| HISTORY FLABEG’s roots extend all the way back to 1882 – and are closely bound with the development of an entire branch of industry that was brand new. In fact, the innovative ideas of the founding fathers, as well as their continuous elaboration by subsequent generations, have made a decisive contribution to the current status quo in the market: there are very few who share FLABEG’s technological pole position in global competition today. The following chronological history explains how we arrived at this point: |
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| 1882 Establishment of the Furth glass foundry by brothers Alois and Eduard Kupfer and their brother-in-law Sigmund Glaser with three mirror glass furnaces. 1905 Birth of “Spiegelglasfabriken Bechmann-Kupfer AG” as a result of a merger between the mirror glass foundry in Furth im Wald and the company Bechmann with its administrative headquarters in Fürth, Bavaria. 1919 - 1933 Expansion of production with the construction of the first mirror trough and several grinding and polishing plants. 1938 The name “Bayrische Spiegelglasfabriken” is changed to “Spiegelglas Union AG” with its headquarters in Fürth, Bavaria. 1947 Simultaneous manufacture of flat and hollow glass due to full automation of the mirror glass trough. 1953 The first round-the-clock mirror coating conveyor in Europe is commissioned. This gives the factory in Furth im Wald a unique means of entry into modern mirror production. 1954 Change of name to “Unionglas AG”. Company Delog becomes the principal shareholder. 1955 Acquisition of the first automated edge grinder. 1956 Erection of the first bending furnace. 1967 Company Delog takes over “Unionglas AG” as a subsidiary and changes its name to “Unionglas GmbH”. 1970 Delog in Gelsenkirchen and Detag in Fürth, Bavaria merge to become “Flachglas AG” with its headquarters in Gelsenkirchen. 1971 Purchase of the company Schulze in Herford by “UnionGlas GmbH”. Merger between the three main companies in the flat glass processing industry in the Federal Republic of Germany: Unionglas GmbH (Furth im Wald), Westdeutsche Spiegelfabriken GmbH (Sende), and Flabeg GmbH (Fürth). The company is renamed “Spiegelunion Flabeg GmbH” and becomes a subsidiary of “Flachglas AG”. 1972 Purchase of the first vapor deposition plant for mirror coating. 1976 Start of the development of solar reflectors. 1978 The company is renamed Flabeg GmbH. 1980 Pilkington acquires "Flachglas AG"; "Flabeg GmbH" therefore also becomes a member of the globally active Pilkington Group. 1983 Receipt of the first major order for solar panels. The order worth several million German marks arrives from Israel; the panels themselves are destined for California, USA. A further 3.5 million square meters of panels are delivered to California, Nevada, and Spain. Commissioning of the first high-performance cathode sputtering plant for the production of chrome glass. 1989 Purchase of the second sputtering plant for chrome and blue tint calottes and an electron beam coating (EBC) plant for anti-reflection coating. 1990 Construction of a new fully automated coating conveyor for the wet chemical silvering of curved glass (calottes and solar reflectors). 1991 Introduction of sag bending for calottes. 1992 Purchase of the first sputtering plant for ITO (indium-tin-oxide) and anti-reflection coatings. 1993 – 1995 Purchase of the companies GMC (USA), Midland (GB), and Lavet (I) in order to secure calotte sales in these markets. 2000 FLABEG breaks away from the Pilkington Group thanks to a management buyout and becomes the independent company Flabeg GmbH & Co. KG. 2003 Acquisition of the automotive mirror business of “Schott Spezialglas GmbH”. Included in the takeover are Schott’s production facilities for calottes at the Grünenplan site (Lower Saxony) as well as shares in the Hungarian subsidiary in Mátészalka with the automotive mirror production plant there . 2004 Formation of a joint venture in China Launch of hydrophilic and low-glare mirror glass Increase in production capacities through the purchase of Prinzoptics machinery and the production volumes assumed as a result. 2006 Acquisition of TFC Corporation (USA) Optimization of global production and worldwide logistics. 2007 Doubling of capacity for solar reflectors; Acquisition of the HIRTZ Group locations in France, Italy, and the Czech Republic bringing the total to eleven locations worldwide. 2008 Takeover of Naugatuck Glass (USA), resulting in increased expertise in the processing of thin glass. 2009 Opening of the new factory at FLABEG Solar US Corporation in Pittsburgh (USA) for the manufacture of solar mirrors for all CSP applications (Power Tower, Dishes, Parabolic Trough). Additional expansion of capacities for solar mirrors in Europe. Worldwide separation of the areas Solar and Automotive/Technical Glass At the Furth im Wald site, the core competences of Automotive and Technical Glass are being renamed FLABEG Deutschland GmbH. |
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History
