The History and Future of the Flat Glass Industry

From the stained glass windows of medieval
churches to the Renaissance monopoly of Venetian
mirror makers, flat glass has brought us protection
from our environment, while also reflecting its
beauty. Today’s flat glass still exhibits those ancient
characteristics of form and function, while carrying
us into the future as a performance platform for
both practical and exotic technologies.
Using a wide variety of batch combinations,
we take glass from our float lines and coat, bend,
shape, laminate, and temper it. The resulting
products provide us with year-round comfort,
protect our fabrics from fading, reduce our energy
costs, block sound transmission, improve our
security, and allow us to replace walls of brick
and mortar with panoramas of light and natural
beauty. Flat glass products also support leading-edge
technologies such as flat-panel displays,
liquid crystal, and computerization.
Flat glass is a product that is common to all of
us—but how we manufacture, distribute,
fabricate, and market glass today is as unique as
our individual cultures and customer bases. To
prepare for the future, we simply have to listen to
the needs of our customers—and respond with
the kinds of innovations that have characterized
our industry for the past 3500 years. While our
customer base has changed from the local prince
and bishop to thousands of product applications
worldwide, innovation continues to be the key to
meeting our customers’ needs—and carrying on
a tradition of success.

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