The 35th Hotbels glass industry seminar was held in Lexington, KY, USA on 26-27 April and featured several informative presentations by glass industry suppliers and manufacturers.

Chuck Mace of Ardagh Glass Packaging was selected as a recipient of the 2022 Hotbels BTU Award

This year’s Hotbels conference attracted multiple representatives from 40 glass production facilities, in addition to delegates from 23 different organisations that supply services and products to the glass industry.

The highlight of each Hotbels event is the presentation of the Business & Technology United (BTU) Award.

This annual award was established in 2007, gives recognition to an individual or a group that has contributed to the evolution of Hotbels and education in the glass industry.

This year’s BTU Award was presented to Chuck Mace of Ardagh Glass Packaging. Chuck has worked in the glass industry for 31 years, beginning his career in Dunkirk, Indiana at Kerr Glass.

He has a range of experience in furnace operations and engineering as well as a B.S. in management from Indiana Wesleyan University.

He has held positions of increased responsibility including Batch & Furnace Manager at Dunkirk, Lincoln, and Dolton, Furnace Design Engineer, Furnace Operations Engineer, Manager of Furnace Operations.

He is presently the Director of Furnaces with responsibility for operations, maintenance, engineering support and process improvement of Ardagh Group’s North American Glass container division.

Chuck Mace joins a distinguished group of previous BTU Award recipients, including:

  • C Philip Ross, Glass Industry Consulting International (2007)
  • Michael A Nelson, Corhart Refractories (2008)
  • Dr Douglas H Davis, Toledo Engineering Co (2009)
  • John T Brown, Corning Inc and GMIC (2010)
  • Michele Blackburn, Saint-Gobain SEFPRO (2011)
  • Kevin Lievre, Formerly Air Products (2012)
  • Matthew Wheeler, RHI US Ltd (2013)
  • The Verallia Group (2014)
  • George Kopser, Hotwork-USA (2015)
  • Roberto Cabrera, Vitro Vidrio Y Cristal (2016)
  • David Boothe, Allstates Refractory Contractors (2017)
  • HarbisonWalker International (2018)
  • Brian Naveken, TECO (2019)

In addition to Chuck Mace’s contributions and discussion on Economics of Nano-Tec, attendees had the opportunity to learn from speakers from Cardinal FG, HarbisonWalker International, Hotwork-USA, Fosbel, RHI Magnesita, TECO, CelSian Glass & Solar, Ametek & Simpson Combustion & Energy, and ERTL Combustion Products.

The annual Hotbels seminar is co-organised by US technology suppliers Fosbel and Hotwork.