PROGRAM SCHEDULE
PRE-CONFERENCE SHORT COURSES
Course 1: Noon – 5:00 p.m. — Fundamentals of Batch and Furnace Operations
C. Phillip Ross, President, Glass Industry Consulting
Course 2: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. — Understanding Electrical Power in a Glass Manufacturing Plant
Stanley F. Rutkowski II, Senior Applications Engineer, RoMan Manufacturing
5:00 – 11:00 p.m.
HOSPITALITY SUITES at the Toledo Hilton Garden Inn
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
EXHIBITS OPEN
8:45 – 9:00 a.m.
WELCOME
Kerry Ward, Conference Director/Executive Director, Glass Manufacturing Industry Council
2025 GLASS INDUSTRY AWARDS PRESENTATIONS
Stanley F. Rutkowski, III President, Glass Manufacturing Industry Council/RoMan Manufacturing
PROGRAM INTRODUCTIONS
K. Sundaram, PhD, Program Director, Alfred University
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: Melting
Chairs: Glenn Neff, Vice President, Glass Service USA; Jan Schep, Melting Strategist Refractory and Steel, O-I
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Optimizing burners to improve oxy-fuel furnace operation; Daniel Johnson, Manager Glass Technology, Libbey, Inc. and Jesse Cates, Mechanical Design Engineer, Linde
9:30 – 10 a.m.
Energy economics and the future of melting glass; Johnathan Blevins, Sr. Furnace Design Engineer, Toledo Engineering, Co., Inc.
10 – 10:30 a.m.
High TRL glass melting technology ready for decarbonization; Wolf Kuhn, PhD, Chief Expert in Glass, Fives Stein
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
BREAK & EXHIBITS
11:00 – 12:00 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: MELTING CONTINUED
11 – 11:30 a.m.
Optimizing glass and refractory development through the advantages of gradient furnace; Artem A. Trofimov, Senior Application Scientist, The Edward Orton Jr. Ceramic Foundation
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Revolutionizing glass furnace operations through AI-based batch coverage detection and NIR-B 2K thermal imaging; Philippe Kerbos, Global Industry Manager, AMETEK LAND
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
LUNCH AND EXHIBITS
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PROJECTS
Chairs: S. K. Sundaram, PhD, Program Director, Alfred University; Kerry Ward, Conference Director/Executive Director, GMIC
1:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Improving Electric Melting for the Future of Glass Manufacturing; Scott Cooper, PhD., Technical Director, CelSian USA and Katelyn Kirchner, PhD., Glass Process Scientist, CelSian USA
1:30 – 1:50 p.m.
Reduction of foaming of reduced glasses; Jesse Lang, Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
1:50 – 2:10 p.m.
Investigating furnace upsets from high cullet and mixed redox conditions in
electric melting; Eric Muskovin, Laboratory Project Leader, CelSian
2:10 – 2:30 p.m.
Modeling Collaboration and Insights; Jonathan Blevins, Senior Furnace Design
Engineer, TECO
2:30 – 3:00 p.m.
BREAKS AND EXHIBITS
3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: DECARBONIZATION
Chairs: Robert Thompson, Manager Raw Materials & Glass Technology, Corning; Daniel Johnson, Glass Process Engineer, Libbey, Inc.
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
ZeroCO2 glass advancing the path to carbon-neutral container manufacturing; Dominik Orzol, Managing Director, International Partners in Glass Research e. V. and ZeroCO2-glass – investigations on meltability of CO2-free glasses; Tomasz Englemann, M. Sc. RWTH Aachen University
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Glass furnace hydrogen firing; Kyle Sword, R&D Director North America NSG Pilkington
4:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Sorg’s “Viking®” forehearth – a modelling exercise; Dirk Schnurpfeil, Manager R&D, Nikolaus SORG GmbH & Co. KG
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: ENVIRONMENTAL
Chairs: Shrikar Chakravarti, Associate Director, Glass Business Development, Linde, Inc.; Kenneth Bratton, Manager of Research and Development, Bucher Emhart Glass
4:30 – 5:00 p.m.
CO2 reduction experience – how oxy-fuel furnaces influence downstream flue gas
treatment systems; Gerald Norz, Sr. Business Development Manager, Durr Systems, Inc.
5:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Sustainable interleaving powders for glass separation and stain protection; Bret Penrod; BASF Chemetall
7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
HOSPITALITY SUITES at the Toledo Hilton Garden Inn
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
EXHIBITS OPEN
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: Sensors
Chairs: Glenn Neff, Vice President, Glass Service USA; Jan Schep, Melting Strategist Refractory and Steel, O-I
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Glass defect reduction in the tin bath – using sensors, automation and artificial intelligence to improve glass quality & manufacturing; Michael J. Gallagher, PhD, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
9:30 – 10 a.m.
Infra-red monitoring of glass futures furnace heat-up ambient air to operating oxy-fuel; Neil George Simpson, Consultant, Simpson Combustion & Energy, Ltd.
10 – 10:30 a.m.
Life beneath the pavers. Operating furnaces for years after glass breaches; Mohit Gohel, Technical Sales Director, PaneraTech, Inc.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
BREAK & EXHIBITS
11:00 – 12:00 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: Modeling
Chairs: James M. Uhlik, Vice President Technical Services, Toledo Engineering Co. Inc. (TECO); Justin Wang, Senior Process Engineer, Guardian Industries
11 – 11:30 a.m.
From Siemens to simulation: understanding and optimizing regenerators; Malte Sander, Business Development Manager, Glass Service
11:30 – 12:00 p.m.
Ultrafast laser welding of plate glasses – modeling and experimental results, S.K.
Sundaram, PhD, Inamori Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Alfred University
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
LUNCH AND EXHIBITS
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: Rebuild and refractory
Chairs: Eric Dirlam, Master Furnace Engineer, SSOE; Michael Gallegher, PhD, Lead Engineer, Glass Combustion Applications, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
1:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Ensuring safety and compliance in glass furnace rebuilds: strategies for risk mitigation and efficiency; Dragan Savic, Senior Vice President, SCT Operations, Inc.
1:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Increasing melter throughput, efficiency, and life through design of mullite crown performance; Kristen Pappacena, Principal Scientist, Saint-Gobain SEFPRO
2:00– 2:30 p.m.
Nano-Tec TM ceramic welding materials; Sean Gilbride, VP Global Technical
Operations and Manufacturing, Fosbel, Inc.
2:30 – 3:00 p.m.
BREAK
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
PROGRAM TRACK: FREESTYLE
Chairs: Jonathan McCann, Glass Technology Manager | R&D, Johns Manville; David Girvin, Float Manager, Vitro Architectural Glass
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
DPH alloys – innovative precious metal solutions for the glass industry; Matthias Wegner, Head of Innovation, Heraeus Precious Metals
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Innovative glass processing: unlocking efficiency and sustainability in the circular economy glass processing; Thomas Wesian. Ing., Binder+Co AG
4:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Global divergence of priorities and technologies; Rob Ireson, Head of Innovation, Glass Futures, Ltd.
4:30 – 5:00 p.m.
CONFERENCE WRAP-UP
5:00 – 5:30 p.m.
GMIC MEMBERS MEETING
**All Conference Events will take place at Glass City Center, Toledo, Ohio, USA
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