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SAINT-GOBAIN
AND GLASS WOOL
THE STORY OF
AN INTERNATIONAL
SUCCESS
From the pre-war pioneers to today’s
world leader, this book traces the glass
wool epic at Saint-Gobain. An industrial
adventure made up of technological
successes and conquests of international
markets, but also of periods of doubt
and corrected errors. A story of passionate
men and women: engineers, salesmen
and women, industrialists, logisticians…
This book also shows how much every
industrial chronicle necessarily comes
face to face with ‘History’, as proved here
by the outbreak of World Wars, crises
in the Near and Middle East, or the fall
of the Iron Curtain.
Today again, it is the overall context
of global warming which fixes new
priority stakes for building insulation.
SAINT-GOBAIN AND GLASS WOOL
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THE STORY OF AN INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS
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SAINT-GOBAIN
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THE STORY OF
AN INTERNATIONAL
SUCCESS
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SAINT-GOBAIN
AND GLASS WOOL
THE STORY OF
AN INTERNATIONAL
SUCCESS
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SAINT-GOBAIN
AND GLASS WOOL
THE STORY OF
AN INTERNATIONAL
SUCCESS
Saint-Gobain Insulation
18 avenue d’Alsace
Les Miroirs
92096 La Défense
Editing and rewriting
Editorial follow-up
Pascale Alix
48 rue Vivienne
F-75002 Paris
www.editionstextuel.com
Design and implementation
Éditions Textuel
Graphics
Caroline Pauchant
Editing and rewriting
Patrick Philipon
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FOREWORD
11
CHAPTER 1
THE PIONEERING ERA
15
The inventors
20
Saint-Gobain observes
The birth of the Pool
Creating the means of production
The War: a turning point
Post-war: hopes and disappointments
36
41
43
47
50
CHAPTER 2
THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ENGINEERS
A technological epic
‘TEL‘ conquers the world
The new license game
‘Everything is fine’
CHAPTER 3
A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
Far from the needs of the market
The reaction
Renewed profitability
The model's limit
Another test
CHAPTER 4
RECOVERY AND NEW CHALLENGES
A world opens up
Pursuit of a customer-based policy
Birth of a worldwide brand
The TEL pushes back its limits again
New frontiers
Answering a planetary problem
CONCLUSION
55
58
78
86
93
99
102
111
120
129
133
139
142
148
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166
170
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FOREWORD
This book recounts an adventure lived by passionate men and women. Saint-Gobain
became involved in the production of glass wool for insulation just prior to the Second
World War, but the adventure really took off fifty years ago, when the Group launched a
revolutionary fiber production process: the TEL.
This innovation, which proved to be the basis of a great industrial success, was not invented
overnight by a genius. Intuition certainly played a part, but the process, that arose from
the work of teams of engineers and technicians, was developed gradually thanks to a
genuine experimental approach. The pre-war pioneering adventure gave way to the golden
age of the enthusiastic engineers who developed the TEL. They found themselves the
industrialists ready to take the risk of exploiting the process, thus turning a technological
innovation into an industrial success. By granting licenses, they federated a group of
independent companies spread over the world's main industrial countries. Progressively,
this group consolidated its position to form the present world leader in insulation.
This technological and industrial epic was first and foremost a human adventure. The
process could be created because the pioneers lent their enthusiasm and vision to its
technological development. Its deployment was a success because the industrialists had
patiently gathered numerous skills. Certain errors were avoided because technicians and
salesmen listened to the customers. The TEL was able to conquer the world because
Sodefive's 'ambassadors' and their foreign partners created a 'licensee's club'
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The story is far from over. Insulation has become the best answer to the current environmental crisis. Today, new teams face new challenges, including meeting the heavy world
demand for insulation. May this book help them continuing the adventure, and
convince them that a company is above all a community of men and women brought
together around a project.
Claude Imauven,
Senior Vice-President of Saint-Gobain,
Director of Construction Products Sector.
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CHAPTER 1
The inventors
Saint-Gobain observes
The birth of the Pool
Creation of an industrial tool
The War: a turning point
Post-war: hopes and disappointments
THE PIONEERING
ERA
The glass industry has lived through a technical and industrial
revolution since the beginning of the XX th century. It is a period
where big glass makers, groups which mastered all glass making
activities, rule the industry. Bringing ideas and technologies from
the United States, Eugène Gentil launches Saint-Gobain into a
diversification policy. The adventure in fiberglass begins in the 1930's
and rapidly reaches a considerable scale. The war brings a halt to this
operation and convinces Saint-Gobain to develop its own process.
Glass wool manufacture at the Lucens factory in Switzerland, around 1945.
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1936-1938
1926
Creation of the ‘Société d’Etudes Verrières Appliquées’,
or SEVA, at Chalon-sur-Saône. The SEVA was responsible for designing and maintaining the machines in
Saint-Gobain’s brand new bottle manufacturing factory, and quickly became the ‘mechanic’ for the whole
group. It also supplied the spinners for glass wool.
In two years, the group built a glass wool factory. It
bought ‘Glasswatte’ in Germany and the ‘Soie de
Verre’ at Soissons, in France, one after the other. At
that moment, Isover was created. This new company
then bought a factory at Rantigny to produce the
‘textile’ fiber there.
1930
1937
The agreement between Saint-Gobain and OwensCorning was definitely sealed in New York. The signatories gained access to the Gossler, Owens and
Hager processes for insulation, as well as Owens
and Corning for textiles. Technical improvements
were immediately diffused. The « Pool » was born.
The ‘Maatschappij Tot Beheer en Exploitatie van
Octrooien’, a Dutch company jointly owned by
Saint-Gobain and the Bicheroux family, acquired the
rights to the Hager process and held the patent in
Germany. This was the group’s first step in the glass
fiber industry.
1932
The American glass maker Owens-Illinois invented
an industrial fiber production process by blowing
onto a drum. This new method surpassed anything
that existed in Europe, both in terms of fiber quality
and productivity. Saint-Gobain soon acquired the
rights to it, and launched itself into insulation.
16
1948-1950
Creation of the ‘Société d’Etudes pour le
Développement de la Fibre de Verre’, or Sodefive.
This entity was to bring technical and commercial
support to all of the Hager licensees. It soon filled
this role for the TEL licensees, leading a real ‘club’,
until it was wound up in 1997.
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View of the workshop. Glass wool manufacture at Lucens, in Switzerland.
Fitting a glass wool pipe covering.
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THE INVENTORS
SLAG, THE FIRST
FIBROUS
INDUSTRIAL
INSULATION
At the end of the 19 th century, the increasing prevalence of steam
ships and the arrival of electricity increased the need for light,
flexible insulating materials. The first real industrial glass wool
production processes were soon to be created in Austria and
Germany, from the fertile imaginations of their inventors.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the glass industry
experienced a revolution. New manufacturing processes were
appearing, for windows as well as for container glass (bottles
and flasks). Production units were being automated, and
knowledge of the physics and chemistry of glass was improving. Moreover, a new function was appearing in the glass
companies' organization: research.The future belonged to the
'combined glass-makers', groups big enough to be present in
all branches of the industry and to master all its aspects.
Saint-Gobain was aware of this and embarked on a huge diversification policy. From a flat glass maker came a manufacturer of window glass, container glass and specialty glass,
including the famous Securit, used in car windshields, which
appeared in 1929. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Group
With the industrial revolutions of the
19th century, there was an increasing
number of steam-powered machines.
To avoid the precious fluid cooling in
the pipes, they had to be thermally
insulated. A need had just been
created. The first answer came
from the iron and steel industry,
at about the same time, on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Cast iron is obtained by heating
a mixture of iron ore and coke, plus
various additives, in a blast furnace.
The molten metal, which is heavy,
runs out of the bottom. Above remains
a non-ferrous liquid mixture: slag.
This is drained off, and stored in tanks.
However, the tanks sometimes leak,
and must be immediately cooled
with water. During such an incident,
someone noticed that fibers were
formed.Various fiber production
processes were thus created in the
immediate vicinity of blast furnaces,
all based on the same principle:
blasting a strand of slag with a steam
jet. No doubt because slag and steam
were both readily available… The first
intentional production was reported
around 1840 in Wales; the first
patents were filed simultaneously
in Germany and the United States
circa 1870. Slag wool is dense,
non-inflammable, very heat resistant,
and suitable for insulation of hightemperature installations, such as
steam tubes. The fibers are never
theless too short to be woven and
do not withstand vibration very well.
These limitations were to glass wool's
advantage.
decorative uses, glass fiber owes its success above all to its
thermal insulating qualities. The industrial revolution in the
mid-19 th century, with its steam driven machines, needed
insulating materials. Stone wool, manufactured right next
to blast furnaces, dominated at first (see p.21 “Slag, the first
fibrous industrial insulation”).At the end of the century, with
the development of the merchant and military fleets, there
was a need for a material which was more flexible and lighter
and which could withstand the vibration of the ships' engines.
At the same time, blossoming industries such as electricity (wire
insulation) and the cinema (screens) were looking for
insulating and non-inflammable 'textiles'. All that remained
was the change from the small-scale production prevalent
at the time, to real industrial processes.
embarked on a new adventure: fiberglass. For several years,
this strange material had been increasing in popularity.
“Glass wool (cotton, glass padding) looks like silk and conducts
heat so badly, thanks to the air trapped between the fibers,
that it produces a feeling of warmth to the touch. We make
fabric for gout sufferers and rheumatics. With the waste, we
make heat-insulating jackets for steam pipes. With the long
strands, we weave lamp wicks, in Germany… These same
strands are also sometimes used as insulators for electrical
installations, or gaskets for steam joints…” This article from
the 'Revue des Sciences et de leurs applications', which appeared
in 1908, says it all. If we leave aside the rather anecdotal
20
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Cast iron flow.
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Insulation of a naval boiler with removable batts.
CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
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1
1. The liner 'Liberté', insulated with 35 tonnes of glass wool.
2
2. Insulation of refrigerated holds.
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This story begins in Germany, with two main players: Gossler
and Hager. Oscar Gossler, a small industrialist from Hamburg,
set up his company at the beginning of the 20 th century. He
fitted ocean liner cabins in the shipyards, and very quickly
discovered the need for insulating materials which had good
mechanical qualities and were vibration-proof. From 1916,
Gossler therefore decided to become involved in glass fibers,
so he contacted Gédéon Von Pazsiczky, a Hungarian inventor
who had already filed patents in this field and who drew his
inspiration from the first mechanical glass fiber production
process, invented by Dr Pollack at Stockerau, near Vienna in
Austria.This machine's principle was itself derived directly from
the use of the spinning wheel in 16 th century Venice (see p.27
'Spun glass: an old story') and consisted (and still consists) of
drawing out molten glass strands onto a rotating drum. Von
Pazsiczky arranged the drum horizontally and fed it with
molten glass through a channel. The patent was issued in
1919 and industrial production of 'glass silk' began in 1922,
in Hamburg. Gossler sold the fiber - he produced nearly 1,000
tons of it in 1930 - and sold licenses to use his process to
various European manufacturers. Gossler production units
appeared in Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Sweden,
Czechoslovakia and England. In France, the company 'La Soie
de Verre', in Soissons, acquired the license in 1929.After having
directly recruited Dr Pollack in Austria, Gossler improved his
machine again, by adding an electric bushing. In 1930, he
sold the improved process to a certain Boussois, who commercialized it in France… opposite the 'La Soie de Verre' factory!
Gossler factories, generally of a modest size, covered Europe.
Most of them were producing around a hundred tons of fibers
per year, or even less.
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THE GOSSLER PROCESS
Distribution of the glass fibers on big tables, in very thin layers.
These are stacked so that the fibers in one layer cross those of
the neighbouring layers. This manual operation is called unstacking.
Batts with an average density of 160 kg/m3 can be obtained, up to
100 milimeters thick.
Diagram of the Gossler process, patent issued 22nd August 1922.
Glass with a special composition is melted in a suitable oven, the lower
part of which consists of a bushing. As the liquid glass flows through
the holes in this bushing, it forms strands which are rolled around
the rotating drum, ensuring continuous spinning.
24
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1
The first traces of glass fiber
production date to 3,500 years
ago on the banks of the Nile! The
Egyptians heated glass in a clay
bowl, plunged a metallic rod into
the molten material and with a
movement of the arm, drew out the
glass which had stuck to the rod into
a crude filament. These filaments
were then rolled in joined spirals
around clay shapes and the resulting
item was heated in an oven. The glass
melted and the glass stuck together.
All that remained was to break the
clay shape to obtain a hollow glass
object. The Romans in turn improved
on this technique.
2
Spun glass was then forgotten until
its revival in the 16 th century, on a
small island in the Venice lagoon:
Murano. The objects decorated with
glass strands which were made there
quickly became famous. On the
beginning, the process of producing
the strands was quite exhausting. It
took two workers, each with a metal
rod called a 'ferret'. One of them
would plunge his rod into the molten
glass, take out a ball, which the other
would immediately touch with his
own ferret. Once the glass had
adhered to the metal, the two
associates would run away from each
other. They thus drew out a strand
whose fineness essentially depended
on the strength of their legs! An
ingenious, and perhaps lazy,
craftsman soon imagined that the
end of the strand could be stuck with
wax to the rim of large wooden
wheel. From then on, a worker held
the end of the strand on his ferret
and the other worked the wheel with
1. Vase in spun glass.
2. French workshop manufacturing beads and glass strands in the XVIIIth century.
3. Worn by the actress Georgia Cayvan, this spun glass dress was in the
news during the 1893 Universal Exhibition in Chicago. It was actually an
advertisement for the Libbey Glass Co., whose products however did not
have much to do with fiberglass. Edward Libbey had called on an inventive
young glass blower, Michael J. Owens, who obtained long fibers by heating
the ends of glass rods then drawing them out on a foot-operated drum.
26
a crank. Both remained seated.
The technique spread quickly to
Bohemia, Thuringia and France.
Venetian glass-makers set up at
Nevers around 1560 and made
small decorative objects in spun
glass, such as 'angel hair' decoration
for Christmas manger scenes.
In 1665, the English physicist and
naturalist, Robert Hooke described
the drawing out of fine filaments of
glass and predicted that it could be
spun. But it was René Antoine
Ferchault de Réaumur, the famous
French physicist and naturalist who
was to write the first full encyclopedic
essay on spun glass. He presented
this work to the Royal Academy of
Science in 1713. Apart from a precise
description of the manufacturing
process, the report specified the
product's properties (fineness,
flexibility, tensile strength) and
above all, anticipated applications,
particularly weaving. Réaumur then
moved on to practical work and made
filaments of a few microns in diameter.
Weaving tests were disappointing.
CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
SPUN GLASS: AN OLD STORY
industrial significance… The 19 th
century, on the other hand, saw two
decisive advances. Louis Schwabe,
a German who had settled in
Manchester, invented the first
bushing. This is a container whose
bottom is pierced by numerous
holes, and in which glass is melted
and forms filaments, by flowing
out through these holes. Schwabe
presented his invention at the British
Association conference in 1842, with
little success. The French chemist
Jules de Brunfaut, who was studying
glass art in Venice, modified its
composition to obtain more
flexible filaments. He soon set up in
Stockerau, near Vienna, and in 1886
founded the first 'industrial' glass
spinning works there. Still using the
wheels the Venetians loved so much,
he obtained filaments which were
three meters long and six microns
in diameter. His catalog presented
articles as varied as lamp shades,
upholstery, neckties, wigs, hats
and even wedding dresses…
In 1822, the Gordon brothers
filed a patent in England concerning
lamp wicks made from woven
glass filaments which were
incombustible and therefore gave a
smoke-free flame. There were also
several famous uses for glass strands:
the bees on the Empress Josephine's
coat during her coronation (1804),
a gown for Queen Victoria in 1844,
Episcopal dress given in 1853 to
the Archbishop of Strasbourg, who
refused to wear it, etc. Famous
anecdotes, but with no great
3
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As for the Hager process, considered to be the forerunner of
the TEL, it began in a fairground! Legend has it that as Friedrich
Rosengarth was walking around a fair in 1928, he was attracted to the small machine belonging to the cotton candy seller
(see p.31 'Friedrich Rosengarth: the inspired handyman').
Everyone knows the principle, which was revealed to the
passers-by by the sweet sellers at the universal exhibition in
Paris, in 1900: sugar is melted at more than 120 degrees in a
small rotating container provided with holes, through which,
strands escape and immediately solidify when exposed to air.
The seller collects the flying filaments with a stick. Rosengarth
wondered whether such a 'drawing out' process could be
applied to other molten materials, particularly glass.With no
money, he turned to Fritz and Julius Hager, two industrialists
who had a transformer factory in Bergisch Gladbach, on the
outskirts of Cologne, in Germany.They agreed to finance the
tests on condition that they could give their name to the process
and co-sign the technical documents. Following his
intuition, Rosengarth quickly developed a centrifugal fiber
production process.The molten glass fell onto a grooved disc
made from refractory material, turning at several thousand
revolutions per minute. On 19 th November 1931, the Hager
brothers, in association with Rosengarth, created the
'Glasswatte GmbH', which began production. The 'Hager' is
a simple and rustic process, giving a fiber of average quality,
but it was well suited to the needs of the time. Just like its
competitor, the Gossler process, it spread very quickly in
Europe. Glass-makers acquired licenses in Sweden, Italy,
Norway, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Spain and
Romania. In France, too, but not yet at Saint-Gobain...
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THE HAGER PROCESS
2
1. The Hager process in Denmark in 1935. Fiber collection is carried
out manually with the help of a hook.
2. The Hager process in Norway in 1935. Fiber was sold either in
the form of loose wool, or a manually-made felt to make insulating
batting of around 100 kg/m3.
1
28
3
3. Grooved disk on which the melted glass falls.
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FRIEDRICH
ROSENGARTH,
THE INSPIRED
HANDYMAN
What an amazing career this glass
worker turned engineer, then
inventor had. Friedrich Rosengarth
was born in 1885, and worked at the
'Schalke' glassworks in Germany
during the 1920s. Here he improved
his education thanks to evening
classes. Shortly afterwards, he
set himself up as a consultant and
built glass-making factories in
Switzerland, then in Russia and
other Eastern European countries.
He was also a tireless handyman,
who was always working on a new
invention in his garage. For example,
he created the forerunner of the
spinning brush car wash systems
that can be seen in so many service
stations. The machine in question
was used to…brush his fox terrier
automatically! The poor animal
was attracted into the device by
a sausage. Legend has it that
Rosengarth got the inspiration for
his centrifugal fiber production
process from a cotton candy
machine. He quickly made a
prototype in his famous garage.
A wooden disk and a vacuum cleaner
motor was all he required: he
produced Cellophane fibers. Here he
had proof that his process was valid.
To move on to glass, he would need
considerable means, so he spoke to
the local industrialists, the Hager
brothers. What came next is
well-known.
A perfectionist, he tirelessly
improved his process at Bergisch
in Germany, occasionally intuitively
following the same lines as the
advances in the TEL, which was then
being developed. For example, he had
the idea of fixing a perforated band
on the disk, which from that moment
on strongly resembled a TEL spinner.
Had he had the idea when visiting
the La Villette laboratory in 1954, or
did it derive from a first test which he
had carried out immediately after the
war? The fact remains that the new
process was set up and christened
Bergla, at the request of the workers.
All these tests were expensive,
however, and the factory was losing
money. Rosengarth was politely
asked to retire, but was to remain
an informal technical consultant.
Saint-Gobain paid him a salary until
his death in 1977.
