But sales of pure-lead crystal have been steadily diminishing, and Steuben Glass posted a $5.7 million loss in 2007, Flaws said. While crystal hasn’t always contributed to profits, its value rested in the status it conferred on its owner and the potential of contributing new glassmaking technologies. Steuben Glass has lately generated about $25 million in annual revenue and employs 150 people, Flaws said. Its wine glasses are priced starting at $120 apiece.Ĭorning, based in the small western New York city of the same name, evolved in the 1990s into the world’s biggest maker of optical fiber and cable, and dominates the global market for liquid crystal display glass used in computers and television monitors.
Steuben Glass creates ornamental works of art that can cost into the tens of thousands of dollars. Corning bought out the business in 1918 and, as popular taste turned toward less ornate forms, formulated a colorless, highly refractive, heavy lead crystal that has distinguished Steuben since the Depression era. “If we conclude that we cannot find a buyer, we will consider other strategic options, which could include closing the business and the factory.”Ĭarder’s richly hued creations turned the English designer into a giant of the glass arts scene alongside Louis Comfort Tiffany and Rene Lalique. We would hope to reach an agreement with a new owner by the end of this year.
“This is a very difficult decision and has been under consideration for several years,” said Corning’s chief financial officer, James Flaws. The crystal business launched by Frederick Carder in 1903 has been unprofitable for a decade, lost $30 million over the last five years and will be unloaded most likely this year – even if that means shutting it down, company officials said Thursday. has placed the maker of the only luxury lead crystal still handcrafted in the United States on the auction block. SoftWear says one of these sewbots can make as many t-shirts per hour as about 17 humans working in a conventional set-up.ROCHESTER, N.Y. SoftWear Automation, meanwhile, created a robotic table that uses machine vision to adjust on the spot to stretching and distortion in the fabric as it sews. Sewbo treats fabrics so that they become stiff and rigid for stitching, but return to normal when rinsed in hot water. “The handling of soft materials is really hard for robots,” Lo said.Ī few companies believe they’ve solved the issue. These workers could move into better jobs, but only if governments and employers start training them for those more skilled roles sooner than later.įor now, at least, Crystal Group will not be replacing humans with machines. One reason is that while robots in use in other industries can work easily with stiff materials, such as sheets of metal or plastic, they can’t yet work with soft, flexible fabrics that stretch and distort during sewing. Currently about two-thirds of its sales are made from clothes produced in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka, which have all become more attractive to garment manufacturers as producing in China, still the global leader in clothing production, gets more expensive.Įxperts are cautiously watching how automation might affect the garment industry, which is a lifeline to millions of less-skilled workers in Asia and elsewhere, even as many of the jobs can be exploitative and dangerous. The International Labor Organization warned in 2016 that robots could replace the majority of textile, clothing, and footwear workers in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia in the coming decades. Crystal Group plans to increase its human staff in Bangladesh and Vietnam-garment hubs with some of the lowest wages in Asia-by 10% annually in the years ahead. In an interview with the Financial Times (paywall), Lo says high-tech sewing robots are “interesting” and could change how some companies make clothes, but in the near-term they still can’t beat cheap human labor on cost.
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