Company profi le: Pilkington UK

from Glass International October 2022

ICG review

� Pilkington’s UK Float Plant (Greengate Works) in St Helens.

70 years of Pilkington float glass

Pilkington UK, part of the NSG Group, celebrates 70 years of float glass production this year. Leopoldo Garces Castiella* and Neil Syder** outline the company’s history and plans for a decarbonised future.

This year is the 70th anniversary of float glass invention, which was invented by Sir Alastair Pilkington. However, the company ‘Pilkington’ is much older, almost 200 years, having been established in 1826. The company was founded by John William Bell under the name St Helens Crown Glass Company, before later becoming Pilkington in 1884.

The success of our company lies in our skilled and knowledgeable employees, combined with our continuous focus on technology development and innovation. Our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders continue to play a critical part of that success.

History

� Left: Leopoldo Garces Castiella, Head of Architectural Glass at NSG Group.

� Right: Neil Syder, Managing Director of Pilkington UK. fired furnaces in glassmaking had caused most glass-production to be in the North East of England, where most of the coal mines were located. The first glassmaking furnace in St Helens was built by 1700, so there was already competition by the time St Helens Crown Glass Company was established.1

The company was formed with the technical knowledge and ability of Mr Bell plus capital from three of the most influential local families: the Bromilows, the Greenalls and the Pilkingtons.

In 1849, it was officially renamed Pilkington Brothers after William and Richard Pilkington acquired the company.1

In the late 1800s, Siemens created furnaces that allowed continuous molten glass flow, rather

than the intermittent pot method. These were invented by William Windle Pilkington (son of founding brother Richard) who also developed more efficient lehrs (the furnace used for cooling, or annealing glass), reducing annealing time to hours rather than days.1

In 1871, the company became the only British manufacturer of plate glass after buying the first plate glass works built at Ravenhead. An international expansion into Montreal, Canada followed in 1882 with the company’s first overseas depot. Soon after, Pilkington became a limited company in 1884.2

Alastair Pilkington

Sir Alastair Pilkington (above) was the inventor of the float process which is now the world standard for high-quality flat glass manufacture.

After fighting in World War II, Sir Alastair gained a degree in mechanical science from Cambridge. He then joined what was then the Pilkington Brothers as a technical officer in 1947. He was often publicly referred to as a distant cousin to the glass-making family, but no link was established between their ancestors.3

In 1952, Sir Alastair came up with the idea of the float glass process. It is often said that he invented the idea while helping wash the dishes after dinner.4 He supposedly saw how the oil floated on the surface and thought: what if glass is floated on liquid? This romantic idea of a lightbulb lighting up is in fact a myth and Alastair rejected the idea profusely. It is a fact however that he thought about the idea while completing a mindless task and his mind was wondering.4

Float glass

Sir Alistair began experimenting in December 1952 and though imperfect, he made a flat piece of glass very early in the experimentation stage. However,

� Sir Alastair Pilkington, inventor of the float glass process. for this process to reach its full potential and be a success it would have to create a constant flow of high-quality glass 24/7.4

All pieces of glass which were made by the process between 1952 and 1959 were not right, which made the honing of this process long and gruelling.

In 1955, Pilkington formally decided to build float process machines and after seven years of effort and £28 million (approximately £150 million in today’s money) in R&D expenses, a sheet of glass made entirely by the float process was produced in July 1958.4

In 1959 Pilkington announced this cutting-edge process to the glass-making world and licenced out the rights to use the process. There are now around 500 glass float lines in the world and the float process is considered the world standard for high quality glass manufacture.4

Achievements

The invention of float glass was clearly a huge milestone, not only for us but for the entire industry. Sir Alastair’s development of the modern float glass processes was transformative, enabling the global glass industry to scale-up the production of high-quality glass to meet unprecedented demand from booming post-war economies in the second half of the 20th century. Its invention enabled new opportunities in architecture and automotive design,5 and led to the first production of float glass in Asia by NSG in 1965.6

NSG Group and its subsidiaries have a long history of innovation. 10,000 patents have been granted to the company over the last 120 years. A history of our industry firsts can be found on the nsg.com website.7

Now, our world-first trials of hydrogen and biofuel represent a starting gun sounding on the industry’s race to net zero. Decarbonisation is the biggest challenge for the industry in the 21st century. The success of these trials is hugely important in confirming that it’s viable to manufacture high-quality glass using low and zero carbon fuels. It’s a significant leap forward, but it marks only the beginning of the sustainable transformation the industry has ahead of it.

The future

A huge body of work remains before hydrogen, or indeed electrification, becomes widely used by the industry. Research suggests that it may not be until 2040 that these alternate fuels make a contribution, given the wider transformation required by energy networks to distribute large quantities of zero-carbon fuels. The widespread use of biofuel as a transitionary fuel is a more near-term solution, but its distribution and supply needs to significantly increase to meet the demands of industry.

Pilkington UK is working closely with a mix of industry and academic partners to help speed up

this process.

We’re part of a £7.1 million project led by industry research and technology organisation Glass Futures, working under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Energy Innovation Programme.

We’re also working alongside energy distributors including HyNet North West, and sustainable technology specialists like C-Capture, to help research, test and prove new sustainable ways of manufacturing glass.

It’s a great case study of industry, academia and public partners working together.

The next 70 years

Seventy years is a long period, and many technological breakthroughs can and may change the industry during such a long period of time. However, if we think about a ten-year time frame instead, our business priority is to grow the business in a sustainable way.

This means that, on one hand the business must be profi table, and on the other we need to focus on sustainability from the environmental perspective. The group is fully committed in achieving its 2030 emission targets and the carbon neutrality in 2050. Many projects are under development, such as the hydrogen trials in the UK. �

*Head of Architectural Glass, NSG Group, Tokyo, Japan https://www.nsg.com/en

** Managing Director, Pilkington UK, Lathom, Lancashire, UK https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk

References

1. https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/about/heritage/ the-story-of-pilkington-uk 2. http://100th.nsg.com/groupcompany/01/ 3. https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/about/heritage/ inventor-of-fl oat-glass 4. https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/about/heritage/ invention-of-fl oat-glass 5. https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/news-insights/ latest/pioneers-and-trailblazers-70-years-of-float-glassinnovation 6. http://100th.nsg.com/story/02/ 7. https://www.nsg.com/en/iyog-2022/monthly-columnnsgs-fi rsts