Pilkington (NSG Group)

Pilkington is one of the most important companies in the history of glass — full stop. Founded in 1826 in St Helens, England, Pilkington invented the float glass process in 1952, a manufacturing breakthrough that fundamentally changed how flat glass is made worldwide. Before float glass, producing perfectly flat, uniform glass at industrial scale was enormously expensive and technically challenging. Alastair Pilkington's invention — floating molten glass on a bed of molten tin — made it possible to produce flawless flat glass continuously and affordably. It is the method used to produce virtually all flat glass in the world today.

That single innovation made affordable automotive glass possible for the mass market. Every windshield on every car you have ever seen was made using a process that Pilkington invented. The company licensed the technology globally, and it became the universal standard within decades. It is difficult to name a manufacturing innovation from the 20th century that had a more pervasive impact on daily life.

Pilkington became a subsidiary of Japan's NSG Group in 2006, creating a combined entity that is one of the world's largest glass manufacturers. The company supplies OEM glass to virtually every major automaker and continues to push innovation in areas like self-tinting glass, heads-up display (HUD) glass, solar-control coatings, and lightweight glass for electric vehicles where every gram matters for range.

Today, Pilkington operates manufacturing plants across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, producing both automotive and architectural glass. Their heritage of innovation continues — from the float process that democratized glass production to the smart glass technologies that are shaping the future of how we interact with the transparent surfaces around us.