Saint-Gobain and Glass Wool Recardre. Today again, it is the overall context of global warming which fixes new priority stakes for building insulation. Editing and rewriting Editorial follow-up Pascale Alix. 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'. The story is far from over. Insulation has become the best answer to the current environ- mental 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.
