Texas welcomed the return of Glass TEXpo™ ’25. The biennial event, held at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, opened its doors on Wednesday, May 7, to local, regional and national glass and glazing attendees and exhibitors.
The show’s schedule featured several networking activities, including the TGA Jerry Wright Memorial Golf Tournament, Guns & Glazing—Texas Edition, a social cocktail hour and a new-to-the-glass industry party at Holey Moley. The event is co-sponsored by the Texas Glass Association and [DWM] sister publication USGlass magazine and USGNN™.
Glass TEXpo also boasted a trade show floor with more than 160 exhibitors and a diverse rotation of seminars. The show was the largest to date. The sessions provided an in-depth look into glass trends and offered attendees applicable information that can be used to improve operations.
The seminar portion of the show included a keynote presentation by Attila Arian, the former president of Schüco USA, regarding steps companies can take to mitigate material and technical changes that impact businesses. Other topics centered on technology in the construction industry, school security, heavy glass entrance systems, door hardware, sustainability and heavy glass machinery.
Heavy Glass Machinery: How to Make the Perfect Purchase
As glass size increases and the labor force decreases, large glass manipulators have become necessary on many projects. In this seminar, several panelists evaluated how different machines meet particular needs, the costs associated, and what it takes to handle large glass and machinery.
Will Daly, Texas business development at Great Lakes Lifting, notes that heavy glass refers to anything unsafe to manage, be it excessive weight, height or even curved glass.
“The biggest measure of success when dealing with large glass is planning,” explains Barry Wood, vice president of marketing and commercial development of Wood’s Powr-Grip Company Inc. “You need to know the local codes, figure out how you’re going to get the glass to the site and how you’re going to manipulate that.”
Daly adds that if your company doesn’t have experience installing large glass, equipment companies provide lifters and offer insight on how to best proceed. For companies that only need a machine for a particular project, Jerry Nudi, principal of Ergo Robotic Solutions, says renting is an option that might be more cost-effective compared to buying.
Daly explains that many of the “mom and pop” shops are more than likely to rent. It allows them to test a product and gives their employees hands-on training with the equipment. Larger companies are more inclined to buy lifters since they deal with large glass more often. He adds that he noticed that employees at companies that use lifters are much happier because they can work on projects with less risk of injury.
Sustainability was also on the agenda during the first day of Glass TEXpo.
The Glass Industry’s Road to Sustainability
Adrian Betanzos, principal at VIA, a facade consulting firm, says that a float line uses 1.3 million kWh worth of natural gas per day. That’s more than the consumption of over 120 American homes in one year. Additionally, he notes that:
- One ton of glass from virgin materials creates around 500kg of carbon emissions; and
- Fifty-seven percent of the energy used in a building is building envelope-related. That’s a problem.
Betanzos says that, fortunately, one of the beauties of glass is that it is infinitely recyclable. The glass industry can do many things with glass if recycled, but it doesn’t do enough. Instead, 11 million tons of glass are disposed of yearly, accounting for nearly 20% of landfills.
Betanzos states that glass can be repurposed instead of using raw materials, which results in 30% less energy consumed when recycled glass is used to make new glass. Of course, many roadblocks remain, including a lack of incentive, no infrastructure to recycle, no supply chain, inert glass, post-demo challenges and a lack of education.
To the Trade Show Floor
No regional glass show is complete without a bustling trade show floor. Glass TEXpo’s show floor featured more than 160 exhibitors displaying a wide range of products, including lifters, automated machines, decorative glass and hardware. For first-time exhibitors QC Glasshardware, the event was a success.
“We were nervous, but it’s gone very well,” says Raquel Isasi of QC Glasshardware. “We got at least four potential customers just from the first day. We’re happy.”
QC Glasshardware was among dozens of companies that displayed hardware for various systems, including shower doors, entrance doors, windows and more. The ongoing economic turbulence was also a theme at Glass TEXpo. Wanye Sharp, vice president of sales for SAF, says he arrived at the event to understand market conditions in Texas and other locations.
“We have been seeing a slowdown even though the Dodge Reports say things are increasing,” says Sharp. “There are a lot of projects postponed, canceled or pushed back. Many of our customers say they have large backlogs, but those backlogs are not moving forward. We were hoping to talk to other vendors to understand better what they’re seeing and if they’re seeing the same things.”
Tristar’s Marlin Hughey says his booth had good traffic throughout the event. However, he noticed that much of the ongoing talk was about the tariffs and how they’re impacting equipment and products coming from overseas.
“Everybody has their own opinion about that, but it’s something to be concerned about and something we need to keep an eye on.”