[Image above] Attendees receive instructions before touring Acme Brick during Wednesday’s plant tours. Credit: ACerS
More than 100 attendees converged in Birmingham, Ala., on June 9–11, 2025, to take part in the combined meeting of the ACerS Structural Clay Products Division (SCPD), ACerS Southwest (SW) Section, and Clemson University’s National Brick Research Center (NBRC).
The three-day meeting began with a partial day of independent networking, followed by a full day of informative talks along with the NBRC meeting. On the third day of the conference, two local brick manufacturing sites hosted the SCPD conference attendees for full tours of their plants. The meeting wrapped up with an awards banquet on Wednesday night.
2025 company sponsors
ACerS SCPD Chair Bryce Switzer, sales manager at Vibrantz Technologies, says, “Our committee members put in a lot of work to put this type of meeting together. I think we would all agree that our group of brick manufacturers and supporting partners truly benefit from this event. We would love to see it continue to grow for the benefit of our industry and are open to ideas from our members. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like to be a part of our organization.”
Highlights from the 2025 Structural Clay Products combined meeting are given below.
National Brick Research Center meeting
The meeting began with the NBRC’s Spring Executive Committee Meeting on Tuesday morning. NBRC Director John Sanders along with research associates Nate Huygen and Kathy Hill provided the members with updates about the center. Sanders presented David McKeown with an engraved brick to thank him for his years of service on the Executive Committee of the NCBR. Sanders reminded the committee of the upcoming Clemson Brick Forum, which will take place Sept. 29–30, 2025, in Anderson, S.C.
NBRC Director John Sanders, left, presents David McKeown the engraved brick. Credit: ACerS
Technical session
Tuesday afternoon, 10 industry experts educated attendees on a wide range of topics, spanning from operational safety and plant upgrades to decoration lines and extrudability. (See full program below.)
Brian Gorman of Colorado School of Mines shares his research on net-zero and net-negative fired clay during the technical session. Credit: ACerS
2025 technical program
Plant tours
On Wednesday, attendees toured two plants: Acme Brick Company’s Birmingham plant and U.S. Brick Company’s Bessemer plant. Attendees enjoyed a BBQ lunch and networking at Bessemer Civic Center between the two plant visits.
Networking and awards
Meeting attendees reconnected with old friends and built new relationships each evening. Kicking off the networking events was the Suppliers’ Mixer reception on Tuesday, which was a resounding success and was held at Dave & Buster’s, followed by the awards banquet on Wednesday evening. During the banquet, Switzer graciously thanked everyone for attending and recognized the presenters, plant hosts, ACerS staff, and sponsors for helping make the meeting a success.
Several awards were given during the banquet. Robert T. Belden of Beldon Brick Company was awarded the 2024 SCPD Best Paper award for his presentation titled “Plant 4 Upgrade.” Certificates of recognition were awarded to SCPD Chair Bryce Switzer along with ACerS SW Section Chair Jeff Cross in appreciation of the countless hours that they donated to making this meeting such a success.
View more pictures from the meeting on ACerS Flickr page. Next year’s meeting will take place June 8–10, 2026, in Canton, Ohio.
