Our story, so far.
After four decades, 100,000 buildings, and 500,000,000 square feet of glazing installed in some of the most remarkable buildings throughout the world, you learn a thing or two about what's important for each project.
Viracon Announcement - Owatonna, MN
Groundbreaking and 800 Bldg Construction Owatonna, MN
1970
Completed construction of Viracon's 45,000 square foot glass fabrication plant, employing twenty people. Fabricated insulating and laminated glass.
1971
Added tempering line, making Viracon the only company to house three lines under one roof.
1979
Added second laminating line.
1984
Expanded 53,000 square feet to house an upgraded horizontal tempering line and warehouse space.
Aerial View of Viracon Campus - Owatonna, MN
Groundbreaking - Statesboro, GA
1992
Expanded the coatings facility to 45,000 square feet to add another coating line.
1994
Completed construction of another 138,000 square feet for new tempering and insulating lines, expanded the coatings facility and added two security product laminating lines.
1996
Planned expansion of 128,500 square feet to add another automated insulating line, cutting line, Silk-Screening line, and more warehouse space.
1998
Completed construction of new 330,000 square foot full production fabrication facility in Statesboro, Georgia.
2001
Acquired a 157,000 square foot office and warehouse facility in Owatonna, Minnesota. Added a silk-screening line and CNC hole-drilling, edge-polishing and shape-cutting equipment.
Statesboro Plant Construction
Statesboro Employees - Statesboro, GA
For more than 2,500 architects and designers, Viracon is a prime single-source resource for not only fabrication but for consulting and technical help as well. Every day, customers rely on us for design assistance, budget costing, ROI costing, quoting, specification writing and review, project coordination, job site inspections, product performance information and detailed technical assistance for our entire line of innovative glass.
2002
Added automatic seaming for improved glass edge quality, and edge-polishing equipment.
2003
Added heat-soaking equipment making Viracon the only company to publish a warranty for glass breakage with heat-soaked glass.
2004
Added CNC hole-drilling equipment to accommodate the growth in structural wall applications
Viracon Facility - Statesboro, GA
Groundbreaking - St. George, UT
2005
Added 65,000 square feet to the Statesboro, GA, facility for expanded coating, insulating, and silk-screening capabilities.
Added three new tempering furnaces and a silk-screening line to the Owatonna, MN facility.
2006
Added a tempering line to Statesboro, GA facility and expanded Owatonna, MN facility with insulating and coating capacity.
2007
Completed construction of new 210,000 square foot full production fabrication facility in St. George, Utah. There are two insulating lines, a tempering line, laminating line, coating line and a silk-screening line.
Updated the Owatonna, MN facility with a new tempering & cutting line, added heat soak capacity, new special fabrication equipment and an over-sized insulating line.
Ribbon cutting ceremony - St. George, UT
St. George Facility - St. George, UT
2008
Added a new tempering line to the St. George, UT facility and a new silk-screen line to the Statesboro, GA facility.
2010
Acquired 100 percent of the stock of Glassec Vidros de Seguranca Ltda, the leading architectural glass fabricator in Brazil, now named Glassec Viracon. The operation produces laminated, insulating, tempered, heat strengthened and silk-screened glass. The 100,000 square foot facility is located in Nazaré Paulista and employs 250 employees.
Glassec Viracon Facility - Nazaré Paulista, Brazil
Glassec Viracon Employees
2013
Completed 104,000 square foot expansion to Owatonna facility to house new Arctic coater, allowing us to coat glass up to 130" x 236".
2015
Completed 236,000 square foot expansion to the Owatonna facility for new oversized glass capabilities, as well as reorganization of some existing fabrication equipment for improved efficiency.
2015
Added 27,000 square foot expansion to Owatonna facility for the ASM (Automatic Sorting Machine), which assists with staging glass lites prior to insulating.
2015
Added 70,000 square foot expansion to Owatonna facility to relocate our in-house boxing department.
2017
Completed 18,000 square foot expansion to Owatonna facility to allow for oversized lamination capabilities.
BIG Glass
Viracon Thermal Spacer (VTS™)
2018
Launched the Viracon Thermal Spacer (VTS™), a proprietary formulation consisting of black thermoplastic with integrated desiccant and primary seal that is chemically bonded directly to the glass and secondary sealant.
Installed a new insulating glass line, adding capacity and improved handling of the fabrication of BIG glass, sizes up to 130" x 236”, and the new Viracon Thermal Spacer VTS.
2019
An additional digital printer was installed to support the growing demand for print on glass.
2020
Installed additional insulating glass line to continue to increase capacity to support the rapidly increasing demand for BIG glass and VTS.
2021
Throughout its history, Viracon has developed and introduced industry leading technologies that deliver a diverse range of aesthetic and performance options for building owners and architects as they design their distinctive buildings. Viracon continuously develops and launches proprietary high performance coatings and this year was the introduction of Viracon PLUS™, a strategic partnership program designed to foster innovative architectural glass technology and bring those technologies to market faster. The Viracon PLUS portfolio of products currently includes CyberShield™ with Pilkington DataStop™ and Viracon PLUS™ Smart Glass powered by HALIO®.
Today, Viracon has grown to become an international market-leader as a key subsidiary of Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOG).