GlasWeld & Scratched Glass Solutions

At a time when some companies are slashing costs and laying off workers, Bend’s GlasWeld Systems Inc. is having the best year in its 25-year history. That’s according to company President Mike Boyle, who prefers the title chief visionary officer. Earlier this month, GlasWeld acquired a Las Vegas-based competitor and is moving it to Bend. GlasWeld, which is privately-held, now has 16 employees, but Boyle expects the company will double in size in the next two years as it absorbs its competitor and continues to expand. Boyle has helped the company grow from a “garage-type” business that built and sold windshield repair kits to an industry authority that is shaking up the way glass manufacturers do business.
Its original line of business is windshield repair kits and training. According to Boyle, the company is the world’s largest manufacturer of windshield repair kits. GlasWeld’s system uses a vacuum tool that removes moisture and contaminants from a windshield crack or ding and then injects a resin into the affected area. The resin is then cured with an ultraviolet lamp. Boyle said repairing a windshield is safer than replacing a windshield, as the factory bond between the windshield and the vehicle frame isn’t easily duplicated by third-party contractors. Several years ago, GlasWeld patented a system to repair scratches without altering the optics of the affected glass. In other words, it could repair a scratch, using a proprietary compound and special buffer without distorting the glass around the scratch as buffing alone can do.




It works on windshields, but GlasWeld found it also worked on flat glass, the industry term for windows and other architectural glass. This presented the company with more than a few growth opportunities. Boyle said glass manufacturers typically send 6 percent of their production to the dump. Boyle said his company’s systems can salvage 80 percent of that glass.
In an era where waste is unacceptable due to negative environmental perceptions and impact to the bottom line. Boyle said glass manufacturers are turning to GlasWeld to help them keep costs down both in the plant and the field. “The reason we’ve gone (with GlasWeld is) we do expect to save on our service costs and the amount of glass we throw away,” said Kim Flannery, engineering director for Milgard Windows and Doors in Tacoma, Wash. Milgard’s windows have a lifetime warranty, Flannery said. To replace a scratched piece of glass in the field is expensive and time-consuming, but with GlasWeld’s system, it can take one Milgard technician as little as five minutes. And it doesn’t alter the optics, which is something Flannery had never seen before.
“The reason we never got excited about this in the past was because other scratch-repair technology changed the characteristics of the glass,” Flannery said. “If you looked at it just right, you knew something had been done, but so far that has not been an issue here, and that seems to be the thing I’m most impressed with.” That’s one prong of GlasWeld’s growth, Boyle said. Another is the company’s burgeoning forensic glass services. Boyle half-jokingly calls it Glass Scene Investigations, a play on the popular television show “CSI,” or Crime Scene Investigation.
As Boyle explained, when developers discover that the windows installed in their projects, be it skyscrapers or luxury condos, are scratched, they want to know whom to bill for the repairs: the manufacturer, the shipper, the installer, the window cleaner or the mason who may have accidentally nicked a window with his trowel.




Boyle said his company can determine from the damage who is to blame. “We know more about glass than most of the people who produce it,” Boyle said. In the past few years, GlasWeld has been called to assess the glass in several high-profile projects, including the 57-floor Comcast Center in Philadelphia and the Wynn Las Vegas casino in Nevada. At the Wynn, Boyle said, a carpenter accidently scratched the front windows of a jewelry store three days before the casino opened. The scratched windows cost roughly $60,000 and had taken six months to produce, meaning no immediate replacements were available. Boyle sent over a GlasWeld contractor who spent the next three days repairing the glass.
A similar incident happened at the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson, Wyo., he said. A developer had discovered the windows in his luxury condos were scratched. Rather than replace the windows, the developer hired GlasWeld to remove the scratches. It took a few months, but GlasWeld was able to complete the task, at considerable savings to the developer, Boyle said.
Throwing glass away is expensive, he said. But several years ago, Boyle came to the realization it’s also environmentally unsound. Only bottled glass is recycled, he said, while windshields and flat panel glass usually end up in landfills. Windshields can’t be recycled cost-effectively because they have petroleum-based laminate layered between the two panes of glass that make up a windshield. Windows and other architectural glass can’t be recycled cost-effectively because they are usually coated with anti-glare or energy-conservation coating and are affixed to metal or wood frames.
The glass can be ground up, but it’s an expensive process. Most of the time, it goes into the landfill, where it sits, practically forever, he said. Glass, after all, is melted sand. With that environmental message in mind, and adopting a polar bear as the marketing tool, GlasWeld several years ago began growing its glass repair business. The company also changed some of its business practices to keep in line with its message, such as switching from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs, buying a commercial-grade printer to print marketing materials on demand rather than in bulk and reducing packaging. And it’s paid off, Boyle said. “We started building a message of sustainability … so now we’re saving money and getting more market share,” Boyle said. Boyle wants to expand the company’s sustainability message and in the spring plans to host a conference in Sisters for glass industry executives worldwide to share its message. “Our ultimate goal is to become a Baldrige winner,” said Boyle, referring to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award handed out annually by the U.S. president to businesses that show leadership and other exemplary business practices. “To be worthy of that award, that’s when we hit our stride,” Boyle said.