About Safeglass (Europe) Limited
Safeglass (Europe) Limited was formed in 1997 to commercialise the award winning material, Safeglass®. Since then, we have expanded our product range to include other break glass materials and specialised glass and plastic.
Safeglass® is the world's first material specifically designed for break glass use. It replaces real glass because it overcomes the obvious dangers associated with breaking real glass.
We have an enormous amount of expertise regarding our own patented material as well as using other materials for break glass use, such as plastics and toughened glass.
Our journey over the many years has seen us move from a small office unit to larger accommodation which includes offices and workshop space. This has meant we have been able to expand our capabilities and we have invested heaviliy in the machinery we need.
Our main customers come from the Rail and Bus Industries. Clients include Bombardier, Siemens and Stadler. In the UK we supply most of the Train Operating Companies such as Scotrail, South West Trains and Virgin.
Our product range falls into the category of "highly specialised" and we are able to manufacture small batch runs.
History of Safeglass
Below is a chronological summary of events in our journey.
| 1991 | It is observed that real glass is sed on hammer boxes on trains - passengers have to break this to reach the hammer. This exposes them to a high risk of injury. br> There MUST be a better way! Work begins on the development of a material that cannot cause injury to Passengers. |
| 1995 | A material is developed. Investment is made in some Research & Development to make the material mass produce-able. |
| 1996 | Safeglass (Europe) Limited is established to commercialise the idea. |
| June 1997 | Initial market research and test marketing. Product development ongoing. |
| December 1997 | Funding package including loans, grant and investment put in place.
Can only be drawn down when Sales reach acceptable level. |
| July 1998 | Development complete and the material can be mass produced. First large orders fulfilled. |
| August 1998 | Funding for working capital now in place. |
| September 1998 | Trademark established. |
| October 1998 | Winner of John Logie Baird Award for Innovation |
| April 1999 | Millennium Product Status awarded by the Design Council. |
| May 1999 | Safeglass showcased at an Exhibition for the first time - Expo 99 |
| November 1999 | Research into the feasibility of producing a bottle for the beer industry to exploit material's glass-like properties. |
| December 1999 | Safeglass is established as the Industry Standard for break glass in the Rail Sector. |
| January 2000 | Presentation made to the Association of Train Operating Companies. |
| May 2000 | Project plan and costing devised for the development of a beer bottle. |
| June 2000 | Material featured on TV programme "I wish I'd thought of that" on Channel 4 |
| September 2000 | Beer Bottle project begins |
| February 2001 | Ministry of Transport approves Safeglass for bus use. |
| May 2001 | Managing Director presents the Bottle Development Project at "New Plastic" conference in Brussels. |
| October 2001 | The first prototype bottle is blown into a balloon shape. |
| July 2002 | Experimentation with different grades of material to assess suitability for bottle production. Investment in tooling for bottle production trial. |
| December 2002 | First prototype preforms are made. |
| February 2003 | First bottles blown. |
| June 2003 | Larger workshop premises are leased. |
| August 2003 | Investment in new machinery made. |
| March 2004 | Investment pays off as company continues to grow. |
| April 2005 | Queens Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category awarded to the company. |
| May 2005 | A move to bigger premises to cope with increased demand and larger workforce. |
| April 2006 | Feasibility Study into technical possibilities of using the material for a new range of glassware for the Pub Industry. |
| August 2006 | Market Research into Plastic Glassware. |
| January 2007 | New website launched with the aim of reaching a wider, more international audience. |
| March 2007 | New research project to develop new, more fire resistant grades of material in order to reach more markets. |
| July 2007 | New website pays off with first large order from Canada, a new market for us. |
| April 2008 | New fire resistant grade developed but more work needed to make it mass produce-able. |
| July 2008 | Investment in new machinery, this time a compounding machine to enable new grades of material to be produced, allow for more recycling, improve control of the process and make further material research cheaper. |
| March 2009 | New compound machine installed and tested. We now recycle 80% waste of material. |
| 2009 - 2015 | We neglected to keep this log up to date! But the last few have been productive. |
| 2015 | We invest in a pet project - 3D Printing - and establish 3D Print Works a sister company. |
| December 2017 | A new challenge as our raw material suppliers change the formulation! Safeglass no longer works because of this change. We have decided to do further development work to overcome this problem. |
| 2018 | More machinery is bought to assist in mixing raw materials. This is a follow-on from the new material development. |
| September 2018 | We take a stand at Innotrans in Germany and secure new business. |
| January 2019 | Materials stock-piled in response to possible no-deal-Brexit. We should have approximately 3 years of material to cover the period of uncertainty. |
| 2020 | We remained open during COVID-19 LOCKDOWN so that we could continue to supply our Rail customers. We temporarily extended our product range to include PPE and Sneeze Screens |