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Sewn batting production line, at Lucens in Switzerland.
32
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Group photo at the Gullfiber factory in Sweden, around 1937.
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SAINT-GOBAIN OBSERVES
As early as 1930, Saint-Gobain acquired the rights to the Hager
process. During the following years, it nevertheless allowed
two opportunities to directly produce glass fiber slip by. Yet this
industry was already well established in the United States and
was developing in Europe.
In 1930, the first glass fiber was produced from the Hager prototype. Alas, after having fiberized only twenty kilograms of
glass, the clay disk exploded! As he was not a glass-maker, Fritz
Hager was not sure whether he should pursue the adventure
alone, so he turned to a professional, in this case Pierre
Schrader, the representative of Saint-Gobain in Germany,
who referred him to Eugène Gentil (see p.40 “Eugène Gentil:
The architect of diversification”). Here he found an attentive
ear. Since 1919, Saint-Gobain's 'Head of Special Missions' had
regularly visited the United States, where the glass market was
booming, driven by urban development and the rapid growth
of the automobile industry. Eugène Gentil observed the
changes in the glass industry there and brought back new man-
In 1931 Gossler, which was in financial difficulties, approached
Saint-Gobain to discuss the possibility of being bought out.
The Group, whose management was not yet convinced of
glass fiber's potential, did not follow-up on the proposition.
In 1933, Saint-Gobain let a second opportunity to become
directly involved in the production of glass fibers pass them
by. The Maatschappij actually offered it the license for the
Hager process in France. The Group refused, declaring itself
“not wanting to launch a new activity,” so in 1933, the 'Société
des Glaces de Boussois' became the French Hager licensee
for the next fifteen years. Saint-Gobain, therefore, found
itself in the quite paradoxical position of controlling, albeit
indirectly, the best European glass fiber production process,
ufacturing processes. He noticed that for the past few years,
fiberglass had been selling in large quantities for house and
but without the means of production, or even the legal right
to exploit this process in France!
building insulation. Convinced of its development potential
in Europe, he felt that Saint-Gobain should become involved.
He therefore suggested to the 'Maatschappij Tot Beheer En
Yet, thanks to the innumerable Gossler and Hager licensees,
the glass fiber industry was expanding in Europe. In this re-
Exploitatie van Octrooien' that they buy the rights to the
invention. This Dutch company, created in 1930 and based
spect, three important names must be mentioned. First, the
'Vetreria Italiana Balzaretti Modigliani', a large Italian glass-
in Schveningen, was jointly owned by Saint-Gobain and
the Bicheroux family, a Belgian glass manufacturer. Its aim:
to exploit the patents and manage the two partners' licens-
making company, founded in 1850. At the beginning of
the 1930s, Piero Modigliani went to the United States to
study the new glass spinning techniques. In 1931, he
es in the areas of glass and, from then on, glass fiber. It was
therefore the Maatschappij which held the Hager patent in
began production at Livorno, using the Gossler process. He
perfected products such as Thermolux. In 1933, he bought one
Germany, in 1930, ensured its maintenance and distributed
its licenses.
of the first licenses for the Hager process, then acquired the
new American Owens process in 1937. From the pre-war
36
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OCF: THE RIVAL/PARTNER
Owens-Corning Fiberglas (OCF),
the big American glass fiber
manufacturer, has always maintained
an ambivalent relationship with
Saint-Gobain. From the creation of
the Pool in 1935 until 1949, the two
firms were both partners and rivals!
The story of this rival partner goes
back to the 19 th century. In 1868,
Corning Glass Works was created
from the transfer of Brooklyn Flint
Glass's factories to Corning, a small
town in New York. Specializing in
'noble' glasses, the firm invented
in particular Pyrex, at the beginning
of the 1920s. Having suffered during
the Great Depression, Corning then
tried, without great success, to
diversify into glass fibers and in
1935 called for assistance from its
counterpart, Owens-Illinois Glass,
which had just made a resounding
entry into this field.
The latter had seen the light in 1903,
when Michael Joseph Owens left
his employer, the New England Glass
Co., to found his own company, the
Owens Bottle Co. This productive
inventor, who was already well
known for his glass fiber production
process, had just perfected an
automatic bottle manufacturing
machine. In 1929, Owens merged
with the Illinois Glass Co. to form
the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. The
Depression arrived a few months
later… The firm was already suffering
from the effects of ten years of
Prohibition - the banning of alcohol
throughout the United States which had seriously affected the
bottle market. It was time to find
new outlets. These were to be first,
glass bricks for the building industry,
then fiberglass. In 1933, after two
years' research, Owens Illinois
patented a new glass fiber
production process which was
much better than anything
that already existed.
In 1935, Corning turned to Owens,
and the two glass-makers pooled
their fiber production activities.
On November 1 st, 1938, the jointventure became an independent
company: the Owens-Corning
Fiberglas Co. was born. The Second
World War would make its fortune.
Glass fibers were everywhere:
in the warships' insulation, in
bombers, the crews' lifejackets,
the cloth of certain parachutes…
After the war, OCF, while developing
its building insulation activity,
embarked on a new specialty: woven
glass fibers for reinforcing plastic
materials. The bodywork of the
famous Chevrolet Corvette was
made of this composite material.
At the end of the 1950s, at the
time of the introduction of TEL at
Saint-Gobain, OCF held 80 percent
of the world glass fiber market for
all applications! Saint-Gobain was
to develop its insulation activity
to the point of being able to attack
OCF in the American market in 1967.
This latter nevertheless continued its
international development. OCF is
still present in reinforcement fiber
in Europe, but sold the whole of its
European insulation activity at the
beginning of the 21 st century. From
then on, Saint-Gobain has been the
undisputed world market leader.
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period onwards, Piero Modigliani was thus using the three
major modern processes. Schuller is a very old German
glass-making dynasty, and in 1931,Werner Schuller launched
fiber production using the improved Pollack process. He
founded the 'KG Wo Schuller' in 1937 and built four large
factories, including one in Mulhouse, which Saint-Gobain
took over after the war, before quickly closing it down. Last
but not least, the Heye group, a very important Dutch-German
glass-maker, and one of Saint-Gobain's largest competitors,
bought a license for the Owens process in 1933 and began
production in 1934, at Gerresheim. The following year, it
bought out Gossler.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Corning and Owens Illinois
were preparing to dominate the market (see p.37 “OCF: the
rival partner”). In 1931, the president of Owens contacted the
inventor, James Slayter, who had just filed a patent concerning the manufacture of stone wool. He took charge of a research
team, and the work advanced rapidly. In 1933, Owens Illinois
Glass patented a glass spinning process using 'blowing,' where
molten glass filaments are stretched by the effect of a steam
jet. The process far surpassed the Hager method, as much in
terms of product quality as in output. In 1935, Owens and
Corning formed a joint-venture to exploit it.
CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
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THE 0WENS PROCESS
1
3
2
1. Diagram of the Owens process.
2. Owens manufacturing line.
3. 4. Glass wool manufacture on an Owens machine, at Rantigny, in 1943.
38
4
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THE BIRTH OF THE POOL
EUGÈNE GENTIL,
THE ARCHITECT OF
DIVERSIFICATION
'Head of special missions'. When,
in 1919, he obtained this unknown
position in Saint-Gobain's management
team, Eugène Gentil already had a
long experience in the glass industry.
After graduating from the 'Ecole
Centrale' in 1903, he joined 'Verreries
Legras' the following year and was
recruited by Saint-Gobain in 1912
to direct the brand new flat glass
factory in Chalon-sur-Saône. In 1913,
he went to the United States for the
first time, to study the American
Window Glass process initially
developed for Chalon. He returned
there after the war, in 1919, as he
considered that this process was
out of date, and began negotiations
with Libbey-Owens.
This was the beginning of the 'special
missions' where he showed what he
was capable of. He went to the
United States nearly every year
between 1920 and 1937 to observe
the new techniques, negotiate
licenses and create a solid network
of friends and relationships. In 1927,
he even entered into a gentlemen's
agreement with Corning, according
to which each of them promised to
'tell everything' to the other. His
A license for the Hager process for Owens against a license for
the Owens process for Saint-Gobain: this principle of pooling
the rights to the fiber-production processes was the origin
of the 'Pool', created in New York in 1935. The partners each
committed to improving glass fiber technology and applications.
actual role was to detect and bring
back the best processes in all the
branches of the activity; those
which would guarantee the Group's
diversification policy. Notable
'conquests' include: Pyrex (1922),
the Hartford feeder, then the Lynch
hollow glass machine (1923),
electrocast refractories for
glass furnaces (1925),the Pittsburgh
process for plate glass… and of
course, the Owens process for glass
fiber production.
He was appointed deputy
managing director then managing
director of the 'Glaceries de SaintGobain' in 1934; he then had
plenty of elbow room to launch the
Group into fibers. The day before he
retired, in 1949, he inaugurated the
La Villette research centre, where the
TEL process would be born. Following
this, he regularly visited the Rantigny
factory to follow developments in
the process. He died in 1961 at the
age of 81.
agreement was signed in New York. From then on, the
Maatschappij managed the Owens patents throughout the
world, with the exception of North America (United States,
Canada and Mexico), which was 'Owens' territory'. This latter received a free, North American license for the processes
controlled by the Maatschappij. The royalties resulting from
third party licensing would be divided equally between the two
partners. It was forbidden to export glass fiber to the countries where Pool licenses already existed. The Maatschappij
managed the export problems for the rest of the world. In 1939,
the rights to the Gossler process, outside Germany, were
integrated into the Pool. In addition, each Pool licensees
would give its licensor the benefit of all the improvements it
had made to the process, free of charge. The licensor would
Heye already held the license. In exchange, Owens obtained
the rights to the Hager process for North America.
then pass on these improvements to the other licensees.This
principle, known as Flow back, ensured constant technical
progress in glass fiber manufacture. A long time after the
On 22 nd May 1935, a first Memorandum agreement marked
the official creation of what was to become the Pool. The
end of the Pool, Saint-Gobain would continue this with the
licensees of its own processes.
signatories committed themselves to combining their innovative abilities and their patents, to sharing their experience
and developing, as far as possible, glass fiber technology and
applications throughout the world. For this, rights to all of their
processes were exploited in a 'Pool' which was supposed to
Leaving the port of New York, 1954.
The Owens-Corning Fiberglas factory at Kansas City.
40
In 1933, Owens Illinois announced the finalization of its new
glass fiber production process, which was more efficient than
the Hager method. Its first licensee was none other than their
major German rival, Heye. Eugène Gentil was, of course, informed
of this. Managing director of the 'Glaceries de Saint-Gobain'
since 1934, and determined to lead the Group into the production of glass fibers, he was convinced that for this he had to hold
the rights to the most efficient processes. He asked the
Maatschappij to begin negotiations with Owens. He left once
again for the United States in 1934, for a voyage which would
mould Saint-Gobain's policy relating to insulation for years
to come. On his return, he held an exclusive license for the
Owens process for all European countries, their colonies and
dominions - except Holland, Germany and Italy, for which
last until 1960. Negotiations with the Americans lasted nearly three years. Finally, on the first of November 1937, the main
On 29 th December, 1938, the Maatschappij transferred all of
its rights and activities in the fiberglass field to a new, nonindustrial company, the 'Algemeene Kunstvezel Maatschappij'
(AKM), in which Saint-Gobain held 85 percent of the shares.
With an office in Paris and another in The Hague, AKM
managed the Hager, Owens and Gossler patent portfolios, for
41
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CREATING THE MEANS
OF PRODUCTION
both 'insulation' and 'textile' fibers, negotiated the license
agreements and coordinated the licensees. In the same year,
Owens merged with Corning, to form Owens-Corning Fiberglas
(OCF).These two changes of players did not modify the terms
of the Pool agreement at all. From the initial agreement in 1935
onward, however, Eugène Gentil was in a position to take
Saint-Gobain into the fiberglass market.All that remained was
to build a factory.
CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
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In 1936, pushed by competition, Saint-Gobain bought
'Glaswatte' in Germany, then 'La Soie de Verre', in Soissons,
France, before finally building a factory of its own in Rantigny.
The Isover company was born and started production using
the Owens process. Very quickly, it became one of the main
European players.
In 1935, Glaswatte, which used the Hager process, needed
money to grow. Pierre Schrader, Saint-Gobain's representative
in Germany, sent two observers to evaluate the Bergisch
Gladbach factory. Hardly impressed by what they saw, they
sent back a mixed report. The process seemed to them to be
technically quite crude, but the centrifugal process was
interesting and could be further developed. However, it was
an outside factor which finally carried the day. The Heye
group, a formidable rival which was already exploiting the
Owens process, made an offer to acquire Hager.The reaction
was immediate: Saint-Gobain took control of Glaswatte on
17 th September 1936. Jean Gaulis, an engineer who had
been recruited earlier to coordinate the Group's fiber
activities, joined Glaswatte's board. Saint-Gobain became a
fiberglass producer.
In the same year, the Group bought 'La Soie de Verre' in
Soissons, France.The company, which used the Gossler process,
produced insulating fiber batting for insulating boilers,
particularly in the navy. It held an exclusive contract with
the navy since 1932 and also worked for the prestigious
'Compagnie Transatlantique', insulating the boilers of the
liners 'Normandie', 'Champlain' and 'Ile de France'. It also
produced a felt made from longer fibers, used as a separator
between the positive and negative plates of electric batteries.
Advertising in the newsletter 'L'Équipe' at the beginning of the 1950s.
42
Lacking the means to invest, the company was in difficulty,
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as compared with its competitor, Boussois, which was
preparing to launch the more efficient Hager process. Roger
Lacharme, the managing director of 'La Soie de Verre',
received Saint-Gobain's proposal as a gift from on high.“One
day in 1936, a visitor named Gaulis introduced himself. He had
hardly entered when he revealed his intentions: he had been
sent by Saint-Gobain's managing director, Mister Gentil, to
negotiate the purchase of 'La Soie de Verre'. The reason was
simple. Mister Gentil […] had just bought the Owens process,
in America, […] and was wondering how to use it in the most
practical way. He leafed through the directory and when he
discovered 'La Soie de Verre', decided to get in touch with the
company,” he said later.The reality was, no doubt, slightly less
miraculous. In fact Henri Crochet, La Soie de Verre's director,
shares to Saint-Gobain. On the eve of the Second World War,
the Group had a company, Isover, access to all the known fiber
manufacturing processes, two production sites in France,
plus those of the companies they controlled in Germany,
Italy and Belgium, marketing services and a catalogue of
products. Saint-Gobain was then producing around a third of
the 15 to 20,000 tones of fiberglass manufactured each year
in Europe. For its part, the United States was producing 20,000
to 25,000 tones. Despite its initial hesitations, in a few years
Saint-Gobain had become a major player in the fiberglass field.
also held an important position in the glass branch of
Saint-Gobain, so the Group already knew about the company.
The purchase was concluded at the beginning of 1937 and a
new company was immediately formed: Isover had just been
created, with an investment of a million and a half francs. Jean
Gaulis was its executive director, Roger Lacharme the sales
director and Lucien Deschamps the technical director.At the
end of 1937, the first Owens oven started production, next
to the twelve existing Gossler ovens. It alone produced 700
tons of fiber per year, against 350 tons for all the others put
together. “You'll see, Lacharme, one day glass fiber will have
a higher turnover than flat glass”, Eugène Gentil remarked.A
prophecy which would come true…in the 1970s. Isover was
a producer of fiberglass for insulation, but was also trying to
be present in the 'textile' fiber market, which was however technically different. Saint-Gobain's diversification adventure
with chemical textile fibers was coming to an abrupt end.
THE SILIONNE PROCESS
The 'Société des Textiles Nouveaux' (STN), in which the
chemical branch of the Group had a shareholding, was in
fact experiencing difficulties. In 1937, this company closed
and the Rantigny site was dedicated to the textile fiberglass
activity. Three engineers from Owens Illinois arrived in
September to install the Silionne and Veranne bushings - two
manufacturing processes for producing long glass fibers.
The changes continued with the creation of Isoverbel (Belgium)
in association with Saint-Roch, and the acquisition of
Modigliani (Italy) in 1938. Piero Modigliani, who was obliged
to move to the United States for political reasons, sold his
Rantigny factory, twisting, winding, folding.
Rantigny factory, textile weaving.
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CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
THE WAR:
A TURNING POINT
Activity continued during the war, but Isover, deprived of
contact with its licensor, had to manage the development
of the processes alone. At the same time, the American
authorities started legal proceedings against OCF.
The future of the Pool was threatened.
THE FIRST
INSULATION
CONFERENCE
With the exception of a brief interruption during the German
invasion of France in 1940, the war did not stop Saint-Gobain's
production of fiberglass; on the contrary, it was even to
become a major turning point. At the end of May 1940, the
advance of the German troops forced Isover to evacuate the
Rantigny factory. The personnel withdrew to Cognac, but
returned to the Oise region in August to launch production
of long fibers. In the same year, bombs intended for the nearby railway station partially destroyed the Soissons factory.
Fortunately, the Owens line and a few of the Gossler lines were
spared.They were moved to Rantigny, where all Saint-Gobain's
fiberglass production was now concentrated. Even though it
had been reorganized and was slightly smaller, the factory was
The very first world insulation
conference was held in Paris,
in May 1939. Eugène Gentil, the
managing director of the 'Glaceries
de Saint-Gobain', felt there was
a need to create an international
insulation community, to reinforce
the relationship between the Pool
agreement signatories and the
licensees. He therefore thought
of organizing an annual conference.
For this first of a long series,
the delegates met in a restaurant
on the Champs Elysées in Paris.
On the menu: technical problems;
commercial, legal and health aspects
of fiberglass. German, American,
Belgian, British, Danish, Spanish,
French Italian, Dutch, Norwegian
and Swedish representatives were
present.
porary management of the Company, decided to launch their
own research into fiberglass production. The war years, and
with no apparent major damage, the promising landscape of
the end of the 1930s had been radically changed.
still functional.
The real impact of the war can be found on another level: relationships with its American partner, OCF, completely
changed. For fear of incurring the wrath of the US anti-trust
authorities, OCF broke the export restrictions mentioned in
the Pool agreement. More importantly, by the simple fact that
the war was going on, the relationship between OCF's
engineers and the European users of the Owens, Silionne and
Veranne processes was interrupted. Eugène Gentil himself
was blocked in New York. Saint-Gobain could not, therefore,
International fiberglass conference, at Wiesbaden
in Germany, 1954. Around 25 countries took part.
46
benefit from the latest technical developments. However,
this hiatus was to have positive repercussions. In May 1941,
Tony Perrin and André Ayçoberry, who had taken on the tem-
Rantigny factory.
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CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
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Model made by 'les Glaces de Boussois' for a glass wool
advertisement.
Three drawings taken from the brochure 'Tel qu'en un écrin'.
48
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POST WAR: HOPES
AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
Under pressure from the American authorities, the Pool was
dissolved in 1949. On the ground, however, everything was going
well in a France which was being completely rebuilt… until
the arrival of a formidable competitor. Isover's only solution:
create a better fiberglass production process.
After the Liberation, the relationship with OCF did not return
to its previous basis. Boosted by the enormous orders from
the army, the American glass-maker had changed scale, and
this could be felt in its attitude towards its partner. What
was more, the US Department of Justice, had launched an
enquiry concerning OCF. In June 1949, OCF, Owens Illinois and
Corning put an end to the proceedings by entering into an
agreement with the authorities. According to this consent
decree, the patents issued prior to 1938 were to be accessible to everyone, free of charge. In addition, OCF promised to
sell licenses for the patents issued prior to 1938 to anyone,
at a reasonable price, to put an end to all its agreements with
foreign companies and to conclude new, non-restrictive
agreements with them. Moreover, OCF was to become totally
independent of its two 'parents', Owens Illinois and Corning.
