract settles is who performs them and who pays for them.

Factory direct does not make those hours disappear. It changes the name on them.

Factory direct moves the adjustment, it does not remove it

Across the life of a tilt-and-turn installation, the fittings get adjusted at least three times, for three different reasons, by three different people.

When	Why it is done	Who does it	What is at stake
In the factory, before packing	Set the sash into its frame so it closes and operates	A fitter, on a bench, using the fitting maker's instructions	Whether the sash is set near the middle of its travel or near an end
On site, after the frame is fixed	Correct what the opening and the fixing did to the frame	An installer, usually working from a different document in a different language, against a programme	Most of the budget, spent in one direction, by the person least likely to be told it is finite
After handover, seasonally	Gasket compression set, thermal movement, building settlement	A maintenance person or the occupant, with no document at all	The remainder. One service guide describes seasonal tuning as normal: a quarter turn tighter in cold weather, a quarter turn looser in warm

Note what the third row implies. Seasonal tuning is described as normal — which means the budget is expected to be spent a little every year, by definition, on every unit. A window whose reserve was already two thirds gone on installation day has roughly one season of normal tuning left before the adjustment stops being the answer.

Note also what factory direct does and does not do to this table. It gives you a direct line to the first row, which is the row you can influence most cheaply. It does nothing whatsoever to the second and third rows, because those happen after the container leaves. Buying direct removed a trader from your invoice. It did not remove a single one of these three visits.

Wholesale does not average the error out. It copies it.

This is the part of the argument that applies to wholesale specifically, and it is the opposite of what most buyers assume.

The instinct is that buying in quantity smooths things out: a few units will be off, most will be fine, and the bad ones are a percentage. That instinct is correct for random variation and wrong for systematic variation, and the errors that consume a millimetre budget are almost entirely systematic.

If one batch of frames leaves the machining centre one millimetre out on a stop, every frame in that batch is one millimetre out in the same place. Every sash hung into those frames needs the same correction, at the same screw, in the same direction. Wholesale does not distribute that across the order. It reproduces it, identically, three hundred times, and it spends the same side of the same budget on every single unit.

The consequence is a failure mode with no warning. With a random error, a few units run out of adjustment early and you notice them one at a time, and the fix is a visit. With a systematic error, all three hundred units run out at the same age, and the fix is not a visit: it is a part change or a frame rework on the whole estate. Wholesale converts a per-unit annoyance into a simultaneous estate-wide event, and it does so silently, because the units all look fine until the day they are not.

There is a matching upside, and it is the reason to buy wholesale from a factory rather than from a trader. Because the error is systematic, a single pre-shipment action fixes all three hundred units at once. One measurement, taken before packing, on the right dimension, protects the entire order. That is a genuinely large return for a genuinely small effort — and it is only available from somebody who can tell you which dimension is the right one, which is what factory direct is actually for.

What "per model" hides in a minimum order quantity

Wholesale pages quote MOQ in pieces per model, and the word model is where the argument is. Below is what one model can turn out to mean once an order is actually scheduled, with the tilt-and-turn-specific row last.

Split hiding inside "model"	Why it splits the run	Can it be changed after cutting
Profile series and frame depth	Different extrusions, different corner crimping, different machining programmes	No
Colour and coating batch	Powder is batched; a second batch is a second colour reference whether or not the eye can see it	No, not to the same batch
Glass build-up	Changes sash weight, which moves the sash across the fitting maker's application range	Only by re-glazing, and the weight change may already have moved the platform
Hardware platform	Different slot geometry, different part numbers, and a different adjustment budget	No
Handing and opening sequence	On a tilt-and-turn sash the handing and the tilt-first or turn-first sequence are machined into the frame and the sash	No. This is the row that generates the most expensive mistakes
Size band	Fitting part numbers are keyed to size bands, and so are locking point counts	Only by changing parts

The handing row deserves the emphasis. A tilt-and-turn sash is not reversible by moving a striker plate the way a door sometimes is. The handing and the sequence are cut into the profiles. If the schedule is wrong, the unit is wrong, and no amount of adjustment will reach it — which is the same conclusion the millimetre arithmetic reached, from a different direction.

What buying direct actually lets you ask for

Everything above converges on one practical point. The reason to buy a wholesale tilt-and-turn order direct from a factory is not the discount. It is that a factory can answer questions a trader cannot, and those questions are the only ones that protect the budget. Here they are, in the order that matters.

