Day Two of GANA's Glass Fabrication 2007 Opens with Talks of Broken Glass and Other Topics

Several speakers opened Glass Fabrication 2007 yesterday, covering a range of topics from glass breakage to the changing trends in glass uses.

Bob Maltby, also known as "the professor," who works for R&D Reflections was the morning's first speaker. He talked about glass breakage, explaining that glass breaks in tension, not compression. Tension can come from stress and types of cracks, he explained. He also talked about some of the considerations that fabricators must take when running a tempering furnace to ensure the glass is good.

"If you're going to cut the glass," Maltby said, "You must have uniform temperature." He explained that when the glass comes out of the furnace and it is easily cut very little heat is being lost in the furnace.

Mark Gold followed with a presentation on building codes and standards. He provided an overview of the different groups and organizations that write codes and standards and talked about the ones that relate to glass and glazing specifically.
"A code is mandatory and a standard is voluntary," said Gold. "Though a standard can be referenced by a code."

Green building and LEED design was covered in a presentation by DuPont's Dr. Tammy Amos. She explained that the push toward green building has been led by increasing energy costs and a need to design buildings that reduce the impacts on human health and their environments.

"LEED is getting more enthusiasm and attention from the architectural community," she said. She explained the LEED points systems and that the two main areas for glass to gain points are the energy and materials categories.
"Buildings use a tremendous amount of energy, so we are looking for ways to reduce the amount used," she said.

Additional presentations from yesterday's general session included coverage of heat processing for insulating, laminating and tempering by Jim Gulnick of Tamglass and glass trends in the industry by Don McCann of Viracon.

Specific topic sessions covering insulating, laminating or tempering were available later in the afternoon.

Glass Fabrication, sponsored by the Glass Association of North America (GANA) is taking place in Pittsburgh.