In short, the 1937 Pool agreements were null and void.
Everything would have to be re-negotiated.This was done on
February 6th, 1951, the date the new New York agreements were
signed, marking the official end of the Pool.
Sensing this outcome, and seeing the date its patents would
fall into the public domain drawing closer, the Saint-Gobain
management was thinking about AKM's mission. How could
the royalties be justified when the patents were null and
Insulating the cars which transported the British royal family
during its visit to Australia in the 1950s.
50
void, and how could it differentiate itself from OCF? The
only solution was to offer technical and commercial assistance
CHAPTER 1 - - THE PIONEERING ERA
GB 014-053-STG-7-05
to the licensees, and thus contribute more actively
to the overall development of fiberglass technology and
applications.This would also be a good way to win the loyalty
of these industrialists.As AKM did not have the means, SaintGobain decided, on April 8th, 1948, to create Sodefive, (Société
d'Etude pour le Développement de la Fibre de Verre). Its aim,
as defined in its articles of incorporation was:“the study and
implementation of technical and commercial assistance
which can be provided to manufacturers and users of glass
fibers, with the aim of allowing them to improve and
develop their industry and generally, all research and operations
directly or indirectly connected with the above aim”.
In the field, the atmosphere was quite optimistic. France was
being rebuilt and modernized.There were opportunities to be
seized for building insulation, and precisely at this moment,
a new product appeared: a glass fiber mat impregnated with
a binding agent, which was much easier to handle than the
former pure fiber batting. The first product of this kind was
intended for refrigerator insulation; this soon gave birth to the
'Imprégné au Brai à Rantigny', the famous IBR which revolutionized building insulation. Isover was convinced of its
product's quality and in 1948 asked for an expert opinion from
the research laboratory of the 'Conservatoire National des Arts
et Métiers'. In April 1949, the CNAM gave its verdict: “It was
noted that after being submitted to 37 hours of vibration, the
glass wool mat called feutre Isover IBR, showed no settling,
the glass fibers were not broken and no dust was detected at
the bottom of the partition”. In short, it was an undeniable
technical success. However, it also had to be accepted by the
customers. Roger Lacharme went to the United States in
1947 and discovered new marketing methods.“Before undertaking this voyage, I was an intuitive trader. On the other
side of the Atlantic, I discovered rational methods for organizing an advertising campaign, a promotional activity or
conquering a market,” he declared. He therefore developed
a modern sales network and launched the in-house magazine,
'L'Équipe', which symbolized the activity's revival. The
architects finally listened and the contracts started to arrive.
Le Corbusier called on Isover to insulate the famous 'Cité
Radieuse' in Marseille, which was inaugurated in 1952.
Covers of 'L'Équipe', the French sales department's newsletter.
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However, a formidable competitor appeared on the horizon.
In 1948, a joint subsidiary of Pont-à-Mousson and the American
Johns Manville set up a stone wool factory in Saint-Etiennedu-Rouvray, in Normandy. At the beginning of the 1950s,
this new insulation product appeared on the French market
under the name Roclaine. Its producers made no secret of the
fact that they wanted to 'suffocate' glass fiber.To this end, they
gave significant discounts to their clients, which meant that
stone wool was 25 percent less expensive than glass wool. In
addition, as it could stand higher temperatures, it was better
suited to certain industrial uses. Finally, its salesmen never failed
to point out that their product 'did not prick your fingers', which
was the case with glass fibers produced using the Owens
process. “It was close. There was a risk that the commercial
efforts undertaken over the years would be wiped out, and these
rivals spread the rumor that the Rantigny factory would be
forced to close its doors in two years,” Roger Lacharme recalls.
Saint-Gobain no longer had a choice. It had to perfect a new
glass fiber production process which gave better results than
the Owens process. Roger Lacharme literally laid siege to
the research center, now set up in Paris, on the boulevard
de la Villette, and arranged for the fiber production research,
started during the war, to change pace and scale. The era of
the engineers was beginning.
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SODEFIVE
SERVES THE LICENSEES
The Société d'Etude pour le
Développement de la Fibre de Verre
(Sodefive), which was created to
offer a service to licensees, was
gradually to become an international
development tool for Saint-Gobain.
The story began in 1948. The brand
new subsidiary's explicit mission
was to provide licensees with
technical and commercial
assistance. By doing this, it was
supposed to be contributing to
the development of the fiberglass
industry throughout the world…
to the Group's greater profit,
even if only in terms of royalties.
At the beginning, the company did
not provide technical assistance
per se but was in charge of the
coordination. The CRIR engineers
looked after this in the field.
Sodefive in fact took on the role
of interface, organization… and
promotion. “It was at the end
of the fifties that a team spirit
appeared between the licensees.
The personality of Marc Tolédano,
Claude Caron and Claude Jumentier
contributed to create a type of
relationship based on trust and
friendship between those licensees.
They knew they could count on
Sodefive” explained Dominique
Elineau, the last managing director
of Sodefive. The word was out:
through its way of operating,
the company had created a real
'licensees' club'. This state of mind
was put into concrete form through
meetings of technical or sales
managers, international conferences
which brought together 'people who
knew and appreciated each other',
and even, at the beginning of the
1980s, a magazine.
Later on, Sodefive developed a new
activity meant for the licensees:
sales and marketing assistance.
“We understood that owning and
mastering a process which was
technically superior to the
competition was not enough,”
underlined Dominique Elineau.
A small cell was therefore created to
study the markets and the changes
in their needs. Its aim was also to
circulate information related to the
new products, to assist the licensees
in their industrial investments,
to help them in comparing the
products of the competitors…
The fall of the Berlin Wall finally
opened a new era. The general
management of the Insulation branch
gave Sodefive a new mission,
different from its primary vocation.
Capitalizing on its skills, knowledge
of the markets and players, it
participated to the establishment
of the branch in Eastern Europe
then in China. In 1997, only five
licensees remained, and there was
no significant and immediate
perspective of entering into any
new license agreements. A dedicated
structure was not justified. After
half a century of existence, Sodefive
was wound up and its activity
reintegrated into the Group's
Insulation branch.
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CHAPTER 2
A technological epic
“TEL” conquers the world
The new license system
“Everything's fine”
THE GOLDEN
AGE OF THE
ENGINEERS
After the war, the cards were re-dealt. Cut off from its technology
providers during the conflict, the Saint-Gobain Group developed
its own means of production. The research department got to work
and soon the TEL was born - a new process based on an original
fiberizing principle. It was a technical and commercial success: licenses
were granted throughout the world. A good period was opening up
for Isover.
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1945-1946
1960
Pierre Heymes, a young test engineer, filed two
major patents, one after the other, dealing with the
fiber production processes. The second, in particular,
described the association of centrifugal force and
the action of a jet of hot gas to draw out the glass.
This was the first statement of the famous SaintGobain fiber production principle.
1950
Beginning of the construction of the Industrial
Research Center at Rantigny, better known by the
acronym CRIR. It was a genuine research and development center and associated three fundamental laboratories (chemistry, physics and applications) with
industrial scale pilot lines. Research had at last found
its place.
1967
After the disappointing tests of the LET machine,
which was too complicated, the decision was taken
to ‘turn it over’. Moreover, Heymes had already put
this idea forward a few years previously. The very
first TEL machine, with the spinner at the bottom,
appeared at the Billancourt center before beginning
a test campaign at Rantigny.
1957
This was it! After seven years’ perfecting, the TEL –
actually the Supertel, as the researchers called it –
began its industrial career at Rantigny, where it
superseded the Owens process. Gabriel Aufaure, the
factory director, took the risk. A wager which was
quickly won, as the TEL was superior to all the other
processes and was soon to conquer the world.
56
Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed, an American construction material producer, created CSG, a joint venture
intended to manufacture and sell glass wool in the
United States. The first lines, set up in the factories in
Pennsylvania, Kansas and New Jersey, started up one
year later. The TEL had come to compete with Owens
Corning on its own ground!
1973-1979
The Yom Kippur war (1973) then the Iranian revolution (1979) provoked two oil crises, marking the end
of the first thirty post-war years. It was crisis time and
energy had become expensive; insulation suddenly
had the wind in its sails. In an economic context
which was difficult, Isover still had a prosperous
decade.
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A TECHNOLOGICAL
EPIC
THE TEL PROCESS
CHAPTER 2 - - THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ENGINEERS
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For the researchers, Hager-type spinning was the most logical
way of producing glass fibers. However, they added extra drawing
by hot gases, thus creating an original fiber production principle.
The TEL, which applies this principle, had a difficult birth after
several changes…and an about-face.
The beginning
After the flight of the French civilian population during the
German invasion, fiberglass production began again at Rantigny.
However, at the beginning of 1941, it became clear that the
severing of relationships with the OCF engineers was handicapping Saint-Gobain.The company was no longer benefiting from
the latest technological advances.The same was true for Gossler.
Saint-Gobain therefore decided to develop its processes itself.
Tony Perrin, who had taken on the position of managing director
of the 'Glaceries', in the absence of Eugène Gentil (kept in
New York), and his assistant, André Ayçoberry, turned to the
'Laboratoire d'Etudes Thermiques', or LET.This Billancourt-based
research and development unit was dedicated essentially to
flat glass processes. Its director, Ivan Peyches, had just
In a few months, Ivan Peyches had made up his mind: the Hager
centrifugal process was the most logical of the three from a
physical point of view. In addition, this simple process, which could
returned from captivity. On his return, André Ayçoberry asked
him to study all the existing processes to identify any possible
improvements. In his sights were the Gossler, a slightly out of
use recycled glass, corresponded well to this period of
shortages. It nevertheless had one major disadvantage: Boussois
held the license! So an alternative had to be found. From that
date fiber production process using a wheel, the Hager, based on
centrifuging, and the Owens method of blowing with steam,
moment on, work began on what was to become the LET machine,
after the initials of the laboratory. It lasted until 1951.
inherited from slag fiber.
Ivan Peyches.
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The LET machine was developed with various improvements
on the Hager process.The most important concerned the grooved
disk, which was quickly replaced by a 'spinner' whose edge was
pierced with holes.What the researchers called the 'tournette'
or 'whirler' among themselves looked more like a flying saucer
than a spinner, and its flying qualities as it shot across the
workshop during certain adjustment incidents reinforced the
comparison… The first tests of the machine, built by the SEVA
(see 'The SEVA: a mechanic “spins” a tale), took place in the
industrial testing department at Saint-Romain-le-Puy, in 1942.
It was a failure, and they had to wait until 1944 before 16 micron
diameter fibers were obtained.
The spinner was developed, receiving first two, then three rows
of holes. New tests were started at Rantigny, with another feed
method.The spinner received soft glass 'marbles', injected from
below by compressed air. Once again, the tests were disappointing. Mister Herbert, who was director of Rantigny at the time, was
severe.“It will never work”, he maintained.Among the grounds
for complaint: excessively high cost, a fragile machine, short-lived
spinners and products of a dubious quality, because of the soft
glass. Not to mention the problems with the fiber collection, due
to the strange arrangement of the machine, which was inherited from the Hager process and had the spinner on top.This was
the end of the LET machine.
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ACCURACY
OF VOCABULARY:
WHAT DO WE CALL
TEL?
“In the technical context of TEL, I can
not find a unique element which
distinguishes the process from its
competitors.The entire process is the
juxtaposition of a myriad of details.
Taken one by one, they may appear
minor, but through their synthesis
into a homogenous whole, they form
a technology which is perfectly
competitive in the glass fiber insulation
industry.”This is how it was put by
René Goutte, an engineer who
supervised the setting up of the
Saint-Gobain insulation activity in
the United States. But what exactly did
he call 'the TEL'? Precise vocabulary is
essential. In the beginning, there was
the LET machine, which was outlined
during the war and took the initials of
the 'Laboratoire d'Etudes Thermiques'.
The idea of turning the spinner over
allowed a new centrifugal fiber
producing machine to be developed:
the LET machine was turned into
TEL by a physical, as well as an
acronymic, reversal.After new
developments the TEL became
Supertel, before being industrialised in
1957.What René Goutte, and everyone
else with him called 'the TEL' was in
fact the Supertel, then its successive
developments. It became the generic
name for the Saint-Gobain fiber
production principle.
1
1. LET spinner.
2. Prototype of the LET machine.
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Spinners with different diameters.
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At Saint-Gobain, glass fibers are
made in spinners. Originally called
'tournettes' or 'whirlers', these
spinners must withstand rotation
speeds of several thousands of
revolutions per minute without
deforming, and receive molten glass
at over a thousand degrees Celsius.
These fragile parts have become the
speciality of the 'Société d'Etudes
Verrières Appliqués' (SEVA). It was
created in 1926 under the name
"Société d'Etudes et d'Exploitations
Verrières" (SEEV) by Saint-Gobain to
look after the design and mechanical
maintenance of the brand new bottle
manufacturing factory in Chalon-surSaône. In fact the company was soon in
demand from the whole of the group
for all the mechanical parts or units of
its production installations, and therefore realised the prototypes and was
responsible for manufacturing the
various fiber production machines.
The spinners are a special case, as not
only does SEVA manufacture them,
it also develops them - and at the
same time adapts its production
methods.These parts are a deciding
factor in the quality of the fiber, to
such a point that SEVA is still the only
supplier for all the Group's factories
and subsidiaries.
The first spinners were manufactured
in 1956-57 for the start up of TEL
and Supertel.They were 200 mm in
diameter and realised on a hydraulic
press in Nicral sheet.The holes were
drilled 'by hand' with drills of less
than a millimetre in diameter.About
twenty drillers worked in an isolated
workshop, so that they could hear the
drill 'sing' - to determine the state of
the drill bit by ear. But the technique
developed very quickly: the diameter
and material of the spinners, as well as
the method of production and drilling.
Pressed sheet is not very strong and
was quickly replaced by moulded parts.
The La Villette laboratory chose an
American alloy (iron, chromium, nickel
and tungsten), which was to be used
until 1978. It was melted in an electric
furnace with no contact with the air
and poured into hard sand moulds.The
parts were then finished on the lathe.
In the mid-1990s SEVA changed to
ceramic moulds.A replica of the
spinner was realised in polystyrene,
then this model was covered with
successive coats of ceramic, which
were solidified in the furnace. From
then on, most of the spinners were
manufactured according to this
process. Drilling by hand was
superseded by an electro-erosion
method, where the metal was attacked
by intense, repeated electric arcs.
CHAPTER 2 - - THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ENGINEERS
SEVA, A MECHANIC “SPINS” A TALE
destined for drilling the combustion
chambers of aircraft jet engines, was
having trouble perfecting a system
suited to spinners.A single machine of
this type would however replace all the
electro-erosion machines from 1998!
Meanwhile, the diameter of the
spinners was increased successively
to 300 millimetres (1967), then
400 (1978), 600 (1980) and even
800 millimetres from 1983.The alloy
was also developed, and was the
subject of cooperation with CNAM
and the University of Nancy.
In 1985, SEVA and CRIR (Industrial
Research Center of Rantigny) again
strengthened their links and
introduced regular technical
exchanges, thus formalising
a cooperation which had been
initiated three decades earlier.
Drilling workshop at the SEVA in the 1960s.
After having unsuccessfully tested a
commercial machine, SEVA designed
and created its own tools and put them
into service in 1964.There were up
to eighty electro-erosion machines
in 1997, but as the system had
nevertheless reached its limits, SEVA
changed to electron beam drilling.
It had been studying this process for
more than twenty-five years, but
the only manufacturer of this type
of machine, which at that time was
Machining workshop at the SEVA in 1970.
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1
1. Piles of spinners in the SEVA's machining workshop.
2. Fitting a TEL spinner.
2
3
3. Stock of spinners at different stages of manufacture.
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PIERRE HEYMES,
THE FATHER OF
THE SAINT-GOBAIN
FIBER PRODUCTION
PRINCIPLE
Birth of a process
“The best of our test engineers”, was
how Pierre Heymes was described
at Saint-Gobain.After leaving the
'Arts et Metiers' school in 1942, the
young graduate immediately received
a grant from the CNRS to work in the
'Laboratoire d'Études Thermiques' at
Saint-Gobain, which was then directed
by Ivan Peyches.The latter, who at the
time was developing a complete fiber
production theory, needed a study
of fluid dynamics. He asked Heymes
to embark on a thesis, supervised by
professor Ribaud, president of the
Saint-Gobain research committee.
On this occasion, Heymes understood
that the drawing force a fluid can exert
on a thin strand - in this case a strand
of molten glass - depends on both
its speed and its temperature. He
was hired by Peyches in 1943, and
began to develop what would become
the Saint-Gobain fiber production
principle. In 1944, he visited an
exhibition of salvaged German V2s
behind Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris,
and understood how to eject the
essential hot gases at very high speed.
From then on, everything moved
very quickly.A first patent was filed
in 1945.The second, which associated
drawing by the combustion gases
Diagram of the principle of the V2 motor.
68
with the action of centrifugal force,
followed in 1946.The Saint-Gobain
fiber production principle was registered,
but it was several years before
suitable burners were available.
From the beginning of 1946, Heymes
took over management of the fiber
production tests, and divided his time
between the laboratory in the 'Place
de la Nation' and Rantigny. In Paris,
he developed the Superfine process,
whose burners were the forerunners of
those in the Supertel.At Rantigny, he
dedicated himself to the LET machine.
Note that, ever the visionary, he had
at that time suggested turning it
over, thus designing the TEL without
knowing…
He supervised the development of
the process until 1951.At that time,
Saint-Gobain had a difficult problem
to solve: the simultaneous polishing
of both sides of a glass strip. SaintGobain's management gave great
importance to this question, and Ivan
Peyches did not hesitate for a second.
The only person who could find the
answer was Pierre Heymes, who
therefore abandoned the fiber
production process for which he
had laid the foundations.
The LET machine doesn't work? Let's turn it upside down! “We
are designing a new approach to the LET centrifuging machine,
called TEL, in which all the components are turned upside down
and the spinner is on the lower part,” wrote Ivan Peyches, in his
introduction to the report on the disappointing tests at Rantigny.
Giving Caesar his due moreover, he pointed out that such an
arrangement had been suggested in 1942, by the manager of the
factory in which the first tests of the machine had been carried
out, then reformulated in 1946 by Pierre Heymes, who at the time
was taking over the management of fiber production tests.
The very first upside-down machine dates from 1950.The glass
arrived at the top through the aperture in the unit's axle.The fibers
were blown downwards by an air current and fell onto a collect-
Sodefive was also in favour of an acceleration of the tests.
Moreover, it was its technical director, Lucien Deschamps, who
had the idea of getting someone to take a fresh look at the TEL.
He suggested Mister Corvillain, a graduate of the 'Ecole
des Mines' and at the time, manager of the 'Glacerie de
Chantereine', who took over the management of the tests in
September.Thanks to numerous minor modifications and adjustments, the tests were finally satisfactory.“The future of the TEL
machine can be envisaged with optimism. It is absolutely essential that industrial operation for several months on an ad hoc furnace confirms the results obtained,” Corvillain wrote. In short,
the TEL was viable and tests had to be continued at full-scale.
