What’s in Our Future

Working with consulting clients, the most often asked question is: What is the future of the glass industry? Or as the business side of us would say, Where should I be investing my money in the glass business?

My answer is quick and sure–go with PVB laminating.

Laminated glass offers many avenues of sale, safety glass, great color possibilities, blast and bullet resistance and ease of use at the installer level.

If you live or work near the East Coast of the United States, hurricane glass should be a phrase in your vocabulary.

If you have an airport in your back yard, or an interstate, laminated glass reduces sound transmission through your windows.

Lami does all this and more. Put lami into a residential IG unit and the furniture fades less. Most skylights are made using lami to meet the code for glass fallout. Lami protects most jewelry stores in our country from the smash-and-grab thief.

Add low-e to one light of the lami sandwich in an insulating glass unit and energy efficiency is in your installation.

If you are in a retail glass shop, learn everything you can about lami, study Solutia’s and Dupont’s web sites (listed in the US Glass Forum this week). If you are wondering how to grow your business, Lami is the way to go.

Lami can do everything. Wow, this sure does sound like a prepared blog by some association selling lami, but it is not. My consulting customers have paid a lot to hear this same advice. The only fee I hope to get from our USGlass readers is a simple phrase spoken out-loud: “Go Mets” While my hourly rate would be nice, the Mets are more important than money.

So what have we learned today? The future of the glass industry lies with laminated glass, and I can be bought fairly cheap.