Glass Technology

Imagine a world without glass!  How different our lives would be without it!  Our houses and offices would be dark, cars would be impractical and window shopping would not be possible. Take a glimpse into the NSG Group's technology..... adding value through innovation.

NSG Group technology is all around you, yet often unnoticed because of the perfection of transparency it brings to today's glass products. Most of the world's drivers are looking through float glass and most of the glass in the world's homes, offices, hotels, public and industrial buildings is float glass.

But glass is not just for looking through. NSG Group is a high technology business. Its expertise in glass compositions and coatings is applied to the manufacture of products which keep heat in or out of buildings and transport. Its understanding of the physics of glass is applied to make products, many of complex shape, which are strong, durable and optically excellent. Advances in thin glass manufacture and in coatings are opening new opportunities in electronics.

NSG Group is a technology leader in glass. The Float Process, invented by Sir Alastair Pilkington in 1959, is used throughout the world to produce high quality glass for buildings and vehicles.

Over the past fifty years the Group can claim to have been responsible for almost every major advance in glass technology. Pilkington glass innovations include:

• Energy-saving products such as Pilkington K Glass™;
• Advanced bending processes for making car windscreens in complex shapes to fine tolerances;
• Pilkington Pyrostop^® advanced fire-resistant glass;
• Ez-Kool™, Sundym™ and Galaxsee™ solar control glass for cars;
• Solar reflective automotive glazing;
• Pilkington Solar-E™, clear solar control glass, preventing heat build-up in buildings;
• The 3R™ clean air process for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from glass furnaces;
• Pilkington Activ™ - the world's first self-cleaning glass;
• Pilkington AviSafe™ - new bird-safe glass.