The industrial tests on the TEL began under the management
of Marcel Lévecque, from the basic research laboratory at the La
Villette center.They took place from 1953 to 1955 in the factory at Lucens, in Switzerland, where one of the three furnaces was
given over to them. The work concerned the machine, which
was still a bit fragile, the drilling of the spinners, improvement
of the fibers and increasing output. Lévecque multiplied the
rows of holes in the spinner, to 35. The last test campaign, carried out at Rantigny from 1954 to 1956, concerned the burner,
and finally defined the composition of the glass suitable for the
ing conveyor belt. Just one axle, no vibrations; the machine was
both simple and better-designed than its predecessor.The first
tests were encouraging; the machine worked and the fibers
discharged easily. On the other hand, the burner had to be
improved. A test and modification campaign began in 1951 at
process.The machine now had a spinner with 27,000 holes and
produced three tons of ten micron diameter fibers per day. It was
finally ready for industrialization.
Rantigny.Work was carried out on the composition of the glass,
the external burner, and above all, the spinner. Form, material,
number of holes; everything was developed. However, there
first products were sold to Frigidaire, a subsidiary of General
Motors. Yet, on 17th July 1956, the machines were stopped.
This was the end of the TEL! Meanwhile, the Supertel had
remained one problem: if the melting temperature was too low,
demonstrated its superiority during a comparative test.
In June 1956, two TEL machines began operating at Rantigny.The
the glass devitrified; if it was too high, the spinner suffered. In short,
the tests took a long time and did not give any convincing results,
despite the new machine's obvious qualities.
In the autumn of 1952, Roger Lacharme, spurred on by the competition from Roclaine, urged the management to launch the new
fiber production process.The Owens type fiber was too prickly,
too heavy and was having trouble competing with stone wool.
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THE PHYSICS LABORATORY: A SCIENTIFIC TOOL
“I would like […] to emphasise again
that on a research level, we need to
carry out basic work which is too often
disparaged…” is what Marcel Lévecque,
head of the Technical Research and
Development Department, had to say
at the tenth anniversary of the physics
laboratory, in 1971.
The sound levels recorded by the microphones are transcribed
directly in decibels on the recorder.
As the 'theoretical branch' of the CRIR,
the laboratory began its activities
in 1961 under the aegis of Daniel
Fournier, assisted by the former
manager of the Rantigny factory
inspection laboratory, Claude
Jumentier.The unit included three
sections - thermal, mechanical and
acoustic - corresponding to the three
basic properties expected of insulating
materials. Its mission was also
threefold. Firstly, to look at all aspects
of the question - to make an inventory
and describe the performances of all
the materials intended for acoustic
and thermal uses.To this day, the
laboratory still keeps a characteristics
file which has few equivalents in the
world. Next, to carry out basic research
into the properties of the materials.
This forms the major part of the
work and consists of describing and
modelling the phenomena taking
place in the fibrous environments,
and understanding how the structure
of these materials influences their
performance. Finally, none of all this
would be possible without the third
line of research: the perfecting of
precise and reliable methods of
measuring these properties and
phenomena.What is known as
'metrology' is essential to knowing
about the different materials, as well
as comparing their performances in
an unquestionable manner - a trump
card when having to negotiate with
regulatory authorities throughout
the world and develop texts which
often put fiberglass at a disadvantage
through simple ignorance of its
properties. Isopermeability curves,
thermal conductivity measuring
equipment, study of convection and
thermomigration in light, fibrous
insulation, effect of boron.Although
the laymen have difficulty imagining
what it is all about, it is not difficult
to guess that the laboratory works
at a very high level, and often in
cooperation with public research
institutions and universities. From
23rd to 25th November 1971, a seminar
was organised at Ermenonville.This
was the opportunity to draw up
a balance sheet of ten years' activity.
Claude Jumentier, a former 'salesman'
turned researcher, explained how a
basic laboratory, which may appear
to be a long way from reality, can
help those who sell fiberglass in a
very concrete way.“I remember that
difficulties came from three directions
at the same time: the customers, the
competition and the regulations for
the use of insulating materials.The
problem concerning the customers
came from the lack of adequate and
reliable information. In the case of
the competition, the problem was to
find an appropriate and irrefutable
argument. Finally by 'regulation',
I mean all the rules or specifications
decreed by the profession's institutes
and authorities, which led to
restrictions in the use of insulating
materials.”
The laboratory has answered all these
expectations.The distance travelled
can be measured since the fifties,
the period when the quality of a fiber
was measured… by touch!
The operator measures a loudspeaker's characteristics with
a sound level meter.
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MARCEL LÉVECQUE,
THE 'BOSS'
And the TEL becomes Super
The name Supertel dates very precisely from 13 October 1952,
at La Villette, during a meeting about the conclusions of the
Corvillain report. In addition to the launch of the industrial tests
on the TEL, it was decided to dedicate research effort to a new
process. The idea was simple: to apply the fiber production
principle defined in 1945 - 46 by Pierre Heymes to the TEL
machine.This programme, called Supertel, would be carried out
at La Villette and at Rantigny, under the supervision of Marcel
Lévecque.
th
The first step consisted of drawing out the glass strands at very
high speed under the action of combustion gas. Very quickly,
Peyches imagined associating this with the centrifugal fiber
production that he saw working during the TEL tests, for which
he had taken responsibility. A patent from 1946 describes
what has become the Saint-Gobain fiberizing principle: the
association of the centrifugal force and 'over-drawing' by hot
gases from an internal combustion burner.
Finalization of the Supertel began in April 1953, with the
construction of a production line at La Villette and installation
of test lines at Rantigny, and lasted four years. Four years
during which a metallic alloy for the spinner had to be defined
which would withstand the heat, an internal combustion
burner had to be created, capable of delivering 'hard' flames, that
is, sufficiently rapid and coherent to draw out the fibers, stop the
composition of the glass and create a glass heating system by
induction.
On 19th October 1953, exactly a year after the initial meeting,
the first Supertel fiber was produced at La Villette. It measured
two microns in diameter, but contained too many impurities.The
burner was improved until April 1954, when the tests on the
other constituent parts of the process began at Rantigny. In
1956, the Supertel had definitively proved its superiority over the
TEL, which was stopped.
In October 1950, a young man of
28 entered the La Villette basic
research laboratory.A graduate of the
'Conservatoire National des Arts et
Métiers', he had just spent three years
at the 'Office National d'Etudes et de
Recherches Aérospatiales' (Onera)
where he had worked on ceramics,
metallic alloys and combustion.
As he had also studied thermodynamics and the chemistry of glass,
he had a mastery of all the aspects of
fiber production, at least in theory.
This was no doubt the reason why,
on 13th October 1952, Ivan Peyches entrusted him with the management of
the TEL team, as successor to Pierre
Heymes.“There was an excellent
thermo-dynamics specialist in the
basic research laboratory, called
Marcel Lévecque… I decided to entrust
him with the TEL process. In a few
years, Lévecque was to take it through
all the stages of development and
turn it into a real industrial process”,
Ivan Peyches later remembered.
And in fact the person that his
associates unanimously called
'the boss', took an interest in all
aspects of the machine, had lots
of ideas, and completely overwhelmed
his work associates. Exhausting,
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sometimes, but results were achieved.
The brilliant theorist that he could
have remained showed what he was
capable of as a pragmatic and
ingenious research worker. It was
perhaps this aspect which gained him
the respect and unfailing friendship
of Gabriel Aufaure, the director of the
Rantigny factory.The two associates
would be in on the creation of the CRIR
in 1960.
Lévecque then became director of the
Technical Research and Development
Department of the glass Division,
before becoming technical director
of the glass fiber branch, then taking
on responsibility for CertainTeed in the
United States. CertainTeed's new
research center, which was
inaugurated on 26th June 1979, was
christened the Lévecque technical
center.
1
2
1. Diagrams of the Supertel.
2. Heating the spinners by induction.
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The molten glass falls into the spinner, which turns on a vertical axis.
This spinner's exterior, in heat-resistant steel, is drilled with a large
number of holes. The glass is pushed through the holes by centrifugation
and is divided into numerous strands. A powerful jet of hot gas then
draws out the fibers.
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A PLACE FOR RESEARCH
There was no longer a place for
empiricism or 'do-it-yourself
solutions'. Successive research
managers in the Insulation activity
introduced scientific processes and
launched basic research programmes.
They needed laboratories and a real
test center, and in 1960, this happened:
the CRIR was created at Rantigny.
From the beginning of the 20th century,
the glass industry had become aware
of the importance of research, and
Saint-Gobain was no exception.
However, it was during the war years
that Ivan Peyches moved from the
obligatory empiricism to assert the
importance of scientific methods,
combining the search for theoretical
knowledge with controlled
experimentation.A new era had
just begun. Questions which were
apparently as trivial as 'what
determines the recovery of thickness
of a glass wool mat which has
been compressed during transport?'
would lead to high level theoretical
work, involving mathematical
modelling, and would be the subject
of joint theses and studies with
universities or other academic
institutions. In May 1956, Marcel
Lévecque even wrote a quite visionary
note to Sodefive, the patents
department - and to Peyches: 'Product
analysis has been neglected in Europe
and must be more systematic. Perhaps
in a few years we will see theorists
looking into the architecture of
fiberglass, fiber 'topologists' applying
their difficult mathematics to allow
us to discover the true possibilities
of our products'. It was obvious
that improving the properties of
an insulator or discussing with the
regulating authorities requires solid
theoretical knowledge. Immediately
after the war, nobody knew much
about the properties of fiberglass
or its behaviour over time.
Beginning a real scientific programme
required manpower, means and
installations.The first work on the LET
machine began at the 'Laboratoire
d'Etudes Thermiques' at Billancourt, in
1941. On the night of 3rd March 1942,
a bomb aimed at the nearby Renault
factories destroyed the laboratory.
This was then transferred to the 'Rue
Fabre d'Eglantine' in Paris, close to the
'Place de la Nation', where tests on
ultra-fine fiber, which required very
little glass, began in the summer.The
test material was then transferred to
the 'Boulevard de la Villette', where
the first fiber research center was built
in 1949.All that remained was to solve
the problem of access to molten glass,
essential for the tests which took
place in various factories in the
Group, according to the glass strands
available. In April 1953, tests of the
Supertel began; the decision was
therefore taken to build a complete
fiber production unit. It had its own
melting cell, reception conveyor
belt and sizing device.
had shown them that to test a process
on an industrial scale, they needed
their own pilot line.Added to these
preoccupations was a problem which
was anecdotic, but not insignificant:
the burner tests generated whistling
which was so intense that the
Boulevard de la Villette neighbourhood
had begun to tire of it… In short, it was
time to think about building a real,
large-scale test center.This would
be the CRIR: 'Centre de Recherches
Industrielles de Rantigny'.
“We needed to work directly and not
in the abstraction of a laboratory.
So I asked for a research center to be
built next to the factory. In that way,
everyone would be happy and could
work in their own area.” Lévecque
remembered.Work began quickly with
the construction of the pilot workshop,
to which were joined three basic
laboratories dedicated respectively
to chemistry, physics and applications.
As a consequence, the organisation of
research within the glass Division was
revised: the Technical Research and
Development Department was created
in 1960 and placed under Marcel
Lévecque's responsibility. Research
had finally found its place.
This was not yet enough. In January
1960, Marcel Lévecque and Gabriel
Aufaure were thinking: even though
the Supertel had been successfully
launched, it needed improvement.
What was more, the need for
insulation was developing very
quickly.The rural exodus, urbanisation
and economic growth had combined
to create an explosion in house
building.The licensees needed
assistance and training to follow
the developments in such
a promising market.As for the
researchers, the experience of 1953
Rollisol, one of Isover's first big commercial successes
in the 1950s.
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'TEL' CONQUERS
THE WORLD
May 1957: industrial exploitation of the Supertel began at
Rantigny. The process was much better than the competition,
producing a fiber of unequalled fineness and lightness. This
was the beginning of an international success. In a few years,
dozens of licenses were entered into across the world.
Unquestionably, the Supertel surpassed the rival processes
technically, but should its industrialisation be generalised? The
answer, which is so obvious now, was far less so in 1957. The
licensees wondered. There remained some uncertainty about
the viability of the process over time, notably concerning the
behaviour of the spinners, which were subjected to high
temperatures. In addition, investment was needed to adapt
production lines which had been optimised over many years for
the Owens process. Nevertheless: Sodefive quickened the pace,
having seen OCF make direct promises to the licensees.At the
same time, the Heye Group was adopting new glass compositions for the Owens process and was letting it be well known.
In 1956, Sodefive could only gain time, while hoping that the
process would soon be perfected. It organised countless visits
by foreign company representatives to Rantigny, to show them
the new process under test.
Finally, in May 1957, Gabriel Aufaure, the director of the
Rantigny factory, took the decision. The Owens process was
closed down and replaced by the Supertel, which everyone
apart from the Saint-Gobain researchers called the TEL. Industrial
production began with six 'heads', as Supertel operated according to the 'rule of sixes': six tons of fiber per day (per head), six
Japanese visitors from the Asahi Glass company, accompanied
by Marc Toledano from Sodefive.
78
thousand holes per spinner, six microns in diameter. “There is
a risk, but we are taking it”, Aufaure replied to questions from
a worried associate. It was a gamble which rapidly paid off: the
Spanish advertising, 'Neither hot nor cold, and no noise'.
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1
product fulfilled its promises. Not only was it soft to the touch,
but for equal insulating performance, it weighed half as much
as stone wool. Customers, who were at first surprised by this
lightness, had to be convinced, but this happened quickly.
Isover reoriented and refined its marketing by offering its
customers a product which was no longer basic, but effective
and with real characteristics. From then on, it was to be judged
using performance criteria. Even though new developments saw
the light of day at La Villette until 1959, the 'TEL' was officially
launched. It was to dominate the insulation world for decades
to come.
1
The following industrialisations took place outside France.
The 1958 world insulation conference in Cannes was the first
opportunity to take stock. Marcel Lévecque presented the
Supertel to the representatives of the whole world. 1958 to 1963
was the 'golden age for granting of TEL licenses', in the words
of Claude Jumentier, the technical director of Sodefive. Most of
the pre-war Hager licensees became TEL licensees, and new
ones arrived. Sodefive showed what it was capable of.A mobile
team was set up to help each new licensee design, build, then
start up its installations. The crowning achievement of the
edifice, or in any case the most significant: in 1968, SaintGobain installed the TEL in the United States (see 'CertainTeed:
The American adventure'). And the movement continued
towards the East.
2
2
1. Construction of a TEL line in Brazil, in 1963.
2. Lighting the furnace at the Etten-Leur factory in the Netherlands in 1962.
1. 2. TEL line start-up at the Vamdrup factory in Denmark, in 1965.
80
3. TEL line in production at the Etten-Leur factory in the Netherlands.
3
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CERTAINTEED: THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE
In 1966, CertainTeed, an American
construction material producer, took
over the glass-maker Gustin Bacon
and wanted to get into the insulation
market. However, its fiber production
process, which it had bought from
Pall in 1964, at the same time as
a factory at Mountaintop
(Pennsylvania), had never been
successful. Malcolm Meyer, the
managing director, therefore
contacted Saint-Gobain and began
negotiations, which concluded with
the creation of a joint venture,
with equal shares held by the two
companies. CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
(CSG) was born on 1st July 1967 for
a period of thirty years. Saint-Gobain
made its technology available as part
of a license paid for with bonds which
could be converted into CertainTeed
shares, while CertainTeed brought
access to the American construction
market, where it was already firmly
established, thanks to its asphalt
shingles. On this occasion,
Saint-Gobain took a first share in
CertainTeed and finished by taking
total control of CSG in 1988.
During the summer of 1967, a team
of American engineers came to
Rantigny in order to familiarise
themselves with the TEL process.
Then a French team directed by
René Goutte left in the autumn,
to supervise the factory installation.
The deadlines were very tight:
seven production lines had to
be set up and started before July
1968. They were divided among the
sites at Mountaintop, Kansas City
and Berlin, New Jersey. On the
Mountaintop site, the ground first had
to be 'cleared', as the Pall installations
had remained as they were, including
the solidified glass! The factories
82
finally started up at the agreed time,
despite the difficulties, surprises and
sometimes fits of laughter due to a
radically different technical culture.
For example, as energy costs practically
nothing in the United States, there
was no provision for recovering
the heat from the smokestacks
as Europe usually did.When
it started up, Mountaintop was the
Saint-Gobain Group's biggest TEL
unit. Due to the oil crisis, which
brought new insulation regulations,
the American market exploded.
A new factory was opened in Athens
(Georgia) in 1975, with an enormous
electric oven, and a big production line
was set up in Kansas City in 1978, then
at Chowchilla (California) in 1979.
CSG was selling in particular a product
which had been perfected previously
by CertainTeed: InsulSafe. This was
a fiber without binder designed
for attic insulation. It was highly
compressed as it came off the
production line, to limit transport
costs, given the large delivery
distances characteristic of the United
States. It regained its initial volume
during its blowing application.
This product alone occupied four
production lines.
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1
2
THE LONG VOYAGE
OF A POLAR
'ICE CUBE'
Mo-I-Rana, February 1959. In this
small Norwegian village close to
the Arctic Circle, some men were
indulging in a very strange occupation:
they were cutting a three-ton block
out of the Svartisen glacier, wrapping
it up carefully in glass wool and
loading it onto a truck, covered with
a simple tarpaulin. On the morning
of the 22nd, to the music of the local
brass band, the giant ice cube began
a 12,000-kilometer voyage, which
took it to Lambaréné in Gabon,
after having crossed Europe, the
Mediterranean, the Sahara desert
and the Equatorial forest! Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium
and France were crossed quickly.
On 28th February after an uneventful
week's drive, the truck and its precious
load embarked at Marseilles aboard
the Sidi Mabrouk. At this point, the ice
cube had only lost three liters of
1. Leaving for Oslo, along the Norwegian fjords.
2. Algeria, the truck is unloaded from the 'Sidi Mabrouk'.
84
water. It was unloaded in Algiers
on the first of March, and remained
there for two full days, thanks
to formalities. It must be said
that Operation Svartisen was also
delivering medication intended for
Dr. Schweitzer; a very attractive cargo
in an Algeria at war. On 3rd March,
the truck set off early in the morning,
under military escort. Ahead of it were
more than 3,000 kilometers of desert,
in temperatures which could reach
55 degrees centigrade (131°F) in the
shade. At Ghardaïa, no road, just a
track remained. Real hell began. From
dune to dune, oasis to oasis, the truck
finally reached Zinder, close to the
Nigerian border, on 12th March. The
Sahara was behind it. In the nineteen
days of the 7,500-kilometer trip, the
ice cube had lost 177 liters of water.
On 13th March, the last stage began; an
Equatorial one, to Gabon. The red dirt
track now crossed the forest, in a perpetual moist heat. Nigeria and
Cameroon were swallowed up, as far
as the port of Douala, where the truck
embarked on 19th March for an
overnight crossing to Libreville.
Gabon's decrepit bridges would not
have been able to take the weight of
the truck, making the last planned
land stage impossible. On the 20th,
when they arrived in the Gabonese
port, they met with Admiral Le Gall,
the director of Sodefive who
organized the whole adventure with
the team of the Norwegian licensee,
Glava. The Gabonese capital was
celebrating the first anniversary of the
country's independence, and the truck
drove on to Dr. Schweitzer's hospital,
in Lambaréné. The cases of medicine
were delivered to the famous doctor
on 22nd March. Finally the moment
everyone had been waiting for arrived:
the tarpaulins were removed, then the
glass wool. The 'ice cube' appeared its corners were slightly rounded, but
that was all. It had lost just 336 kilos,
a mere tenth of its weight, since the
start! Glass wool had just proved its
effectiveness as a thermal insulator,
in a brilliant manner.
