Officials from Eastman Chemical Co. announced its subsidiary Southwall Insulating Glass will leave the insulating glass business in Chicago later this year.
Southwall Insulating Glass will leave the insulating glass business in Chicago later this year.
The Chigaco site primarily produces Heat Mirror Insulating Glass, which provides performance beyond triple-pane IG, but with the same weight as dual-pane IG, according to officials. Company officials said the business is expected to close “in the September timeframe.”
“This decision to exit the Chicago business is a business decision and is no reflection on the performance of the Chicago site, its employees or the product,” Eastman officials said in a statement. “Production will continue in the coming weeks as Southwall Insulating Glass works to fulfil final customer shipments. Customers are being notified of the intention to exit the business and their need to find a new source of supply of insulating glass.”
According to Eastman officials, the business subsidiary invested heavily to develop the manufacturing automation required to deliver Heat Mirror IG at scale in anticipation of revisions to the Energy Star for Windows performance criteria. “Although the company successfully developed that world-class automation, unfortunately those revisions did not turn out as expected,” officials said. “Consequently, the decision has been made to exit the IG business and pursue other strategic options for its promising, state-of-the-art Heat Mirror technology.”
Eastman will continue making Heat Mirror film, which is produced at its manufacturing site in Dresden, Germany, and will continue to be available to licensees around the world, according to officials. “Eastman will also continue to explore strategic options that leverage Heat Mirror technology and manufacturing automation to accelerate growth of the global Heat Mirror film business,” company officials said.