The Glass Industry and the Pilkington Float Process

Extract Introduction Pilkington's float glass process is one of the great process innovations of this century. It transformed the industry and caused prices to fall dramatically. Since its development and introduction in 1959, the float process has almost totally displaced other methods of manufacturing flat glass. It completely replaced the plate process and almost completely replaced the sheet process. World‐wide glass production has increased many fold since 1959, due in large measure to the massive reduction in the cost of glass brought about by the almost‐universal adoption of the float process. This adoption was enabled by a worldwide licensing programme engineered by Pilkington. Pilkington's innovation provided large returns to the many licensees of the float process. The float process also benefited consumers and producers. Consumers have gained from the significantly lower prices and consistently high quality of flat glass produced by the float process. The consumer benefits flowing from lower prices, high...