After 12,000 km, the block of ice has only lost 1/10th of its weight,
thanks to its glass wool protection.
Diagram of a section of the truck transporting the ice.
Dr Schweitzer, awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1952,
helped unload the medicine given by several European
Red Cross organisations.
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THE NEW LICENSE
GAME
The Saint-Gobain Group had become a technological
driving force. For its part, Sodefive launched a policy
of global assistance for its licensees, and little by little,
built the 'Sodefive licensees' club'.
During the negotiations for the 1951 agreements, which were
supposed to replace those of the Pool, OCF realised that something had changed: Saint-Gobain's R & D efforts were bearing
fruit and visits by OCF's researchers to Rantigny and Lucens,
Switzerland, in the summer of 1954 confirmed this. At this
time, a new series of agreements were being negotiated, this
time specifically concerning the centrifugal processes. On
22nd October 1954, a 'basis for agreement' was signed for
each to use and license the TEL and Supertel processes. OCF
received the license for these processes, as well as the right to
grant sub-licenses, in return for royalties for Saint-Gobain.
The same applied in the other direction for the centrifugal
processes that OCF was perfecting.
Yet while the technicians were exchanging their knowledge and
the agreements were being signed, the patent departments were
involved in a bitter legal battle. The patent filed by Pierre
Heymes in 1946, which described the Saint-Gobain fiberizing
process, and therefore that of the Supertel, was attacked
without respite from 1948 to January 1958, the date on which
the American patent office finally granted paternity of the
principle to Heymes. For each opposition, the claims had to be
reformulated. After a final skirmish concerning the date of
issue, the affair was finally closed in 1961… for a patent which
was to fall into the public domain in 1965! Good always comes
86
out of bad, however: on this occasion the Group's management
became aware of the importance of a solid patent portfolio to
support a strong licensing policy.
The licensing policy became an international development
tool for the Group.The royalties financed research efforts, the
'flow-back' principle, maintained and even reinforced by
Sodefive, contributed to technological progress, but above all,
the assistance given to licensees gave Saint-Gobain a knowledge of the foreign markets that it could not have acquired otherwise. This system of assistance was institutionalised when
Marcel Lévecque imposed systematic technical assistance for
each licensee, at the rate of one visit per year. This visit was
programmed at the beginning of the year and of course did not
exclude specific visits on request. Intervention in the case of
an incident, but also basic research for new operations or
technical improvement: Sodefive's range of missions was
widening. To a point that in 1959, a techno-commercial
assistance cell was created, whose creed was: 'the licensee
must be helped to increase its sales.' It maintained a technological watch over the products, led the licensees' network,
organised the insulation conferences and studied local markets
(climatic, economic and architectural characteristics)… Little
by little, what was to be called the 'Sodefive licensees' club'
was formed.
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RANTIGNY : BIRTHPLACE OF THE FIBER
The Rantigny site, birthplace of
Saint-Gobain's glass fiber, is today
an industrial research center and
logistical platform. The industrial
history of this village in the Picardy
region of France, 70 km from Paris,
goes back to the 17th century. At that
time, the Brèche, a small tributary
of the Oise river, turned around fifty
watermills, certain of which would
be turned into factories in the
19th century. The biggest of them,
the 'Roue de Rantigny', which for
a time belonged to the Duc de la
Rochefoucauld, became 'national
property' during the Revolution,
before passing into various hands.
In 1826, it was enlarged and
modernised, and in 1876 became a
copper and gold rolling mill, which
was to develop into a gold and silver
goods factory towards 1900.
In 1927, the 'Société des Textiles
Nouveaux' (STN) bought the site to
set up production of artificial fibers.
STN became a subsidiary of SaintGobain when the group began
making cellulose fibers and closed
down its activity in 1937. The site
was then given over to textile fibers.
The newly-created Isover set up
Verrane and Silionne lines here, then
in 1941, the Owens and Gossler lines
repatriated from the bombed
Soissons factory arrived. Rantigny
was then producing 'textile' and
'insulation' fibers. Moreover,
during its history, the site would at
one moment or another house all the
fiber production processes that
Saint-Gobain has exploited.
factory set up in 1919 next to the
watermill, had been acquired. From
then on, the site continued to expand
and was covered with new buildings;
work extended to a diversion for the
Brèche in 1958-59.
In 1960, work began on setting up
the research center, next to the
factories. During this decade,
Supertel was working at full output.
New extensions were necessary.
The site was producing nearly
20,000 tons of fibers per year in
1960 - and reached nearly 70,000
tons in 1982. Polystyrene, with a
'home-made' process developed
by the CRIR, arrived in 1972.
In 1976, most of the old buildings
had been destroyed to make way for
a single large modern building. From
one and a half hectares in 1937, the
site finally reached 32 hectares in the
1980s, at the height of its splendour!
This was to be its swan song.
Industrial production progressively
decreased from 1983 to 1986. The
polystyrene manufacturing workshop
was sold off to Lafarge; the insulation
production lines were divided
between the Orange and Chalon-surSaône factories. The historic mill and
its outbuildings were destroyed in
1987 for safety reasons, and the last
line producing pipe sections closed
down permanently in 1997.
The activity, suspended, then
re-started in slow motion during the
war, began again with a vengeance in
1946. The previous year, the site of a
former aluminium powder producing
The Rantigny factory.
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The Rantigny factory in 1953.
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1
2
1. Advertisement for glass wool, in 1954
2. Some examples of advertising which appeared in the press, in 1951.
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'EVERYTHING IS FINE'
Faced with a hostile tender offer, Saint-Gobain allied itself
with Pont-à-Mousson, in 1970. Once it had overcome this initial
destabilisation, the Group went from strength to strength. Two
successive oil crises, in 1973 and 1979, caused the insulation
market to explode. Saint-Gobain's insulation branch has
a spectacular decade.
December 1968, a bomb drops. Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel
(BSN), number two producer of flat glass in France, after SaintGobain, launched a hostile public takeover bid for its bigger
rival! Antoine Riboud, its young managing director, suddenly became famous for wanting to 'swallow up' a Group which was
three times bigger than his own. It was in fact a public offer to
provide BSN for those of Saint-Gobain, not a purchase. Antoine
Riboud intended paying with bonds which would be convertible into BSN shares. Would David beat Goliath? In any case,
the operation was on the front page of the newspapers, as it
was the first big financial manoeuvre of this kind in French
industry. Saint-Gobain was suffering at the time; despite
the promising development of the insulation activity, other
branches, particularly the chemical activity, were experiencing
difficulties and the Group was losing money. The counterattack took surprising forms. For example, the Group asked
the French communication agency, Publicis, to launch a huge
communication campaign, which among other things would
see the shareholders visiting 'their factories' during their 'open
houses'. A group of bankers, led by the 'Compagnie Financière
de Suez', came to Saint-Gobain's rescue. Finally, Antoine
Riboud's project failed: at the close of the operation, BSN had
only picked up 7% of Saint-Gobain's shares. However the
Development of the Erika logo (Epaisseur Rentable d'Isolation k),
the feminine face associated with the brand from 1969 to 1981.
Group was further weakened by this episode. It was short of
liquid assets and 40% of its shares had changed hands. Since
1964, Suez had held an important share in Pont-à-Mousson's
Advertising campaigns in the professional and consumer press.
92
93
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capital.This iron and steel group,the world leader in cast iron pipes,
was merely a third of the size of Saint-Gobain, but held strong
financial reserves. The idea of a merger was raised, and
encouraged by the the French President Georges Pompidou and
his government. In 1970, it happened: 'Saint-Gobain-Pont-àMousson' (SGPM) was born. A world-size group had just
emerged.
As part of the “dowry”, Pont-à-Mousson brought the Roclaine
company, which was immediately attached to Isover - and
finally absorbed in the 1980s. But the most outstanding event
was the arrival at the head of this newly-formed group of
Roger Martin, managing director of Pont-à-Mousson, who
introduced a new, more modern and better organised style of
management. The group was structured by product branches.
The visibility given to the insulation business in this new organisation showed its strategic importance for the Group.
The Rantigny factory could no longer meet all the demand
and work began on a new factory in Orange, in 1971. The first
oil crisis came in 1973, closely followed by the second. The
insulation market exploded. Saint-Gobain took up the position
of leader on the world insulation market and even set up in Japan.
The 1970s were euphoric; everything was going well, or so it
seemed.
Promotional campaign for roof insulation in France, 1978.
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Invitation to the Batimat trade show, 1970s.
96
Advertising for the Isover stand at the Batimat trade show in 1967.
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CHAPTER 3
Far from the needs of the market
The reaction
Renewed profitability
The model's limit
Another test
A TIME OF
TURBULENCE AND
ADAPTATION
At the end of the 1970s, the Insulation branch of Saint-Gobain
was 'surfing' the wave of its success. Production capacities were
continuing to increase. Why should the coming decade not be
as good as the last? And yet… technological excellence was not
enough to sell products. As a consequence of not having realized
this in time, Isover was to have a turbulent decade. A period of
questioning which would see the emergence of new strategies,
closer to the customers' needs.
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1986
1957-2007
The privatisation of Saint-Gobain-Pont-à-Mousson
was a success. Despite the multitude of individual
subscribers, the ‘hard core’ of the shareholding
returned more or less to what it had been before
nationalisation. Jean-Louis Beffa took charge of the
Group on 23rd January.
In half a century, nearly a hundred TEL production
lines had been set up throughout the world. This
technology had reached all the continents. At the
same time, a real network of licensees was formed.
1982
The Saint-Gobain group was nationalised and in
December, a new management team arrived. Éric
d’Hautefeuille took responsibility for the Insulation
branch and undertook its recovery. On the menu: international development with the acquisition of licensees
and above all, the predominant requirement to take into
account customers’ needs.
1986-2000
Improvement of customer service: computerization, logistics,
palletization. The Multipack was the successor to the Compact,
Saint-Gobain’s first innovative and patented packaging, and moved
on to a new stage. All insulation products were now available on a
pallet, in standard sized packages. A plus for Isover’s logistics..and its
customers.
1984
On 12th May of this year, Saint-Gobain signed a
license agreement with the Korean glass maker
Hankuk Glass Industries. The Group thus continued
its conquest of Asia. A glass wool factory was created
in 1986, at Inchon. A new factory started up in 2004
at Dangjin.
100
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FAR FROM THE NEEDS
OF THE MARKET
Intoxicated by their success and the new means made available
to them, the researchers perfected even more high-performance
processes and new products, which were at times not suited to
demand. Isover also extrapolated strong market growth and set
up new production lines. Unfortunately the market returned
to normal after the euphoria, and Isover found that it had excess
capacity. In addition, the rest of Saint-Gobain was suffering
from the crisis. The 1980s were starting badly…
Research and products which were
out of touch with the market
The TEL process alone could not cover the whole range of
insulation applications. In particular, it did not meet the
needs of industrial insulation, which required insulation
capable of resisting high temperatures. The fiber production
engineers therefore invented a new, more versatile process,
the TOR (see p. 104 “The TOR: technical success and economic failure”). Research begun in 1967 came to a successful
conclusion ten years later. A pilot line was built and two
industrial lines began in Germany.The process the engineers
had thought up allowed fibers to be produced from practically
any kind of glass! The quality of the products intended for
industrial insulation was clearly superior to that of stone
wool. Unfortunately, this engineers' dream came to a sudden
end.The high energy consumption used in production proved
fatal after the first oil crisis and the resulting increase in the
price of gas.
Isover also tried its hand at products outside its core business,
glass wool. These diversifications generally met with failure.
The first attempt concerned phenolic foam production from
1975 to 1983. The research phase ended with the construc-
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THE TOR PROCESS
THE TOR: TECHNICAL SUCCESS AND ECONOMIC FAILURE
“For several years, our research
departments have been exploring new
avenues and have discovered a fiber
production process that can without
a doubt be described as revolutionary.
It has now passed from the laboratory
stage to that of a pre-pilot”. On 24th
January 1974, Roger Martin, president
of Saint-Gobain, was very optimistic,
in front of journalists invited to the
'Théâtre de la Ville de Paris'. In fact
the new process had not yet been
perfected, but the competition heard
the message. Saint-Gobain was not
resting on its laurels and it would
be difficult and certainly costly to
challenge its technological lead.
The story of this 'revolutionary'
process began in 1965, when Marcel
Lévecque asked the CRIR to think
about the successor to the TEL, even
though the TEL was still being
developed. New preoccupations had
emerged, such as pollution,
profitability, the wish to compete
with stone wool in high temperature
applications, and the fear of
difficulties with the supply of
boron, an ingredient in the glass
used by the TEL.
In December 1967, after two years'
inconclusive exploratory research, a
brainstorming meeting was convened.
On the menu: procedures in which
the material to be fiberized would
not have to run through holes. The
ideas flowed. Prototype followed
prototype and on 15th September
1969, a first fiber appeared on an
original static device. A burner swept
the surface of a layer of molten glass
deposited on a horizontal plate,
equipped with holes through which
powerful compressed air jets blow.
104
These pass through the layer and
enter the flame, taking some glass
with them, which is then drawn out
into filaments. This was the beginning
of a long perfecting period, strewn
with technical developments and
u-turns.
In 1972, the process produced fibers as
fine as those from the TEL! Theoretical
studies showed that at the junction
between the flame and the secondary
jet, intense vortices are generated, and
it is these that draw out the glass
filament. The process was therefore
named TOR for 'Turbulence ORganisée'.
In 1975, the TOR was giving results
which were stable and reproducible
enough to move up to pilot or even
industrial scale. Another advantage
was that the TOR could produce fibers
from different materials. The decision
was then taken to build two pilot
lines. The first was dedicated to basalt
fiber production, to obtain stone
wool which would stand up to high
temperatures and thus be suitable
for the insulation of industrial
installations. On 27th June 1977, after
additional finalization at the CRIR, a
real TOR basalt industrial production
unit started up in Ladenburg, at G+H,
a German subsidiary of Saint-Gobain.
The second, set up at the CRIR, was
dedicated to 'low density' glass wool
for building insulation. This line
started up in August 1978, also with
dimensions typical of an industrial
unit. Then came the difficult period.
At the end of the 1970s, the industrial
insulation market weakened. The
Ladenburg line was stopped. A TOR
line using a glass as fireproof as
basalt was launched in 1980 at
Bergisch Gladbach to manufacture
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pipe sections. It too would be
stopped. At the same time, the tests
being carried out at the CRIR to
replace the TEL in the area of classical
thermal home insulation showed no
advantage. The savings due to the use
of glass without boron, for example,
were cancelled out by higher energy
consumption and the slightly inferior
quality of the products. The TEL
remained unsurpassable.
At the end of 1981, the Insulation
Branch's technical management drew
up the TOR's balance sheet. It was
undeniably a technical success, but
offered no economic advantage over
the TEL for building insulation. As for
high temperature insulation, this was
no longer a strategic priority for the
Group. The R&D expenditure on this
process was not continued in 1982.
This was the end of the TOR. The
adventure had nevertheless allowed
a more economic burner to be
designed, since adapted for the TEL,
and a pilot line to be set up at the
CRIR from 1981 to continue the
TEL adventure. It also allowed
Saint-Gobain to show its competitors
and licensees its capacity for
innovation and its adaptability
to the economic contexts.
The CRIR.
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tion of an industrial pilot, but the increase in costs of oilderived raw materials, as well as the difficulty of improving
the image of the material's fire-resistance, condemned this
adventure. Another significant attempt was made with the
manufacture of U-shaped preformed plaster trays which held
a fiberous insulation and formed a roof insulation system.The
process, nicknamed Gilda, was stopped in 1983. Here again
the engineers had perfected a product which was remarkable,
but not suited to market needs.As the distances between roof
beams are not standard, a huge number of product
references would have been needed. In addition, the U-shape
led to exorbitant transport costs, due to the low filling ratio
of the trucks.
Badly-adapted production
At the end of the 1970s, glass wool was selling more quickly
than it could be made. After the oil crises, Isover had actually worked hard to worked hard to influence regulations
encouraging the use of insulation. Assisted by these new
regulations, Isover's results were on a good path and the
company was in the situation of having a virtual monopoly
in France. The result was a casual commercial policy… “We
couldn't supply all the customers on time, so we made
choices and negotiated delivery times with the others,” a
commercial manager recalls. In short, the customers waited.
The 'backlash' was not long coming. New competitors sprang
up in France, such as the Slovenian,Termo, the Finn, Paroc, and
above all, the Dane, Rockwool. Rockwool arrived in 1975 offering high quality stone wool, capable of competing with glass
wool, not just in industrial applications, but also in residential applications.They finally built a factory at Saint-Eloy-lesMines in the Auvergne region in 1980.All these manufacturers
were trying to take market share and had aggressive commercial policies. They went looking for customers and launched
an intensive price war. At the same time, based on the market explosion, the Insulation branch had increased the production capacity of its factories at Orange in France and Speyer
in Germany. Alas, the optimistic forecasts had not included
the drop in prices or a dip in the market after a few euphoric
years. Isover found itself with overcapacity and products
which had become more difficult to sell.
Added to this was the bad results of Saint-Gobain Pont-àMousson's other branches. Unlike insulation, the flat glass and
pipe divisions were suffering from the economic slump due
to the oil crises. At the end of the 1970s, Isover was the only
profitable branch of the Group. It, therefore, supported the
others, both on a financial level and by taking on personnel,
and thus suffered indirectly from the oil crisis! Everything
was going badly. In 1982, Saint-Gobain Isover was losing
more than a million francs per day. It had to react.The Group's
nationalization, (see p.110 “Nationalization and Privatization”),
followed by the arrival in December of a new management
team at Isover led by Eric d'Hautefeuille, marked a turning
point.
ÉRIC
D’HAUTEFEUILLE,
'BIG ERIC'
“He managed an international group
but as he liked meeting regular people
and concrete discussions so much, he
would without a doubt have preferred
to be the boss of a small to medium
sized company. He was the opposite
of a technocrat”, recalls Xavier
Grenet, who was for a long time
an associate of Eric d'Hautefeuille.
Born in 1940,chief engineer of the
Mines, he began his career
in the Civil Service, then quickly
turned towards the iron and steel
industry, which was at that time
a sector in crisis.
In 1982, Jean-Louis Beffa called on
him to manage the Insulation Branch
of the newly-nationalized company.
He was to be the main architect of
Isover's recovery, and then would
implement a bold international
development strategy. He began with
Scandinavia and built the foundations
for the conquest of the Eastern
Europe and Asia. A paradox for a
man who preferred 'taking the train
to Guéret to flying out to Seoul'
according to a joke at the time. In
fact Eric d'Hautefeuille loved above
all meeting the 'small' customers
and confronting the realities on
the ground.
In 1992, after 10 fruitful years, he
was appointed director of the Flat
Glass branch, which he reorganized
from top to bottom. His success
encouraged Jean-Louis Beffa to
appoint him to the post of chief
operating officer of Saint-Gobain in
1996. He also became a director in
1998. But apart from his industrial
success, what impressed people was
his human dimension. All accounts
of him are full of expressions such as
'deep sense of humanity', 'constant
kindness' or 'simplicity and warmth'.
He attracted unanimous respect from
all those who were close to him. Both
before and after his retirement in
2000, he was involved in volunteer
work, such as that of the 'Apprentis
d'Auteuil'. 'Big Eric' as his associates
called him, died prematurely in 2004.