• Which fitting platform, and what is its published adjustment travel? Not the brand. The travel in millimetres, in the document, for the size band you are buying.
• Where in that travel are my sashes set at packing? Middle is what you want. A sash set near an end has already been spent.
• What is the application range, and which of my sizes sits closest to a threshold? One hinge maker publishes 800 to 1600 mm height, 2000 mm width and 80 kg. Ask which of your lines is nearest the edge of yours.
• What is the tilt depth, and does my depth call up an additional device? One guide pairs an 80 mm depth with an anti-slam device. That is a part, not a preference.
• Give me the spare part list at part number level. Not "hardware available". The part numbers for the gearbox, the stay, the corner drive and the cams on this platform, with the size band each applies to.
• Give me the operation card, in the language of the occupants. One page, three handle positions, and the one thing not to do.
• Give me the glazing bead sequence. Which bead comes off first, so a maintenance visit does not turn into a bead order.
• Who signs the sample, and will the same person sign the first batch? Sameness is a person's decision before it is a machine's output.

A supplier who answers these has counted. A supplier who answers with the size of the roof has not, and the roof has never adjusted a sash.

Twelve lines to paste into your enquiry before you ask anyone for a price

Line	Ask for this	If it comes back blank
1	Fitting platform name and the catalogue edition it is quoted from	You cannot look up any of the numbers that follow
2	Published height, lateral and compression adjustment travel for that platform	You are buying an unknown reserve, and it may be half what another platform gives
3	The application range: sash height, sash width and sash weight limits	One size in your schedule may be outside it, and nobody will have told you
4	Your glass build-up, stated as a configuration and a total glass thickness	Sash weight is unknown, so the weight limit in line 3 cannot be checked
5	A size schedule with handing and opening sequence on every line	Handing errors are cut into the profile and cannot be adjusted away
6	Tilt depth, and whether an anti-slam device is required at that depth	A part you did not know you needed appears as a variation later
7	Where in the adjustment travel the sash is set at packing	Your reserve could be half spent before delivery
8	Spare part numbers for gearbox, stay, corner drive, cams and handles	The first repair becomes a whole-set replacement
9	A one-page operation card in the language of the occupants	The half-tilt half-turn state will happen, and nobody will know how to clear it
10	Glazing bead removal and refitting sequence	A service visit damages beads and creates a colour-matching order
11	What "per model" means for MOQ, listed across all six splits	Your order splits into runs you did not budget for
12	Which dimension is measured on every unit before packing, and what the record is called	The one systematic error that wholesale will copy across the whole order goes unmeasured

Ten answers that sound reasonable and carry no information

What you asked	What came back	Why it tells you nothing
What hardware do you use?	German hardware, top brand	A brand is not a platform and not an application range. Two platforms from the same brand have different adjustment travel
How much adjustment is there?	Fully adjustable in three directions	Direction is free information. The number of millimetres is the whole question
Is it suitable for large sashes?	Up to a stated maximum size	Maximum size is a hardware limit, not a promise that the adjustment will reach at that size
What is your defect rate?	Below half a percent, with full inspection	If inspection is full, the rate describes the inspection. Ask what counts as a defect instead
What is the MOQ?	Fifty pieces per model	Per model is undefined. Ask which of the six splits counts
How long is the warranty?	Ten years on profile and hardware	Three industries in one sentence. Ask which of them, under whose terms, and what excludes an adjustment
Is installation included?	We provide installation drawings and online support	Support is not the same as the second row of the three-visit table. Ask who performs it
Can you match the colour later?	Custom colour matching available	Available is not identical. Ask for the batch reference and whether it is retained
Is it tested?	Meets international standards	No standard is named, and no standard in this industry grades an adjustment reserve
Will the next order be the same?	Same production line, same process	The thing that breaks sameness is a hardware platform change or a batch change, neither of which is a process question

What we publish, and what you still have to ask us for

We would rather state the gaps than fill them. Our tilt-and-turn range is documented on our tilt and turn pages, and the two series listed there are the whole of what we currently publish for this opening type.

We publish this	What it does and does not mean
AW90: thermal value 1.3, profile 1.8 mm, 6060-T66, frame wall width 90 mm, glass sash thickness 90 mm, mullion 72 and 4 mm	The thermal figure is a system value, not a whole-window value and not a value from another country's rating scheme. The 90 mm figures are depth dimensions, not the rebate opening and not a glass thickness
AW90: 240-hour salt spray result, and 5,000 N shear resistance	One is a coating result and one is a composite bond result. Neither is an air, water or wind resistance class, and neither transfers to another series
AW90: Winkhaus hardware, with optional C-slot ROTO	Two platforms means two adjustment budgets. Which one your order is built on is a line in the order, not a line in the catalogue
Two production centres, Foshan and Zhaoqing, and a 100,000 square metre base	Real and checkable, and useful for one thing: the ceiling on equipment and people. It says nothing about the millimetres
Sliding door figures: pulley capacities and driving capacities per sash, and insulated glass spacer widths	These belong to doors, not to tilt-and-turn windows, and two of them are not the same measurement. They are not comparable to a sash weight limit

And here is the list of things we do not publish, which is longer and more useful:

