Today f | glass GmbH is considered to be the world's leading manufacturer of glass that meets the highest quality demands and which is characterised by innovative product properties. Whilst we have the world's best production facilities, people are at the core of everything we do, as only motivated and competent personnel are able to produce high-value products of outstanding quality. Learn more about how we work with this fascinating material and what we make from it:
The production of 'Float Glass'
In 1914, Émile Fourcault, working with Émile Gobbe, developed a way of producing flat glass – the so-called "Fourcault process". Flat glass has a consistent width because it is extracted vertically directly from the glass trough. The American Irving W. Colburn developed the Libbey-Owens process in 1917. It is essentially based on the Fourcault process, but achieves a fortyfold increase in glass production, by modifying certain aspects of the process. In 1959, Pilkington was able to implement his brilliant idea of creating flat glass using the so-called float glass process on an industrial scale.
This production process involves a continuous ribbon of molten glass which is poured onto a bath of molten tin, where it floats on the surface of the molten metal and spreads out. A perfectly flat coplanar ribbon of glass is formed naturally as a result of the surface tension of the molten glass and the flat surface of the molten tin. Even today flat glass is still manufactured on this basic principle.
Glass coating – pure nanotechnology
We own one of the world's largest and highest performing continuous flow coating plants for the application of high-end functional glass coatings. This process involves the application of thin nanoscale layers in a vacuum, by means of which the (spectral) properties of the glass can be significantly influenced. In this way, it is possible to produce thermal and solar protective coatings for use in architecture, which simultaneously meet the highest aesthetic demands. But this system is also used for the production of anti-reflection coatings which increase the energy yield in solar systems. All such coatings are optimised for the environment in which they will be deployed and can even withstand being sandblasted in a desert storm.
See more: www.fsolar.de
Integrated glass processing
We cover all aspects of float glass production right up to final delivery in accordance with the customers' specific requirements, and all under a single roof.Whether it's cutting, grinding, drilling or thermal pre-tensioning – state-of-the-art production facilities in conjunction with industrialised mass production guarantee a consistently high quality at the lowest possible cost.
See more: www.fsolar.de
Environmentally-friendly production
The production processes at f | glass enable us to reconcile efficient quality production with our responsibilities towards future generations. We have committed to this overriding principle in our behavioural code.A highly efficient emission control system at f | glass significantly reduces harmful emissions, whereby the resulting filter dust is recycled in its entirety and is added to the glass melt as an important raw material.
We use the roof area of the production halls to harness the sun using a 1MW photovoltaic system – that's energy that we don't need to extract from fossil fuels and which therefore makes a significant contribution to climate stabilisation.