Saint-Gobain's board of directors in 1987.
Éric d’Hautefeuille during a Sodefive conference.
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CHAPTER 3 - - A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
GERMANY:
SPEYER,
TECHNICAL
PERFORMANCE
At the beginning of the 1970s, the
old Bergisch Gladbach factory was
surrounded by the town. Despite having
around 20 spinners on 8 different
lines, it could no longer satisfy market
demand. It was decided to build a
new factory further south at Speyer.
The factory started up in 1973 with
spacious solid buildings
on a site which was big enough for
future developments. In the main
courtyard there was a bronze bust
of Eugène Gentil, an homage to
the past, on a site turned towards
the promise of the future.
The start up of the two lines was a
clear success and the good technical
performance at the beginning has
been maintained invariably until
the present day.
The Speyer factory was well designed,
well built and well run and has
for more than twenty years been
Saint-Gobain's technological model
in Europe, the first stop for any
important visitor, future licensee
or customer. Additionally, it has
been the industrial test site for the
CRIR's pilot line, as it was certain
that instructions would be respected,
procedures followed, measurements
carried out and reported and
cooperation guaranteed.
Numerous long-term industrial tests
have been carried out: tests on alloys,
the first 600 mm diameter spinner,
then 800 mm, etc. It was also enough
to say “it worked at Speyer” to silence
the opposition and promote a new
technique elsewhere. Despite its age
and thanks to reinvestment year after
year the Speyer factory remains
a remarkable production unit.
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THE REACTION
After the nationalization of the Saint-Gobain Group in 1982,
then its privatization in 1986, Isover was reorganized and its
approach changed. The company was to implement a very tough
restructuring plan. In a few years, manpower in France was
reduced by half and production was rationalized. The TEL process,
slightly forgotten at the beginning of this period, still contributed
to the insulation companies' recovery. On a marketing level,
from then on, Isover was to meet with its customers and develop
a new range of products suited to its users' real needs.
Meeting the customer
Isover began its cultural revolution by 'rediscovering' the
customer. From now on, it would go to meet this 'unknown
person' on their turf. First of all, physically. Up to that point,
Isover had sold its products to 'super-stockists', wholesalers who
took care of distributing them to the dealers and retailers,
without worrying about market needs. In other words, the
company was quite distant from its real customers… The decision was therefore taken to work without these
“super-stockists“, and to deliver directly to all the dealers,
large or small. The factories would look after the logistics:
transport, adjustment of production to demand, and guarantee service to their clients. From now on, the products would
go directly to the final distributor.
NATIONALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION
“The public sector will be enlarged
by the nationalization of the nine
industrial groups laid down in the
Common Program and the Socialist
Program, the iron and steel industry
and the publicly-funded arms and
space activities. Nationalization
of loans and insurance will be
completed.” This was the 21st of
François Mitterrand's 110 proposals
during the May 1981 presidential
elections. Saint-Gobain - Pont-àMousson appeared on the list.
The nationalization law was adopted
on 13th February 1982, and on
21st April, the nationalization of
SGPM was announced. Roger Fauroux
nevertheless remained CEO of Saint-
Gobain and appointed Jean-Louis
Beffa as his deputy. Saint-Gobain
refocused on its business and began
a restructuring plan.
In the 1986 parliamentary elections
a center-right government came
to power, run by Jacques Chirac,
with Edouard Balladur as Minister
of Finance. On the program:
privatization of 65 public companies…
including Saint-Gobain. The law was
passed on 2nd July 1986. Saint-Gobain,
profitable once again, was the first
to be offered to the public, between
December 1986 and January 1987.
The offering was a success: a million
and a half buyers acquired 20 million
shares. However, when taking
institutional investors into account,
Saint-Gobain's capital distribution
was fairly close to what it had
been before nationalization. Back
to square one, in a way. Meanwhile,
the management team had changed.
Jean-Louis Beffa had taken charge of
the Group on 23rd January 1986, for
the first time, and was reappointed
after the privatization. When it
returned to power in 1988, the
Left changed nothing. This was the
period of 'neither-nor' policy of the
Socialists: neither nationalization
nor privatization.
Meeting the customers on their turf also meant offering
products answering their expectations. Glass wool is an efficient building material, and Isover indisputably mastered its
production.The consumer, however, was faced with a specific
problem: how to insulate a roof, an attic, a pipe, a partition
wall or a refrigerator? Proposing a fiber was not enough.
“There is a shortcoming at this level” Eric d'Hautefeuille
noted on his arrival. Products suited to the different market
segments had to be developed.This was the beginning of a new
Isover advertising from 1978.
110
research and development effort, on terms different from
those of the previous decade.
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CHAPTER 3 - - A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
CONFIDENCE
MEASURE
The ‘Association pour Certification
des Matériaux Isolants’ (ACERMI),
created in France in 1985, delivers
conformity certificates guaranteeing
on the one hand that the product
really has the characteristics
advertised on the label, and on the
other, that the manufacturer has an
effective operational quality control
system. Such a document is
essential to obtain the tax
reductions that the government
grants to anyone starting insulation
work on their residence. ACERMI is
independent of the producers, and
for its analyses relies on the ‘Centre
Scientifique et Technique du
Bâtiment’ (CSTB) and the
‘Laboratoire National d’Essais’
(LNE). Twice a year it takes products
from the manufacturers and
inspects their quality control
system.
Saint-Gobain has taken the
initiative in the creation of this
system. The aim of the operation,
apart from the obvious benefit for
the users, is to ‘clean up’ the
market. From then on, competition
is based on indisputable
foundations. Several other countries
have implemented similar
certification systems (Komo in the
Netherlands, Aenor in Spain, Tüv in
Germany…).
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Research continues,
refocused on the TEL process
Despite the disappointing TOR adventure, the CRIR did not
give up.The research effort, refocused on the TEL, did not let up.
Even during the crisis period, the company maintained its R&D
effort.A 600 mm diameter spinner saw the light of day in 1980
and the fiberizing process named 'Arlanda' produced
finer fibers with better mechanical properties. With a more
efficient burner and a very speed of the spinner, 'Arlanda' fiber
production increased the process's productivity. It was a great
technical, economic and commercial success because of the
lower density it allowed and the investments it avoided.
'Arlanda' fiber production meant that CertainTeed did not
have to build a new line and increase its capacity at a time when
the company was having financial problems. Its president,Art
Winner summed up his satisfaction with the phrase “One
square foot saved, one million dollars in CertainTeed's
coffers”. Production per spinner reached 20 tons per day. This
improved productivity and the increase in the compression
ratio which considerably reduced transport costs, helped Isover
get through the crisis.
Without a doubt, palletization represented the best example
of the use of the TEL fiber's new mechanical properties to
answer real market demand (see p.125 “Palletization. A
winning load”). This packaging process, perfected by the
Orange development center, was industrialized in 1987 and
spread to all the companies. Germany, with Isover G+H,
adopted it first, in 1990, followed by Finland, Italy, the
Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Great
Britain, Russia, Ireland… Internationalization of new products
- and good ideas - was from now on one of the building blocks
of Isover's approach. Among these products was Calibel,
which combined plasterboard with a mineral wool panel.
Painful decisions
At the end of 1984, Rantigny's main production lines were closed
down for good. Granted, it had long been superseded by the
Orange factory, but the closing of the historic site, decided
in 1983, symbolized the recovery plan begun in December 1982.
The Group's losses left few choices: hard decisions had to be
made and the production capacities and manpower reduced
- decisions which are always painful. Saint-Gobain-Pont-àMousson launched several successive reorganization plans.As
a result, the Group's manpower decreased by 20 percent
between 1982 and 1986. In France alone, Isover lost, 2,600
employees between 1982 and 1984. As for the production
capacities, they were then concentrated at the Orange
factory for most of the product line and for long runs, and
at the Chalon-sur-Saône factory for more specific products.
To this was added the stone wool factory at Saint-Etiennedu-Rouvray, from Roclaine, which had been part of Isover
since May 1982. The Insulation Branch refocused on its core
business, glass wool: the foams were sold, glass tissue
production was stopped in France and a unit was created
dedicated to using glass and stone wool fibers for other than
insulation (hydroponic cultivation, fibers for roads, fine fibers
for battery separators…).
Internationally, too, things had to be 'tightened up'. The
policy of conquering the Asian market suffered a setback.
Although everything was going well in Korea, in Japan, Nihon
Glass Wool, (the joint venture between Isover and the Japanese
cement manufacturer Nihon Cement, created in 1974),
was going badly. (see p.118 “Japan”). The construction of a
factory to anti-earthquake standards and problems adapting
the product to the local market cost a lot of money.What was
more, the competitors began a price war.The losses accumulated, and in 1982 Isover had to pull out of this adventure.
The TEL fiber qualities also crossed the Atlantic and allowed
a new product to be created: InsulSafe (see p.116 “InsulSafe
crosses the Atlantic”).
'Problems, solutions, services' brochure, 1981.
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In 2005, CertainTeed Insulation
Group's American war horse finally
set foot in Europe. This glass wool,
called InsulSafe, is sold 'loose' with
no binder. Heavily compressed for
transporting, it is applied by being
blown with a blowing machine.
InsulSafe was cheap, quickly installed,
non-flammable and a good acoustic
insulator, and met with success from
its launch in 1982 - a clear success
for the engineer Les Infante who
persisted for years in trying to
manufacture blowing wool with the
TEL process. Numerous development
tests of the InsulSafe production line
took place from 1972 onwards at the
Berlin, New Jersey factory. Tenacity
paid off: today, five production lines
in Kansas, California and Georgia are
working at full capacity to supply
a product which alone represents
a third of the American market!
Since 1982, the Blue Bell technical
center in Pennsylvania has
continuously developed the product.
Originally intended for loft spaces
and unconverted attics, the product
quickly became usable for house
walls. The other American producers
had trouble following the progress of
InsulSafe, which was still the leader.
However since 1997, the eternal
competitor, Owens Corning, had
been following closely, with its
own blowing wool. So in 2006,
CertainTeed launched InsulSafe
Super Premium - this fifth generation
product allowed 20 percent extra
surface to be covered with the
same volume. Enough to take
an undeniable lead over the
competition.
At the same time, InsulSafe became
the first really worldwide Insulation
Activity product. In fact Isover AB's
CHAPTER 3 - - A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
INSULSAFE CROSSES THE ATLANTIC
factory at Billesholm (Sweden) has
been producing its own version since
2005. It is denser than the American
product to meet North European
climatic requirements and intended
for the Swedish and Finnish markets.
It appeared in countries which were
already familiar with blowing wool,
but depended on its superior
performance to make a name for
itself, faced with the competition.
And since 2006, more temperate
zones in Europe have become
interested. The CRIR has perfected
an 'intermediate' version, between
the American and Swedish products,
intended for the French and British
markets. Although initially produced
at Rantigny, as of 2007, InsulSafe
will come from the Orange factory.
Application of InsulSafe blown glass wool in an attic.
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Fresh out of the elite French
engineering school, 'Polytechnique',
the young René Goutte was offered a
scholarship by Saint-Gobain to spend
a year at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, in Boston. “An offer
which couldn't be refused!” In 1961,
back in France, he began working at
the Rantigny factory, where he had
his first contact with the TEL, then
being developed. During the summer
of 1967, the long journey began.
Management proposed that he look
after the setting up of the factories
for the new joint venture it had
just created with the American,
CertainTeed. The mission was a clear
success (see p.83 “CertainTeed: The
American Adventure”). But in February
1974, another challenge presented
itself: Japan, where Saint-Gobain had
just signed a joint venture with Nihon
Cement, the second biggest Japanese
cement producer. René Goutte left
with his family to live in Tokyo.
Bolstered by his experience in
Rantigny and Pennsylvania, René
Goutte was keen to have a factory
with a basement for the motors, the
waste disposal conveyors, the water
cleaning filters, the fans in short,
all the supporting systems for the
manufacturing process itself. Akeno
was thus to be the first insulation
factory on two levels, a solution
which has since become standard.
The first products came off the line in
1976. His stay was coming to an end.
After the Japanese episode, René
Goutte returned to the United States,
where he finished his career.
However, the Japanese adventure
had not always been easy: adapting
the products to Japanese market
standards had been tricky, as had
managing the different Japanese
regional dialects, not to mention
the cost overrun on the construction
of a factory to anti-earthquake
standards… to the point where in
1982 Isover decided to withdraw
from a joint venture which was losing
money, to become a simple licensor
again. However, one aspect had
always worked: the TEL technology
and its different developments. And
the results in production terms were
quickly seen. When the Akeno factory
was ready, in August 1976, Japan was
producing 75,000 tons of glass wool
per year.
Nippon Glass Wool's production alone
reached 40 percent of this volume. The
Japanese manufacturers such as Asahi
Fiber Glass, Nitto Boseki and Nippon
Sheet Glass were very unhappy about
being attacked. The price war which
followed was not beneficial to any of
the companies. Nippon Cement and
Nippon Sheet Glass moreover merged
putting an end to this war. This was
how Nihon Micro-G wool, was created,
and renamed MAG en 1994. As the TEL
licensee for Japan, MAG today has a
41 percent share of the national market.
CHAPTER 3 - - A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
JAPAN
1
2
1. Tsuchiura factory in Japan.
2. Akeno factory in Japan.
3. The Japanese version of the Erika logo.
118
3
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RENEWED PROFITABILITY
In the middle of the 1980s, the Insulation Branch became profitable
again. With a process which had a significant advantage over the
competition and a new distribution system, the Isover brand was now
showing its true strength. The Insulation Branch launched a policy
of acquiring its licensees.
Improved distribution
From 1987 onwards, the distribution system developed in France,
with the creation of the regional warehouses. Six big
warehouses, all linked to the rail network, covered France.They
contained all the available products on palettes - the major
part of the range - which were immediately sent on by truck
to the final customer.The famous yellow Isover trains appeared
at this time, which according to the French national railway
company (SNCF) were the longest trains in Europe. Each was
composed of 52 open wagons, carrying 16 or 18 Isover palettes
- packages which met the SNCF's very strict quality checks.
A load was not allowed to move, even when meeting a highspeed TGV train in a tunnel! Each week, four or five of these
nearly 800 meter giants left the factory at Orange, in addition to the two hundred trucks loaded with specific products.
1
2
1. 2. The yellow Isover trains being formed at the Orange factory.
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From packaging to shipment.
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“It is imperative to find solutions
which provide answers to customers,
work sites and factories.” Jacques
Chevenard, director of the Insulation
Branch from 1978 to 1981, did not
mince his words. At the time, the
products were coming off the
manufacturing line, in rolls or
packages of batts stacked by hand
on to palettes. Difficult to handle,
badly protected and cumbersome,
they were a nightmare for the
shippers and users alike. The dealers
asked for packages which could be
handled by fork lift trucks, stacked
and protected from moisture… but
retained the unit packaging the users
needed and were marked with clear
instructions for use. The answer came
from the Orange site. It emerged in
two stages. All the technical,
commercial and human constraints
of the operation had to be taken
into account.
Cosmiques refuge
The Cosmiques mountain refuge, at 3613 meters on the slopes of
Mont Blanc, was destroyed by a fire in 1983 and rebuilt the following
year. Insulation is particularly important in this environment, and was
carried out using Isover products. The pallets of Bicompact Vertical were
particularly appreciated for their suitability for helicopter transport and
their small dimensions, essential on this tiny rocky peak…
124
In 1979 a new type of package
appeared, made up of nine, lightly
compressed horizontal rolls, lying
on a preformed cardboard palette.
The Compact was born. Officially
launched in October 1980, the
Compact was protected by two
patents in 1981 and 1983. The first
line equipped with palletization
machines started up at Orange in
May 1981. The dealers appreciated
it…
The Compact was protected from
bad weather, could be stacked two
or three high and was easily handled
by a fork lift. A fork lift driver could
load a truck with 288 rolls in half
an hour, whereas before, it took
two hours for two operators to pack
240 uncompressed rolls into the
same truck.
The Bicompact, soon appeared, made
up of two linked Compacts, but there
was still room for improvement.
The brand new development center
at Orange dedicated itself to this
from 1983. The first idea: place the
roll vertically - obvious - then stack
two loads on a wooden palette and
cover everything with polyethylene
shrink wrap. This was to become the
Bi-compact vertical, which was more
rigid than its predecessor. Meanwhile,
the competitors, Johns Manville and
Rockwool drew inspiration from the
Compact and launched their own
palletized loads. But at Orange,
reflection continued.
CHAPTER 3 - - A TIME OF TURBULENCE AND ADAPTATION
PALLETIZATION : A 'WINNING LOAD'
pallets. The success spread to SaintGobain's other factories, beginning
with Germany. Progress continued:
continually increasing compression
ratios meant that eighteen rolls per
palette in 1986 increased to thirty-six
in 1994 and forty-one rolls per
palette in 2002! And, without a
doubt, it will not stop there. Isover
was in the forefront in the
palletization of mineral wool
insulation under compression,
and is still leading the field with
a compression ratio on its palettes
30 percent greater than that of
its closest competitor.
Finally, in 1986, the Multipack
appeared. This solution was attractive
because of its flexibility and simplicity:
single panels or rolls were compressed
for a first time on the the production
line, then gathered together under a
polyethylene belt which compressed
them again. A 'module' of three rolls
(for example) was then obtained.
Three modules stacked formed a 'load',
which was itself compressed again
and lined-up. Finally, two loads were
stacked on a wooden palette.
The whole, which was two and
a half meters high, was wrapped in
polyethylene cling film, or shrink
wrapped to hold everything in position
and keep it watertight. The Multipack
was duly protected by patents.
But it was not enough to think up
a packaging system. Machines were
needed which would be capable of
realizing it at the end of the line,
without slowing things down. Finally,
the first palletization line started
at Orange in January 1986. Soon all
the Isover products were delivered on
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Multipack palletisation line, patented by Isover.
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Acquiring the licensees
THE MODEL'S LIMIT
Saint-Gobain was healthy once more, and at the same time,
a certain number of licensees were for sale. There were so
many opportunities to be seized… The Insulation Branch
reaped the fruits of the licensing policy it had operated since
the 1950s. So began a round of acquisitions which was to last
for two decades and continues to this day.This began in 1985
with the full acquisition of the Swedish company, Gullfiber, in
which Saint-Gobain already held shares. The Scandinavian
offensive continued with the purchase of Ecophon, a specialist
in acoustic ceilings, in 1987. The following year it was the
turn of Glasuld, a 'historical' Danish licensee, as it had been linked
to Saint-Gobain since the Hager process era; next was Ahlström
in Finland and Vasa in Argentina. At the very beginning of the
1990s, the 'Sodefive licensees club' only had six members
left; all the others had become Saint-Gobain subsidiaries.This
policy continues today, as shown by the takeover of Hankuk
Glass's insulation activity in Korea, in 2004 (see p.130 “The Korean
adventure”) and the purchase of the Turkish licensee Izocam
in 2006.
The Insulation branch of Saint-Gobain was present in nearly all
the open markets on the planet. The only development possibilities:
the Asian 'dragons'. In these small niche markets, Isover took on
a new type of competition.
A Danish house insulated with Glasuld glass wool, 1979.
128
At the end of the 1980s, Isover was more profitable than
ever. Whether through its subsidiaries or its licensees, the
company was producing and selling insulating products
throughout the developed world. Australia joined the family
of licensees, with the license granted in 1987 to Bradford
'dragons' at the time, were likely to welcome new factories
or buy insulation products. Isover already had a licensee in Korea.