• We do not publish the adjustment travel of the fitting platforms we build with. It is in the hardware maker's catalogue, it differs between platforms, and we will tell you which platform an order is built on.
• We do not publish operating torque for our tilt-and-turn sets. One hinge maker publishes below 5 Nm for its own product; that is their figure for their part, not ours for a window.
• We do not publish a cycle class for our tilt-and-turn sashes. A cycle figure printed for a handle or a hinge is a test on that component, on a bench, not on a window in a wall.
• We do not publish maximum sash size or maximum sash weight for this opening type, because both are functions of the platform and the glass build-up. Give us those two and we will give you the number for your order.
• We do not publish spare part numbers, because they are platform- and size-band-specific. They belong with the order.
• We do not publish a per-model minimum. Ask, and we will say which of the six splits applies.
• Our AW113 tilt-and-turn page is a placeholder, not a specification.
• Five category pages on this site exist with no products on them: swing door, folding door, entry door, tilt and slide, and sun room. We would rather leave a page empty than fill it with something we do not build.

If you are comparing us against a page that publishes all of those numbers, understand what you are comparing. A page that prints a defect rate, a warranty in years, a weekly output and a cost advantage has given you four conclusion numbers. Ask it for the one process number on this page — the adjustment travel of the platform it will actually build — and see whether the answer comes back in millimetres.

When wholesale factory direct is the wrong answer

Say this plainly too, because it is true more often than suppliers admit.

• If nobody on your side can receive, store and re-handle three hundred sashes without bending a frame, buy locally. A bent frame spends the entire budget before installation begins.
• If your openings are being built by a trade that will not work to a tolerance, the millimetre reserve is the wrong thing to be spending. Fix the tolerance.
• If your project has no named person who will own the operation card and the seasonal tuning, direct purchase puts the third row of that table in nobody's hands.
• If your order is a handful of units across many configurations, wholesale economics do not apply and the configuration count will cost more than the units.
• If you need a locally certified performance number for a permitting authority, no factory abroad can hand you one. That is a local test on a local assembly.

Frequently asked questions

Does buying factory direct mean the windows arrive already adjusted?

They arrive set, not adjusted. Set means the sash closes and operates in its own frame on a bench. Adjusted to your opening is a different action that happens after the frame is fixed into a wall made by somebody else. Confusing the two is the most common reason a budget is half spent on day one.

Is a bigger adjustment range always better?

Not by itself. A wide range on a platform whose application range your sash sits outside is worth nothing, and travel is not the same as load capacity. What you want is a platform whose application range comfortably contains your heaviest sash and whose travel is published, so you can tell how much of it you have used.

Why is this worse for tilt-and-turn than for a sliding window?

Because a tilt-and-turn sash is held in three states by one fitting set, and the fitting set carries the sash weight on a hinge rather than on a track. A sliding sash that drops is usually a roller problem with a replacement part. A tilt-and-turn sash that drops consumes a finite travel that no part restores.

Can I specify the adjustment reserve in a contract?

You can specify the platform, and you should. You can then require the published travel to be stated, and require the as-packed setting to be at the middle of it. That is three clauses, all checkable, and together they do more for the life of the order than any warranty length.

What is the single cheapest thing I can add to a wholesale order?

A one-page operation card per window type, in the language of the people who will use the windows, showing three handle positions and the one sequence not to attempt. It costs almost nothing. It is the only item on this list that prevents the failure mode a factory cannot test for.

Do you publish the fitting platform for each order?

We will state it on the order, and we recommend you require it in writing from any supplier. Our tilt-and-turn series is offered with Winkhaus hardware and optional C-slot ROTO, and those are two different platforms with two different catalogues. Which one your order is built on decides every number discussed on this page.

The short version

• Wholesale is a promise about sameness and factory direct is a promise about access. Neither one says anything about whether the window will still work in year three.
• What decides that is a millimetre budget: a finite, published, one-directional reserve built into the hardware of every tilt-and-turn sash.
• Published height travel found on four documents ranged from +/- 1.5 mm to +/- 3 mm. That is a two-to-one difference in the reserve, and it appears on no quotation.
• A two millimetre correction on installation day is between two thirds and all of that reserve, spent in the direction gravity keeps pulling.
• The compression cam moves under a millimetre. The gap people try to fix with it is two to three millimetres. The tool is smaller than the problem.
• Two of the four adjustment points need the sash open. In a furnished room, that rations the budget.
• Half-tilt half-turn is the only failure mode a factory cannot find and you cannot inspect. It is prevented by a document, not a part.
• Our own arithmetic: three hundred sashes, four points, two passes is about twenty hours of skilled attention, on nobody's price.
• Factory direct moves who performs the adjustment. It does not remove the adjustment. There are three visits in a window's life and direct purchase only touches the first.
• Wholesale does not average a systematic error away. It copies it, identically, three hundred times, in the same direction, and they all run out together.
• The matching upside: one measurement before packing protects all three hundred units at once. That is what buying direct is actually for.
• "Per model" in a minimum order quantity hides six splits. Handing and opening sequence are cut into the profile and cannot be adjusted away.