WARREN, Ohio — A northeast Ohio company is one of five in the world that makes specialized glass for steel mills.
Jane MacPherson is the owner of MacPherson and Company, which specializes in explosion and heat-resistant glass for steel mills.
“This is my dad. This company was started by my uncle,” said MacPherson as she pointed to a photo of her father.
For MacPherson, glass is a matter of family pride.
“This is the first explosion-resistant glass for steel mills,” she explained, pointing out a glass pane that was shattered on one side, but intact on the other.
“This is 10 times stronger than bullet-resistant glass,” MacPherson explained.
MacPherson’s glass can primarily be found in the most dangerous parts of steel mills.
She goes into those mills and inspects the glass periodically.
The specialty glass and windows are what separates workers from the molten steel.
“The steel mills will send the dirtied-up glass back to us,” said MacPherson. “We’ll put fresh glass in it and resend it back to them.”
MacPherson said her glass has helped significantly make steel mills safer and a better work environment.
“The radiant heat used to make them really exhausted, so a man couldn’t work barely the full eight hours without going home extremely exhausted from the heat exhaustion all the time,” said MacPherson. “People would get heat sick all the time. Now, because of our sash and our windows, people don’t get sick anymore.”
Plant manager David Carlisle explained this glass can have many other applications.
“Hurricane shelters, which we haven’t gotten into. Military applications, which we haven’t gotten into. Anywhere you would use bullet resistant glass because our glass is stronger and lighter," said Carlisle.
So there’s always room for growing business abroad and right here in the Buckeye state, like at Cleveland-Cliffs.
“We ship all over the world, from Australia to South America, Africa, India, a lot of the Middle East and, of course, Europe. So all six continents that are inhabited with people we ship to," said MacPherson.