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  3. Since 1936
  4. The golden age of engineers

The golden age of engineers

By the time the war was over, the situation had changed. Cut off from sources of technology during the war, the Saint-Gobain group had been forced to develop its production tool alone. The research laboratory set to work and the TEL, a new process based on an original fibre production principle, was soon created. It was a technical and commercial success: licences were granted worldwide. A new glorious era opened for Isover.



1945 - 1946

Pierre Heymes, a young test engineer, filed two major patents on fibre production processes. The second, in particular, described the combination of centrifugal force and the action of a hot air jet to stretch the glass. It was the first version of the famous Saint-Gobain fiberising principle.

1945 - 1946






 


1950

After disappointing tests with the excessively complicated LET (Laboratoire Etudes Thermiques) machine, it was decided to “turn it upside down” Heymes had in fact already voiced this idea a few years beforehand. The first TEL (LET reversed) machine with fibre disk on the bottom therefore appeared at Billancourt before starting trials at Rantigny.

1950






 

1957

Finally, after seven years of development, the TEL – in actual fact Supertel as researchers called it – started its industrial career at Rantigny, where it replaced the Owens process. Gabriel Aufaure, the factory manager, took on the risk. It was a gamble that came off, as the TEL, much better than any other process, was to soon conquer the world.

1957





 

1960

Construction started on the Rantigny Industrial Research Centre, better known under the acronym CRIR. A genuine development research centre, it combined three fundamental laboratories (chemistry, physics and applications) with pilot lines on an industrial scale. Research finally found its rightful place.

1960





 

1967

Through CSG, a joint-venture created between Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed to sell glasswool to the USA, TEL started to compete with Owens Corning on its own territory!

1967





 

1973 - 1979

The Yom Kippur war (1973) followed by the Iranian revolution (1979) sparked off the two oil crises heralding the end of the post-war glory days. Energy became expensive and insulation was riding high. Despite a difficult economic context, Isover experienced a prosperous decade.

1973 - 1979




 



 

 

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