These are a few of the mile-stones along the road to our becoming Germany`s pace-setter in coating lamination technology.

Interpane`s reputation in the German and European glass, window, and façade construction industry is legendary. Nowadays, the Interpane group, with factories at eleven locations in Germany, Austria, and France, is so well established that it is difficult to imagine the window and façade sector without us. This was of course not always the case. The path leading up to the technological summit of this industry was long - but the struggle has been worthwhile.

Early expansion

Not long after the original company was founded in Lauenförde, two other early members of the Interpane group came into being, namely those in Wipperfürth (Bergisches Land, Germany) and in Parndorf (Burgenland, Austria). These two works have been producing Interpane insulating glass since 1973.

With these new production works the then young Interpane concern turned away from the principle of producing insulating glass on a purely centralized basis, which, though generally accepted in those days, all too often led to delivery bottle-necks. It was a declared objective of the Interpane group, by means of compact, decentralized production units, to always stay close to the market and to focus on its customers. This has been a secret of the group`s success - right up till today. The next logical step came at the end of the 1970s with the setting up of yet another Interpane location, in Buxtehude, this time to cover the market for insulating glass in northern Germany.

The launch of our glass coating technology

In 1979, with the setting up of our own coating system in Lauenförde and our introduction of vacuum-coating technology, Interpane moved up a rung in technological terms above being just one more medium-sized competitor producing insulating glass. When it came to glass processing competence, Interpane was right on the heels of the major players in the industry.

From then on Lauenförde was able to supply our partners and purchasers throughout Germany with coated insulating glass.

Around the same time, at group headquarters in Lauenförde, we founded our own development and support company (E&B). The research work at E&B and the on-going search for new trends and innovations have put Interpane at the cutting edge of glass technology. Interpane, with its new developments, time and time again, still today, keeps pushing back the frontiers of what is physically possible.

The success that came with our coated insulating glass made in Lauenförde (in those days under the somewhat old-fashioned brand name INTERTHERM PLUS) and the steadily growing demand in this market at the beginning of the 1980s made a second coating plant necessary, this time in southern Germany. Interpane Plattling was inaugurated in 1980. It was the first German company to coat whole widths (6.00 x 3.21 meters) using the vacuum procedure.

The development of color-neutral thermal insulating glass

When the market for coated insulating glass met with an unexpected collapse in 1982 affecting the whole of the industry, Interpane reacted with its color-neutral silver-coated "iplus neutral", developed by E&B. This product set new standards worldwide and established Interpane once and for all as the innovator in the glass processing industry.

With the additional sale of "iplus neutral" and other basic glasses as semi-finished products to businesses producing insulating glass, Interpane was able to build up a really reliable sales market - a cooperation that has been expanded to become a fixed network of partners.

Having experienced the unpredictable nature of the glass market, Interpane wished to arm itself against similar risks in the future. In 1986, to safeguard the group`s further expansion, the new parent company "INTERPANE GLAS INDUSTRIE AG" was founded - a central holding to which all the group`s individual production and service companies were assigned.

Interpane Glas Industrie AG magazines