Glassbuild america 2005

This year saw the biggest turnout ever for GlassBuild America. In 2004 and 2003, the number of registrants were 5,600 and 7,000 respectively. This year it topped 9000.

The trade show, dedicated to the commercial and residential glass, window and door markets, provided an opportunity for visitors to witness growing industry-wide trends, including the influx of emerging markets.

Chinese Impact

The strongest international presence was from China. The Chinese influence was seen throughout the show as material and supplies vendors, attendees and machinery manufacturers.

Chinese edgers, and even a tempering furnace, were on display. It is undeniable that they are here to stay and are making an impact on the industry. We will all have to adapt as we face them as competitors and consider them as possible suppliers. The greatest mistake would be to deny or ignore them.

Big Turnout

The turnout seemed to be much larger than usual this year, and according to the vendors I spoke to, people were not ‘just looking.’

Many machinery suppliers reported selling all the machines that they had brought, and their sales people had some serious leads to follow up.

Business owners were not only working the trade-show floor, but were also spending time in the educational seminars. This is healthy sign for our industry: glass-shop owners are pursuing continuing personal and professional development.

While walking the near 300,000 square feet of exhibit space, attendees could see another trend in the increased automation of many of the machines running on the show floor.

Automation

Automation was on top of the agenda for attendees and exhibitors, as many U.S. plant owners bought components to expand or upgrade their glass-processing equipment. More efficient production, achieved by introducing robots; software; smaller, more compact lines; and by reducing necessary labour, emerged as a major theme of the show.

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is clearly the priority of replacement window buyers. In a session entitled What Consumers Really Think About Windows, a focus group was broadcast live to GlassBuild America attendees as part of a special presentation. It found that recent purchasers of windows were very satisfied with the impact their new windows had on energy bills. They reported savings of a third to a half on their monthly bills.

The larger number of visitors and exhibitors, particularly on the residential window and door side of the industry, included a wide range of glass professionals – from fabricators to shop owners and glaziers.

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