There remained Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.
All of these are “hot” countries where the demand for insulation for residential construction remained limited. Sodefive
therefore launched a study of the industrial and commercial
insulation markets: ceilings, pipe sections, panels for
industry, etc.All these products required a coarser fiber; a less
sophisticated process than the TEL would be more than
enough. On the other hand, the Isover units were designed to
produce large quantities of fibers, more than was needed
locally. They therefore had to suggest small factories using
flexible and basic processes. At that time, the patents
relating to the TEL principles were coming into the public
Insulation, a subsidiary of CSR, whose brand new Ingleburn
factory started up in 1989. Isover had become the world
leader in insulation, ahead of OCF.What then remained to be
domain, one after the other. New competitors were appearing:
engineering companies, who were offering simple fiberizing
units, based on the first generation centrifugal processes and
explored? Where were the new markets to be found? The
Eastern European countries were entrenched behind the Iron
therefore free of royalties. From then on, the candidates did
not hesitate. Why link themselves to Saint-Gobain with a
Curtain and China, while showing some signs of interest, was
taking a long time to open up. Moreover, as the demand for
insulation obviously depends on climatic conditions, as well
process which was too sophisticated for the needs of markets
that were essentially industrial? So the Branch's Engineering
department designed a small capacity production tool, based
as the country's level of development,Africa and the poor part
on simple technologies and adapted to the needs of these coun-
of Asia were excluded. Compared with this, only the emerging
southeast Asian countries, those that were called the
tries: this was to be the Mini TEL unit. It was offered in Egypt
or in Tunisia, but these projects did not get off the ground.
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2
THE KOREAN
ADVENTURE
Contrary to preconceived notions,
Korea is a rather cold country.
Additionally, it has shown strong
economic development. Two good
reasons behind the development of
an insulation market. Also, two good
reasons for Isover's interest in that
market. Finally, after setting up in
Japan, a Korean licensee would allow
them to keep a close eye on the Asian
market. A first license agreement was
signed with Kolon Nylon, an artificial
textile specialist, in 1979, but would
never become effective. This is
why, in 1982, Saint-Gobain began
negotiations with the only Korean
glass producer: Hankuk Glass
Industries. The license agreement was
130
signed on May 1984. Two years later,
the company's purpose-built factory,
started up at Inchon, using the TEL
process. Isover supplied all the
necessary technical assistance during
its successive expansions, until a
second electric oven was installed in
1994. In January 2003, after the
closing down of the Inchon factory,
Haniso, still with Isover's support,
launched a factory construction
project at Dangjin. This unit, which
brought the company's production
capacity to 25,000 tons per year,
began production in March 2004. It
manufactures, in particular, sandwich
panels for industrial buildings.
At the beginning of the 2000s,
Saint-Gobain took control of
the glass producing group, Hanglas,
and therefore its subsidiary, Haniso a profitable operation in a booming
Korean insulation market. In fact
foams, which represented up to
70 percent of insulation sales in
Korea, were penalized by the stricter
norms in force since 2001, following
a series of lethal fires. Glass wool is a
fireproof material and from then on,
regularly won market share. Haniso
hoped soon to achieve a third of the
country's sales. As for the idea of an
Asian 'bridgehead', it too began to be
concretized in 2004 with the creation
of a common purchasing group
between Haniso, Isover China and
MAG, Isover's Japanese licensee.
1. Opening ceremony of the new factory on 2nd June 2004.
2. Dangjin factory production line in Korea.
3
3. Dangjin factory.
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ANOTHER TEST
From 1987, Isover had to fight on another front. Alarmist articles
in the press were spreading the theory that glass wool and stone
wool fibers were carcinogenic. Isover and the other producers
put a lot of research, and therefore money, into proving that
the use of their products was safe.
Glass wool is a reliable and safe product.
From the middle of the 1970s, research into the effects of glass
fibers on health began. EURIMA (European Insulation
Manufacturers' Association) called on recognized experts
in order to create a research body on the subject, the
Joint European Medical Research Board. On its program: epidemiological research, with the 'International Agency for
Research on Cancer' (IARC) in Lyon, France; animal testing;
industrial hygiene research. The American producers'
association (NAIMA) launched a similar program.
Moreover, Isover products are certified by the EUCEB (European
Certification Board for Mineral Wool) showing their conformity to the criteria defined by the European Commission
and repeated in all the national regulations, thus exonerating
them from any carcinogenic classification.
Shaken and suffering a growth crisis, the company was soon
helped by an unexpected external event: the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
The professional epidemiological studies carried out on around
45,000 persons by recognized independent organizations,
confirmed that glass wool is not a particular risk to health. For
this reason, and on the basis of more than 1,000 scientific
publications, the International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) reclassified glass and stone wools to the same group
including products used as commonly as tea and coffee.This
decision was exceptional: only five products have been the
subject of a positive re-evaluation in 40 years.
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Tests were conducted on an industrial scale in Switzerland (Lucens, 1953-1955), South Africa (Springs Fiberglass South Africa, 19561957), France (Rantigny, 1956) and Denmark (Kastrup, 1956). The first operational production line started operating in 1956 in
Kastrup at Dansk Superfos.
Launching Factories - Countries
date
Companies
1956
1957
Kastrup - Denmark
Dansk Superfos
Closed
France - Rantigny
Isover Saint-Gobain
Closed
Springs - South Africa
Fiberglass South Africa
Isover
Soraker - Sweden
Gullfiber
Closed
Stockerau - Austria
Linzer Glasspinnerei
Isover Austria
Lucens - Switzerland
Fibriver (SG)
Isover CH
Bergisch Gladbach - Germany
Grunzweig+Hartmann (SG)
Isover G+H
Karhulä - Finland
Ahlström
Closed
Saint Helens - United Kingdom
Pilkington Insulation Ltd.
Knauf
Askim - Norway
A/S Glassvatt
Vidalengo - Italia
Balzaretti Modigliani (SG)
Billeshölm - Sweden
Gullfiber
Etten-Leur - Netherlands
Glaceries de Saint-Roch (SG)
Isover Benelux
Azuqueca - Spain
Fibras Minerales SA (SG)
Isover España
Llavallol - Argentina
Vasa
Isover Argentina
Santo Amaro – Brazil
Santa Marina
Isover Brasil
Stjordal - Norway
A/S Glassvatt
Thane - India
Fiberglass Pilkington (FGP)
Closed
Ruukki - Finland
Ahlström
Closed
Inophyta - Greece
Monyal
Closed
Teheran - Iran
Iran Glass Wool
Closed
Gebze - Turkey
Izocam
Roche (SILLAN)
Mountaintop – United States
CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
Berlin - United States
CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
1959
1960
1961
1962
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
134
Current status
Launching Factories - Countries
date
Companies
Current status
1971
1972
1973
1975
Forssa - Finland
Ahlström
Isover Oy
Orange - France
Isover
Speyer - Germany
Grunzweig+Hartmann
Isover G+H
Athens - United States
CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
Pont-y-Felin - United Kingdom
Pilkington Insulation Ltd
Knauf
Akeno - Japan
Nihon Glass Wool
MAG
Kansas City - United States
CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
Shiraz - Iran
Iran Glass Wool
Chowchilla - United States
CertainTeed Saint-Gobain
Shuaiba - Kuwait
KIMMCO
Hyvinkää - Finland
Ahlström
Isover Oy
Vamdrup - Denmark
Glasuld Superfos
Isover A/S
Chalon-sur-Saône - France
Isover
Inchon - Korea
Hankuk
Isover Italia
Tarsus - Turkey
Izocam
Isover AB
Candiac - Canada
Fiberglass Canada
Tsuchiura - Japan
MAG
Ingleburn - Australia
Bradford
Closed
1976
1978
1979
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1996
1998
1999
2003
2004
2007
Zhuhai - China
CSR Guangdong
Runcorn - United Kingdom
British Gypsum Isover
Sunagawa - Japan
MAG
Ardfinnan - Ireland
Moy Isover
Gliwice - Poland
Gullfiber Polska (SG)
Lübz - Germany
Isover G+H
Yegorievsk - Russia
Isover Yegorievsk
Dangjing - Korea
Hankuk Haniso
Ambernath - India
UP Twiga
Ploiesti - Romania
Isover Romania
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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
OF THE TEL PROCESS
Closed
Closed
Isover UK
Isover Polska
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INSULATION ACTIVITY
SITES IN THE WORLD (APRIL 2007)
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CHAPTER 4
A world opens up
Pursuit of a customer-based policy
Birth of a worldwide brand
The TEL pushes back its limits again
New frontiers
Answering a planetary problem
RECOVERY
AND NEW
CHALLENGES
The last decade of the XX th century opened with new challenges:
the frontiers were opening to the East and protection of the environment
became a preoccupation very much in the foreground.The Kyoto Protocol
commitments and the new oil crisis have changed the situation: insulation
is one of the main activities contributing to reducing the consumption of
non-renewable energies, and thus greenhouse gas emissions. This is
Isover’s crusade for the XXI st century.
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1993
2004
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, a world opened and
Saint-Gobain’s Insulation branch began to set up in
the Eastern European countries, where
insulation needs were huge. First markets concerned:
Poland (creation of Gullfiber Polska) and the Baltic
countries (opening of sales offices in Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia).
Since 1986, Saint-Gobain’s research had tried to make fibers from
stone or high temperature resistant glass, with the TEL process. An
essential advance for the naval and industrial applications. In 2004,
the new glass wool generation, ULTIMATE, was launched. Since then,
it has accumulated successes and medals.
1998
2005
Signature of the Kyoto protocol (Japan) on
16th March. The world became aware of climate
change and the scale of its foreseeable consequences if nothing is done to decrease the emissions
of greenhouse gases. The insulation of buildings,
which allowed millions of barrels of oil to be saved
every year, became a planetary venture.
2000
Globalisation was a reality; Isover took note. All the
insulation subsidiaries now carried the same name
and shared the same yellow logo, with its characteristic ‘O’, unveiled at the end of 1999 at the Batimat
show in Paris. Isover became a worldwide brand.
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Saint-Gobain acquired the British Plaster Board
group, the world leader in plaster and plasterboard.
The two activities (Insulation and Gypsum) complement one another perfectly, as much from a product
point of view as that of geographic location. The
biggest world company dedicated to interior fittings
had just been born.
2006
Isover launched the ‘Multi-Comfort house’. This
house, combining optimal thermal insulation, insulating windows, heat recovery and renewable energy sources, is cool in summer, warm in winter, protected from noise all the year round, and does not
consume any more energy than it produces.
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A WORLD OPENS UP
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, a huge market opened up
for Isover. Everything had to be created in Eastern Europe:
an insulation culture, including the means of distribution and
production. Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries,
Hungary and Russia in turn came into the Insulation branch's
field of operations.
On the night of 9 th/10 th November 1989, residents of Berlin
brought down the 'wall of shame' which had cut their city in
two since 1961.This was the high point of the dismantling of
the Iron Curtain which had separated the two blocs since the
war. The Hungarians had begun this destruction on 2nd May
1989, by attacking the fortified frontier separating them from
Austria. A prelude to the 'velvet revolution' in November December.The process thus set in motion ended in December
1991 with the resignation of Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, the last
president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).The
Warsaw Pact had lapsed, and the USSR had been partly replaced
by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
For Isover, the collapse of the Wall was a turning point: a world
which had up until then been inaccessible was opening up. It
was a world of cold, developed countries, whose housing stock
was decaying. Insulation needs were huge. Everything had to
be done, firstly to create a culture of comfort and energysaving, therefore insulation, in populations used to decaying
accommodation and almost-free energy.There were certainly
insulation manufacturers in some of these countries, but in
general they were using obsolete technology. Some of them
in central Europe were old Hager licensees, separated from Isover
by the war and isolated for years behind the Iron Curtain.
Isover transports.
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Sodefive studied these potential markets and became ipso
facto a real international development tool.
It fulfilled its duty - while pursuing its mission of supporting
the licensees - until it was wound-up at the end of 1997.
Sodefive decided to bet on the historical links between
Eastern Europe and the major neighboring western European
countries, even though these links had been dormant for
several decades. So a working group formed by Sodefive,
representatives from the German company Isover G+H and
Isover Sweden (ex-Gullfiber) took responsibility for studying
these countries. Gullfiber Polska was created in 1993 and,
three years later, bought a stone wool factory at Gliwice,
near Katowice. With the addition of a new TEL line and the
modernization of the stone wool line, it became the Polish
market leader and exported its products to the Ukraine,
Russia, Lithuania, Byelorussia and the Czech and Slovak
republics. Partition of Czechoslovakia had in fact taken place
on 31 st December 1992. In February 1996, G+H (Germany)
bought Orsil, a Czech stone wool producer. After serious
modernization of its factory, this company has now become
an exporter.
For Russia, it was Isover Oy, the old Finnish licensee and
subsidiary since 1994, which served as a base for the conquest
of this huge market, before a factory could be set up there…
but that's for later. In 1991, when the USSR was dissolved, the
Baltic countries decided to join the European Union. Two
years later, Isover Oy opened its sales offices in Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia. Here again, the first job was to
acquaint the general public with the benefits of insulation
1
3
2
in these very cold countries. For five years, Isover's representatives traveled to trade shows, met with the authorities
and ran repeated publicity campaigns. This work bore
fruit: today, Saint-Gobain's Insulation activity has a strong
position on these three markets.
1. Polish advertisement, 2005.
2. Gliwice factory in Poland.
3. 4. Saint-Gobain Orsil factory in the Czech Republic.
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2
3
1
1. Dance center known as 'Fred & Ginger', Prague, Czech Republic.
Architects: Vlado Milunic and Franck Gehry.
2. Agora Group's head office, Warsaw, Poland.
3. Stadium Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany. Architects: Jacques Herzog
and Pierre de Meuron.
4. Lecture room, Moscow, Russia. Architect: Konovalov Yurij N.
5. Turning Torso Tower, Malmö, Sweden. Architect: Santiago Calatrava Valls.
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4
5
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PURSUIT OF A
CUSTOMER-BASED POLICY
In 1990, Isover launched the 'Carte des Services' in France.
It guaranteed even faster, more flexible, more reactive deliveries.
The company no longer sells just glass wool but now offers
complete 'solutions', from assistance with decision-making,
to the insulating system with its accessories.
The sense of service
In 1990, Saint-Gobain Isover committed itself in the area of
logistics and customer service by launching the 'Carte des
Services'. For the dealers, this was the guarantee of systematized, reliable service with guaranteed deadlines. It was also
a guarantee of of greater flexibility, as they could choose the
type of service that suited them, at no extra cost. Generally,
Isover depended on palletization and its new distribution
structures to guarantee delivery in 48 hours, then in 24 hours,
from 1998. In fact, the commitment has grown stronger with
time. According to the chart, there is, for example, the
'service chantier' (work site service), which consists of
delivering directly to the end user rather than to the distributor who has bought the product from Isover. The dealer is
The time is also long gone when Isover just sold insulation and
left the customer to find out how to use it. From the 1970s, Isover
has developed knowledge of energy saving problems notably
through the idea of the 'cost-effective insulation thickness' or
the launch of the R certification. Since the 1990s, Isover has
offered 'solutions'. The first sales action, moreover, consists of
helping the customer to determine his needs. Whether a
dealer, user, architect or foreman, he will find a suitably
qualified person to speak to. In Germany, for example, there is
a technical telephone help service, Isover Dialog, mainly
consulted by architects and designers.
therefore spared the task of delivering to his own customer…
The ultimate in delivery deadlines is the ‘rendezvous
chantier’, (work site appointment), set up in 1998. Pallets
are unloaded using cranes or fork lift trucks which the works
managers hire at an hourly rate. Punctual delivery means
savings for the customer. This service has been pushed to
the limit in Finland, where drivers are linked by telephone to
the delivery site. Traffic problems or last minute changes in
direction: everything can be organized.
Advertising launched in the United Kingdom in 2006:
'Since 1665, the customer has always been king'.
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Maps of Isover services in 1990 and 2005.
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Development of systems
viewers of a Buster Keaton silent film having to put up with
the soundtrack of a disaster film next door? The solution
suggested by Isover led to the creation in 1997 of Technostar,
a system which combines a metallic frame, different glass wools
and a plasterboard facing. The Technostar partition was
efficient, quickly erected and could be dismantled; it has
been fitted to dozens of multiplex cinemas. It continued
an international career in Denmark, then in Belgium, the
Netherlands, Brazil, Morocco, Bulgaria and more recently,
in China.
Finally, the products themselves have evolved. After the
restructuring in the 1980s, which was carried out by refocusing on the glass wool business, the commercial strategy
developed from 1990 to 2000. Isover was offering a wide
range of insulation products: mineral wools, foams, hemp
wool… and was developing more and more 'systems', where
the insulating materials were integrated into more or less
complex structures, with their fixing accessories (Optima,
Climaver, Vario systems…). The Technostar partition is an
example. In 1991, Pathé was building one of the first
multiplex cinemas in France. How could they avoid the
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1. The Vario “smart” membrane associated with insulation allows
optimization of thermal performance of the walls.
2. Implementation of an air-conditioning system with self-supporting
conduits in Climaver glass wool.
3. The Optima system combines wool insulation, metal studs,
accessories and plasterboard.
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Ecophon ceilings for acoustic treatment of offices.
Fitting a Technostar partition wall.
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1
1. Diagram of acoustic insulation.
2. Estonian advertising, 2003.
2
154
3. Concert hall, Vienna musical Association, Austria.
Architect: Wilhelm Holzbauer.
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COMFORT
CONTACT!
Following market demand, and
anxious to improve user comfort
when installing glass wool, the
Orange development center
perfected, in a year and a half,
a new product called 'Contact'.
It just looks like a roll of classic
glass wool batting, except that it is
covered with an extremely flexible
and soft polypropylene film. The film
material comes directly from babies'
diapers. The user now has no contact
with the glass wool in normal use.
This was an immediate success with
the craftsmen, who can now install
glass wool without gloves. Contact
has been adapted in numerous
countries (for example, Comfort
in Finland and Integra Comfort
in Germany).
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BIRTH OF A WORLDWIDE
BRAND
The same name for all the subsidiaries throughout the world,
a single brand for all the products, a new logo. In 1999-2000,
Isover underwent a face lift and became a genuine integrated,
worldwide group. And research followed the change.
Commercial synergies
At the end of the 1990s, the marketing teams of the Insulation
branch companies throughout the world acknowledged
globalization, its consequences and opportunities. Working
with different historic brands, they decided from then on to
display the same brand worldwide. After research and
discussions, this was to be… Isover, with a new logo suited to
the period.Thus, beyond the visual identity, the Isover teams
exploited the potential of international synergies and increased the exchanges of good practices.The customer, in first
place, immediately benefited from successful experiences
on the other side of the world and from the size of the group.
The logo first appeared at Batimat Paris, the European
construction show, in November 1999. At a big evening
the new generations of customers. Significant investments in
communication pushed the launch of the world brand; they
are still going on in numerous countries.
R&D synergies
On its own scale, Isover's research has followed the same
path. The three centers at Rantigny (France), Ladenburg
(Germany) and Blue Bell (Pennsylvania, United States), as
well as all the product development centers in the factories,
had been working more closely since January 1999, the launch
date for the '2i' project, '2i' standing for 'Isover International'.
