PPG history

1898 The company develops a process for producing thinner glass with the plate process, thereby broadening uses for the high-quality glass.

1899 Pitcairn builds a soda ash plant in Barberton, Ohio, the first PPG chemicals business.

PPG also diversified into the production of window glass through a factory in Mount Vernon, Ohio, which opened in 1907.

In 1915 a second plant was opened in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Always seeking to diversify, in 1923 PPG began to use limestone screening, a waste product of soda ash, to manufacture Portland cement.

In 1924 the company switched from the batch method of making plate glass to the ribbon method.

In 1928 the Creighton Process was developed.

In 1934 PPG introduced Solex heat-absorbing glass.

In 1938 PPG introduced Herculite tempered glass.

Diversification paid off again for PPG during World War II. In 1940, the year before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the glass division had developed Flexseal laminated aircraft glass.

The other major player in the coating industry, RPM International (RPM), was founded in 1947.

In 1951 the company created the first latex-based interior paint and three years later brought a latex exterior house paint to the market.

In 1963 PPG became the first United States company to manufacture float glass, used in place of plate glass by architects.

In 1969 the chemicals group won the Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award for developing a process for the simultaneous production of perchloroethylene, widely used in dry-cleaning, and trichloroethylene, a degreaser.

In 1973 the last plate glass production line was phased out and was replaced by the float glass production method.

PPG was the first major corporation to develop a flat-plate solar collector, a unit first marketed in 1975.

In 1987, PPG's chlor-alkali business makes a splash when it introduces the SUSTAIN® Pool Care System, delivering chlorine more evenly and accurately for easier pool care.

In 1989, PPG begins a flurry of acquisitions that expand the company's offering of automotive, industrial, aerospace and packaging coatings around the world.

Sheeline, William E. "Managing a Clan Worth $1 Billion." Fortune, June 4, 1990.

In September 1993 PPG’s board surprised many when, for the first time in company history, it appointed an outsider, Jerry E. Dempsey, as chairman and CEO, to replace the retiring Sarni.

Dempsey retired in late 1997, with PPG on the upswing and his having overseen an orderly leadership succession.

LeBoeuf's targets proved too ambitious as PPG's late 1990s performance was undermined by the economic crises that hit certain Asian markets and Brazil and by the start of a deflationary trend in the manufacturing sectors of Europe and the United States. Thus, in 1998, PPG sold its European flat and automotive glass businesses to the Belgium firm Glaverbel S.A. for $266 million, while acquiring Courtaulds plc's packaging coatings and United States architectural coatings businesses in a deal valued at approximately $285 million.

1999 Two major acquisitions are completed: PRC-DeSoto International, Inc. and the bulk of Imperial Chemical Industries plc's automotive refinishing and industrial coatings businesses.

In April 2006 PPG beefed up its optical products side, another key area for growth, by acquiring Parma, Italy-based Intercast Europe, S.p.A., the world's leading maker of nonprescription hard-resin sunglass lenses.

In 2015, its coatings segment posted $14.2 billion of the company’s overall revenue of $15.3 billion.

In March 2016, Sherwin-Williams announced that it would be acquiring Valspar for $11.3 billion.

The merger is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.

"Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company ." Gale Encyclopedia of United States Economic History. . Retrieved April 16, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/pittsburgh-plate-glass-company