From Defining Glass Automation to Understanding Its Return: IGE’s Perspective on the Evolution from GPAD to GFAB

WHERE THE CONVERSATION STARTED

Before glass automation became a marketing term, it was a practical necessity.

In the early days of modern glass fabrication, plants were defined by manual handling, disconnected processes, and risk that was simply accepted as part of the job. Performance depended heavily on people rather than systems. Safety was often reactive. Capital decisions were driven by immediate needs rather than long-term flow.

That reality helped give rise to Glass Processing Automation Days (GPAD), a forum where the industry could begin asking better questions about automation. It was never about simply selling equipment; it was about asking questions the industry hadn’t yet learned to ask, such as ‘How do we reduce manual handling?’, ‘How do we design safety into the process instead of enforcing it afterward?’, ‘How do we eliminate unnecessary steps, touches, and transfers?’

From the earliest GPAD meetings, IGE was an active participant and sponsor, contributing experience and perspective as the industry worked to understand what glass automation could—and should—be, and approached these questions as systems problems, not machine problems.

“From the very early GPAD days, IGE stood out,” recalls Ron Crowl, long-time Fenetech / Cyncly executive and strategic advisor, “Their focus was about glass automation and how it changed safety, flow, and performance across an entire glass plant.”

During the GPAD era, IGE helped introduce and demonstrate concepts that were well ahead of their time: 

- Automated heavy-glass preprocessing to remove people from dangerous handling steps 

- Full-convection tempering with low-emissivity glass 

- Step-reduction workflows that eliminated wasted motion and unnecessary transfers 

- Clean-processing philosophies such as no fingerprints on the glass 

- Early vacuum-insulated glass automation, including the first VIG units shown publicly

These were not demonstrations for attention; they were practical responses to real factory problems.

Horst Mertes, Cyncly’s VP Sales of EMEA and Strategic Deals, also shares his memories of IGE’s role in the early days, “They weren’t chasing trends—they were shaping the conversation. IGE’s participation at GFAB today reflects that shift—from defining automation to helping fabricators understand where automation actually pays back.”

FROM GPAD TO GFAB: RECOGNIZING THE KEY PLAYERS

As the glass industry matured, so did the forum that supports it.

The evolution from GPAD to GFAB reflects the industry’s growing understanding that automation cannot be evaluated in isolation — it must be considered within the full context of fabrication, operations, and economics.

In IGE’s opinion, the parties that started this conversation almost 2 decades ago to today’s advancement by the National Glass Association (NGA) deserve significant credit for developing and evolving what began as GPAD into GFAB. Through that evolution, the NGA expanded the conversation to address the real challenges fabricators face today: labor availability, safety expectations, energy costs, space constraints, capital planning, and long-term competitiveness.

“I’ve always admired the way GPAD’s Founders, Ron Crowl and Horst Mertes, thought beyond the moment,” says Michael Spellman, Founder and CEO of IGE Glass Technologies. “They saw early that glass fabrication needed its own space, separate from architect-driven or construction-centric meetings, to talk honestly about automation, safety, and how factories actually run. Thankfully, the NGA understands the importance of these face-to-face conversations between fabricators and those that help to provide solutions to their pain points, and they are carrying this mission forward.”

GFAB has become an important industry forum because it reflects where fabricators are now — not where they were years ago.

WHY IGE CHOSE TO STEP IN AS A GFAB PLATINUM SPONSOR

IGE’s decision to become a GFAB Platinum Sponsor for 2026 reflects that same evolution.

The industry has had time to catch up to many of the early automation concepts discussed during the GPAD era. Today, the more difficult—and more important—questions are economic ones: - Where does automation actually deliver return on investment? - Which steps deserve capital—and which do not? - How does automation affect labor, safety, and uptime over five or ten years? - How much factory space does a decision truly consume? - How do we improve flow from cutting to trucking, not just individual processes?

As IGE looks forward to next June’s event in Chicago, Michael Spellman is enthusiastic about IGE’s role at GFAB, “That forward-thinking approach is what excited IGE about GPAD from the start, and it’s why we’re now putting that same excitement and backing behind GFAB. The industry has caught up to those early ideas, and GFAB is exactly the kind of forum the fabricator needs today.”

FROM CUTTING TO TRUCKING. FASTER. BETTER. SAFER. MORE PROFITABLE.

Automation delivers value only when it works as a system. From cutting to trucking, every unnecessary step adds cost, risk, and time.

Since 1978, IGE’s fabrication expertise and ROI-driven solutions focus on reducing steps, reducing touches, and improving flow so operations become: 

- Faster through stability, not chaos  

- Better through repeatability 

- Safer through design 

- More profitable to the fabricator’s bottom line with the right solution

This is how automation earns its place economically.

IGE was part of those early conversations that helped define glass automation, and continues to lead those conversations today. As a GFAB Platinum Sponsor, IGE is proud to contribute experience and perspective to an industry conversation that has evolved—one now focused on return on investment, safety, and system-level fabrication from cutting to trucking.

We invite you to visit us at www.IGEsolutions.com or call us today 800.919.7181

to get started on your ROI-driven solutions.