The aim was to define a method of working which would
allow a balance to be found between effective central
coordination and local creativity.A 'matrix' organization was
celebration, the teams and the main clients, who had come
from all over the world, felt the 'world family' spirit. From then
on, all Isover's subsidiaries used the same name and the same
therefore set up. In more concrete terms in the future, research
would be carried out on projects, and communication tools
were set up so as to form just one virtual center. Thus a
colors, in this case yellow. The new logo was unveiled at this
occasion, with a distinctive 'O'. Certain local nuances were main-
'technical intranet' was created, a support for R&D's project
spaces, for the databases and the models necessary for
tained, however, so Eurocoustic, in France, Orsil in the Czech
Republic or Haniso in Korea kept their names, but used the yellow and the 'O' which linked them to the family.
factory management. As a real tool, giving structure to the
Insulation branch, this 'Isoline' was extended little by little
to all the company's functions. Common validation methods
Nowadays, the Isover world brand is an asset which must
be protected and above all brought to the attention of
were also defined, so as not to launch into projects with no
commercial or industrial outlets.
The Isover federating logo.
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THE TEL PUSHES BACK
ITS LIMITS AGAIN
The engineers had not always given up the idea of producing
fibers from materials which could resist very high temperatures.
After 10 years of research, the new generation of glass wool, ULTIMATE, launched in 2004, has been a success perhaps because it
was the TEL, improved once again.
The spinner, with the burners and the blowing ring, is the
most important component in the TEL process. It is what
determines, to a large extent, the capacity of the process
and the fiber quality. Therefore the spinner has been the
subject of most of the development efforts. The increase in
production materialized in 1983, with the appearance of
an 800 mm spinner which allowed the production of more
than 30 tons per day per spinner. The TEL was therefore
'unbeatable' for manufacturing glass wool intended for
building insulation. However, an important market was
not being serviced by its products: high temperature
applications, an area "reserved" for stone wool. In 1986, the
technical management of the insulation branch asked the CRIR
if fibers could be produced from stone compositions using
the TEL process. It was essentially a question of finding a
super-alloy, heat-resistant enough to make the spinner. This
was the beginning of the THT project, standing for 'TEL High
Temperature'.
Spinner definition, choice and patenting of the suitable
fireproof glass composition, burner improvement, no stone
was left unturned. Result: products could be obtained which
were more heat-resistant than the glass wool, and as strong
mechanically or stronger than stone wool, but as light as
glass wool. The advantages for insulation of industrial
installations, or protection against fire were obvious.
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The ULTIMATE project was launched. It ended in 2004. The
ULTIMATE glass wool showed excellent performance in high
temperatures, which predisposed it to all fire-resistant
applications. It offered fire-resistance during 30, 60, 120
minutes or even more, and resisted at 1000°C. It was also adapted to applications for which an operating temperature between
500 and 700°C was required. It was an excellent
thermal and acoustic insulator, flexible, compressible
and above all…half the weight of stone wool. This was an
important 'detail' for one of its chosen markets: ship
insulation, where every ton saved resulted in fuel economies.
Apart from the technical insulation of ships and industrial
installations, ULTIMATE was also suitable for the protection
of buildings against fire. Industrial production started up in
2003 at the German Lübz factory, and ULTIMATE quickly
attracted attention.The product received the ISO 2004 prize
for innovation at the Wiesbaden fair in Germany, in March 2004.
The first major commercial endorsement came in 2006: most
of the fire protection at the Munich Allianz stadium (where
the football world cup was held) was manufactured in
ULTIMATE by Saint-Gobain Isover G+H. Benchmarks in the
marine field started to appear in Germany, such as the
'Norwegian Jewel' in the Meyer Werft shipyard, then in
other European countries. Moreover, pilot production of
ULTIMATE pipe sections began in January 2006 at the Bergisch
Gladbach factory. This was again a market success, immediately rewarded by the prize for the best ISO 2006 product,
at Wiesbaden. Industrial investment at Bergish was decided
at the beginning of 2007, for production of pipe sections
exclusively in ULTIMATE. In 2007, an ULTIMATE line will start
up at Tarui, in Japan.
Sloping ceiling with wooden framework, insulated with ULTIMATE.
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2
1. 2. Fire-doors and ventilation ducts insulated with ULTIMATE.
3. Insulation of industrial buildings requiring fire resistance.
1
3
ULTIMATE production line at Lübz, in Germany.
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NEW FRONTIERS
Isover is always conquering new territories - in Russia, where
it is building a factory, in the United States, where the market
is expanding rapidly, but above all in the country-continents
which are finally opening up in Asia: China and India, each of
which has more than a billion inhabitants and immeasurable
needs.
In 1999, Peter Dachowski, director of the Insulation branch
between 1996 and 2004, reaffirmed Isover's priority was
development in the United States and Eastern Europe.Ten years
after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Eastern Europe was still a
territory to be conquered. In particular penetration of the Russian
market was to be continued. In the 1990s, Isover was selling
products there which were manufactured elsewhere, in Poland,
Finland,and even in China.But a project appeared which took shape
in 2002: to set up a production factory near Moscow. Isover
Russia therefore bought an old prefabricated concrete factory
in the town of Yegorievsk, and rebuilt it from top to bottom.The
European Reconstruction and Development Bank participated
in the project, conscious of its economic importance for the
whole area.The Yegorievsk factory, which started up in 2003, is
On the other side of the world, in the Far East, a countrycontinent had finally opened up: China. More than a billion
inhabitants, a harsh climate in a large part of the country, and
immeasurable insulation needs. But did a Chinese market
exist? Accommodation was allocated by the State, which in
addition supplied the heating and electricity free of charge.
Under these conditions, demand for home insulation was
non-existent. However, the country was developing very quickly, and it was important to get a foothold. So Isover created a
joint venture in 1996, with a local partner, Beijing Fiberglass
Reinforced Plastics Factory. Beijing Isover Glasswool Co. Ltd was
aiming above all for the big official or technical buildings and
the railways: each year more than two thousand wagons were
built and insulated with glass wool manufactured in the Beijing
factory. But this factory was condemned by Beijing's town
planning policy for the 2008 Olympic Games. Isover therefore
sold this unit to its old partner and at the beginning of 2004
bought another factory at Guan, about fifty kilometers south
of Beijing. A second factory at YiXing, near Shanghai, was
purchased soon afterwards.With a third site near Hong Kong,
operated in partnership with CSR Bradford Insulation, its
Australian licensee, Isover has set up a modest capacity unit which
can be developed rapidly, when China wakes up to insulation.
With a population comparable to that of China and an equally
fast-growing economy, the other Asian giant is India.To tackle
it, Isover returned to its 'traditional' license policy. The first
agreements were signed with UP Twiga, a glass wool and glass
tissue manufacturer, and Rockwool India, a stone wool manufacturer, in July 2005.
As for the territories left by Isover on the world map, corresponding to a few emerging countries, they are conquered little by
little, following the example of South Africa, where Isover is
setting up in 2007, by acquiring its old licensee, which was
bought in 1996 by OCF.
now the second biggest glass wool production unit in Europe.
The other country for expansion to the west: the United States.
Sustained economic growth in the country was boosting
the demand for new housing, and new laws affecting insulation
were contributing to the development of the market. For its
thirtieth anniversary, in 1998, CertainTeed Insulation Group
launched an ambitious development plan. The biggest glass
wool production line in the world was then launched in Kansas
City, with an annual capacity of 90,000 tons! At the time, it
was the biggest industrial investment that Saint-Gobain had
ever made.
Beijing international airport, China.
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2
3
1. Yegorievsk factory in Russia, aerial view.
2. 3. Production lines.
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CHAPTER 4 - - RECOVERY AND THE NEW CHALLENGES
ANSWERING A PLANETARY
PROBLEM
Global warming, a new oil crisis: at the beginning of the 21 st
century, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
the planetary consumption of non-renewable energies is
becoming urgent. Building insulation is making a major
contribution. Isover is involved in a battle which is both
commercial and environmental.
On 16 th March 1998, the Kyoto Protocol (Japan) was open to
ratification. Most of the developed countries committed
themselves to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions
below their 1990 levels. After ratification by most of the
signatories, with the notable exceptions of the United States
and Australia, the agreement has been in force since 2005.
All the climate specialists agree when they say it is urgent
to do something. Additionally, since spring 2003, there has
been a new upsurge in the price of oil.To take the example of
Europe, the houses alone represents 40 percent of the total
energy consumption and a quarter of the carbon dioxide
emissions! As one can imagine, energy efficiency is the word
of the day... In the last few years, from being an individual
preoccupation, the stakes are now planetary.
The figures are impressive. Energy losses from new buildings
have been divided by four in thirty years, thanks to successive
insulation regulations and standards. However, this only
concerns recent constructions: the major part of the existing
stock was built without insulation, or to out of date standards.
In 2006, EURIMA, the European insulation manufacturers'
association, published a study, according to which bringing
the whole of the European Union's housing stock up to
present standards would save 3.3 million barrels of oil each day.
The 'Let's insulate the planet against CO2' cooperative campaign:
'Badly insulated buildings endanger the planet'
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Advertising campaign in Scandinavia.
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LET'S INSULATE
THE EARTH
To limit the scale of the global
warming and respect the Kyoto
commitments, Europe must cut
carbon dioxide emission per
inhabitant by a factor of four before
2050. In 2003, in France, eight
concerned industrialists, including
four Saint-Gobain's companies Isover, Ecophon, Eurocoustic and
Saint-Gobain Vitrage - launched
the ‘Isolons la Terre contre le CO2’
(let's insulate the earth against CO2)
cooperative, after a very simple
observation: the current regulations,
or those being prepared, will not be
sufficient to achieve this aim.
The cooperative suggested launching
a national plan over forty-five years,
providing for a 15 percent reduction
in the energy consumption of new
buildings every five years. Four
hundred thousand dwellings would
have to be renovated and brought
up to standard every year, using
materials as effective as those used
in new buildings. Another idea: to
display the energy consumption of
buildings. All this obviously assumes
there will be financial and tax
incentives. France is not the only
country concerned; the cooperative's
lead has already been followed
in Belgium (Isoterra) and the
Netherlands (Spaar het Klimaat).
On the technical level, 'Isolons la
Terre' has joined forces with local
organizations, technical centers
and banks to launch the association
Effinergie. Inspired by similar steps
in Switzerland (Minergie) and in
Austria-Germany (Passivhaus),
the association wants to draw up
a national building label and
promote low energy consumption
construction. The final aim is to
reach a 'zero energy' building, which
will produce as much energy as
it consumes, or even a surplus.
'Let's insulate the planet against CO2' cooperative advertising campaign
about the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
Translation: ‘When a car pollutes, we take it to the garage, but when
30 million buildings pollute, where do we go?’
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By compressing the glass wool, Isover limits storage space requirements,
reduces transport movements and the impact on the environment. Thus
over a period of 50 years, the energy saved thanks to glass wool can
represent more than 100 times that needed for its production.
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Glass wool is 100 percent recyclable. It is manufactured from sand
and recycled glass (up to 80 percent cullet) and offers a very positive
environmental balance sheet. It protects the environment, from the
beginning to the end of its life cycle and gives more comfort and savings
to the occupants of the buildings it insulates.
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Insulation can decrease energy consumption and the
accompanying greenhouse gas emissions… while improving
comfort inside the buildings. It is a rare situation, one
where everyone can win.
A co-operative of European industrialists has therefore
launched various actions to develop regulations which are
still too timid (see p.173 “Let's insulate the Earth”). Thus the
European directive on the energy performance of buildings
(2202/91/CE), which was published in December 2002 and
which came into effect in January 2006, to take into account
the Kyoto commitments, only concerns new buildings or the
renovation of buildings of over a thousand square meters.
As one can imagine, almost all private homes and small
industrial and commercial premises are not covered, yet they
represent 90 percent of the possible savings.
Nor was it by chance that the 2005 edition of Batimat chose
as its theme 'sustainable development'. For the occasion,
Saint-Gobain built a stand called 'Aujourd'hui pour demain'
(Today for tomorrow), based on rational use of energy and scarce
resources, and concern for the comfort of everyone inside the
buildings. The environment and all its aspects have given
new themes to the work of the Group's research centers, as
although use of current products can easily exceed the demands
of the regulations, there is still a long way to go. For example,
to find solutions for bringing old housing up to standard,
insulation must be developed which is as effective as current
2
products, but thinner, as there is a lack of space. Respect for
the environment also assumes a global view of a product's life,
from the production of raw materials, to its recycling at the
end of its life.
On a world level, the question of building insulation will
become even more crucial as countries like China and India
quite legitimately want to catch up with the level of activity
and comfort in the developed countries. That will inevitably
imply a sharp increase in their energy consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions. Once again, as during the oil crises
in the 1970s, Isover is in phase with a global preoccupation
and lucky enough to be selling a product which genuinely
contributes to a solution. For Isover's teams, helping to fight
global warming has become a real mission.
1. At Isover, safety is an absolute priority, applied by the teams
all areaspar
of the
company.
e et in
appliquée
les équipes
dans tous les domaines de l'entreprise.
1
178
2. Swedish advertisement 'It's priceless'.
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Measurements show that hot
water, household appliances and
lighting represent just 25 percent
of the average consumption of
buildings in Europe. Heating
alone represents 75 percent.
This unbalanced distribution has
a cause: poor insulation.
Heat escapes to the exterior in
winter, and the building does not
remain cool in summer. Result: the
energy needs are always higher. By
improving the insulating envelope,
energy losses can be limited and
consumption therefore reduced.
But we can do better and reach a
reduction of 75 to 90 percent. How?
By radically changing our approach
to construction methods and using
renewable energies. This is the
concept of the 'Multi-Comfort House',
launched by Isover.
This is not about future construction,
but existing dwellings which are 'in
use' at this very moment everywhere
in Europe. Thanks to a choice of
very effective 'passive' components highly insulated windows, heat
recovery systems, optimal thermal
insulation - Saint-Gobain's 'MultiComfort House' could almost do
without any active method of
heating. Its main heat sources are the
sun, the inhabitants, the household
appliances, as well as the heat
recovered from the stale air;
renewable and inexhaustible energies
from natural sources. Result: its
energy consumption is particularly
low; the 'Multi-Comfort Home' only
consumes 1.5 liters of fuel per square
meter, per year! By comparison, an
old construction needs around 20
liters of fuel, while a new house, built
in the traditional way needs from
6 to 10 liters. Thus a 'Multi-Comfort
House' not only allows a spectacular
reduction in household energy bills,
but also ensures a greater level of
comfort. The hermetically sealed
envelope which surrounds the house
protects the inhabitants against cold,
heat and noise, while guaranteeing a
pleasant interior climate all the year
round. A controlled ventilation system
ensures a constant supply of fresh air.
The humidity level is stable, which
solves the eternal humidity problems,
and the temperature is homogenous
in all rooms.
Saint-Gobain's 'Multi-Comfort House',
which can take any imaginable
architectural shape, is a solution
to the two big challenges of the
21st century: protecting the planet
by limiting the damage to resources
and the atmosphere, while improving
the inhabitants' living conditions.
An optimal interior climate thanks to an air circulation system.
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THE ISOVER MULTI-COMFORT HOUSE
IMPROVES ENERGY EFFICIENCY
WeberHaus, Rheinau-Linx, Germany.
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2
1
1. Proyer multi-comfort house, at Steyr, in Austria.
2. Multi-comfort house at Salzkammergut, in Austria.
Architects: DI Hermann Haufmann.
3. Gymnasium Albstadt at Tübingen, in Germany.
Architect: Prof. Schempp.
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3
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CONCLUSION
“
When Saint-Gobain launched itself into glass wool, Since its launch, half a century ago, this process has
just before the Second World War, insulation was a dominated the others. It was well-designed at the out-
“If we try to define an activity which
corresponds perfectly to the Group's strategy,
we come up with a description of insulation.”
“When I joined the Group, the TEL
immediately appeared to me as
a major asset for Saint-Gobain.
Our strategy concentrated on
this exclusive process, and I think
it has paid off.”
”
Jean-Louis Beffa
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of the Saint-Gobain Group from
1986 to 2007
promising adventure. During the immediate post-war
period, it was still a marginal activity within the
Group, to the point where the glass makers in the traditional branches, considered to be 'nobler', made fun
of it in a good-humored way. But thirty years after
the war, insulation had become Saint-Gobain's most
profitable business! Today, insulation is definitely
at the heart of Saint-Gobain's strategy, and represents one of the driving forces behind the growth of
the Construction Products Sector.
In fact, the Insulation activity possesses all the required criteria for success: a technological lead, being in
line with the new building regulations, and regional
markets. Insulation is not applied in the same way or
in the same constructions in Norway, in the United
States, or in South Korea. The climate, the architectural traditions, the level of economic development
and even culture in the wider sense of the term determine the particular needs of each country, which
must be met by specific products. All the Insulation
set, and has constantly evolved, as its latest
development, ULTIMATE, shows. From the perfecting of the process to the design and distribution of
adapted products, via the technical sales assistance
for licensees, the story of the TEL process is also
that of hundreds of men and women at Isover
throughout the world.This book pays a tribute to them,
by showing how they developed over the decades to
follow the market closely while keeping the same creative fiber and taste for technological challenge.
With a real technological lead, a constant flow of innovative products, establishments all over the world
and a well-defined strategy, Isover has a lot going
for it. But today, circumstances outside the Group
are widening the development prospects of the
Insulation activity. In fact, the successive oil crisis
and the global warming have combined to encourage authorities to enact more and more demanding regulations concerning the performance of new
or existing buildings. This is a time for saving ener-
activity's establishments pay particular attention gy and protecting the Earth.Without a doubt, insuto this. In December 2005, the purchase of British lation has a very bright future.
Plaster Board (BPB), the world's biggest plaster and
plasterboard manufacturer, reinforced the Group's preeminence on the interior products market.
Why has Saint-Gobain become the world leader in
insulation in a few decades, despite having entered
the fray after its main competitors? How can such
progress be explained? All the players agree, the
TEL has been at the center of this development.
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CONCLUSION
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We would like to thank here all the people who helped with the creation
of this participatory and collective work.
First of all, Jean Battigelli for his meticulous research and documentation, and his writting
on the TEL and the Insulation activity.
But also:
Saint-Gobain Archives (Catherine Bigot, Didier Bondue, Nathalie Duarte,
Hervé Mahoudeau, Jacky Robinet), Pascale Alix, Jean-Yves Aubé, Georges Bancon,
Lucien Berthon, Bernard Bichot, Stéphane Cousin, Yves Darche, Francis Da Silva,
Jacques Delrieux, Dominique Elineau, Jean-Paul Fauchez, Dr Hans Furtak, René Goutte,
Virginie Gourc, Maurice Hamon, Tsutomu Kadowaki, Sorin Klarsfeld, Catherine Langlais,
Jean-Pierre Leroy, Michel Monserand, Sigurd Natvig, Jean Noziere, Marc Olagne,
Dominique Plantard, Jean-Claude Rias, Mark Sadoff, Daniel Sainte-Foy, Marc Sauvage,
Raymond Villain... for their help, their testimonials and the light they shed on the
TEL adventure.
And of course, all the old and new associates, the retired people, the licensees,
the customers and and the partners who every day create the Insulation
activity story.
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Photo credit:
All documents in this book come from Saint-Gobain iconographic
and photographic library, except J.Piffaut (p.66-67).
PRINTED IN MAY 2007
BY IMPRIMERIE KAPP IN ÉVREUX (27 - FRANCE)
PHOTOENGRAVING: LA STATION GRAPHIQUE
ISSUE NO.: 566
PRINTED IN FRANCE
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