SYMPOSIUM 37 – Challenges in Glass Manufacturing and Scale-Up

The translation of novel glass compositions from laboratory discovery to industrial manufacturing remains a central challenge in glass science and engineering. While small-scale experiments enable rapid exploration of composition–structure–property relationships, industrial production introduces constraints related to furnace design, energy consumption, process variability, and product uniformity. This symposium focuses on bridging these scales by examining how laboratory insights can be effectively translated into robust, high-throughput manufacturing processes. Emphasis will be placed on scale-dependent phenomena in melting, fining, redox control, and defect prevention, as well as the impact of processing pathways on performance in optical, fiber, additive manufacturing and emerging glass applications. Contributions from academia, industry, and national laboratories are encouraged to highlight both fundamental understanding and practical solutions that enable scalable, sustainable, and high-quality glass manufacturing.

Session Topics:

Scale-up of glass melting: Batch vs. continuous processing, pilot-to-production transitions
Linking laboratory experiments to industrial manufacturing constraints
Melt chemistry and process control: Redox, volatilization, fining, and homogenization
Furnace technologies and manufacturing infrastructure (electric, hybrid, alternative fuels)
Glass fiber and optical manufacturing: Preforms, draw stability, defect control
Manufacturing challenges for novel glass applications (photonics, additive manufacturing, hybrid systems)
Process modeling, simulation, and data-driven approaches to scale-up
Sustainability and decarbonization in glass production

Symposium Organizer(s):

Kathryn Goetschius, Corning Inc., USA
Joel Destino, Creighton University, USA
Madeleine Schmidlin, Corning Inc., USA
David Dobesh, GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, USA
Nicholas Tostanoski, Corning Inc., USA

Point(s) of Contact:

Kathryn Goetschius; goetschik@corning.com

Division Sponsor(s):

Glass and Optical Materials Division