Glass Tourism

While I’m sure the thousand+ employees of Owatonna, Minn.-based Viracon enjoy their respective jobs, I imagine it’s been awhile since someone has been so excited about stepping foot into that facility as I was when I visited the company earlier this month. (Want to know what spurred that visit? Then be sure to look for the December issue of USGlass!) While I’ve been working with USGlass magazine on and off for nearly four years now, I hadn’t previously had the opportunity to visit a glass fabrication facility, so the tour I got made me as happy as a two-year-old given free rein in Toys R Us.

Up to this point, trade shows have been the big highlight for me as they have provided an opportunity to go out and see up close the equipment I spend so much time writing about. But it was a greater thrill to see the equipment dirty and in use, and working in such easy coordination with multiple other pieces. Some of the lines, altogether, seemed longer than my apartment. And just watching the big lites of glass moving up and over the floor to where they needed to be was amazing.

I mean, it’s one thing to get a sample of a spacer product in the mail, and another thing altogether to take in the sight of spacer frames hanging ready for application, practiced technicians putting them into place, the machinery running over the spacer and trapezoidal lites—somehow making the whole sandwich line up just right—with the sticky silicone being slapped into place. So that’s how it all works! The silkscreening process was another delight to watch. I’ve helped silkscreen tee shirts in the past; how neat to see that the process isn’t that much different with glass—even if the similarities are only there on a very basic level. That is, the screen and roller I saw putting patterns on glass at Viracon were just a bit bigger than what I used in my mom’s garage. And don’t even get me started on the peek I got at the coating line and the brilliant colors within.

I’m sure there are a few chuckles out there, since I know this is old hat for most of you. But hopefully you can appreciate that for somebody relatively new to the industry—still a bit of an outsider looking in—your business is really quite exciting.

I’ve already received a couple of invitations to visit additional companies, and many thanks in advance. As I’m sure you can all imagine, frequent deadlines keep me on my toes, but as I travel for meetings I’d be happy to extend a trip a day to take in the exciting sights like a true glass industry tourist. (Now there’s a coffee table book idea my dear friend and USG contributor Brigid O’Leary and I have yet to discuss … photos of glass shops around the country. Hmm, why hasn’t the travel channel thought of that …?)

I guess now when I’m on the interstate in the morning and I see the occasional glass carrier, I won’t just wonder where they’re going—I’ll wonder now where they’ve been!