College is for shedding light on a world of thought and ideas. This is the rare case of a university doing so both literally and figuratively. When King's College in London needed window coverings during a recent remodel, they turned to their OEM, Taylormade Joinery in Suffolk. In looking for a dimensionally stable, fire-rated, long lasting and, most importantly, aesthetically pleasing solution, their product distributor, Timbmet Silverman in Oxford, knew just who to turn to next: Contact Industries.

Contact Lumber announced that as of January 1, the Clackamas, Ore. based company will go by Contact Industries. The new name reflects the company's transition from the traditional millwork manufacturing organization to what has become known throughout the industry as an innovative manufacturer of customized products, a number of which no longer utilize lumber in their composition.

Contact Industries is now well into the process of adding significantly enhanced prefinishing options. By the end of the first quarter, a new fully automated paint line will be operating, enabling Contact to stain and topcoat all products more efficiently and with the higher quality finishes required for commercial and residential architectural projects.

Contact Industries was honored by Architectural Products magazine as having one of the top 50 products in 2006. This honor was given to those companies who over the past twelve months have attracted the most reader interest as measured by a reader sales-lead response total. Contact's response total was among the top 1%.

Contact Industries, in conjunction with ARCAT, has developed a specification for their wood and non-wood components. The spec is available online at www.contactind.com and is available for download in Word and PDF formats.