50 Years of Plastics Know-How at Georg Fischer

The GF Piping Systems story began with the simple yet revolutionary idea of producing a fitting made of plastic. At that time, malleable castings made of metal had already been in use for around 90 years. On the other hand, no one had any experience with plastics. There was, however, a technical and commercial vision of how such materials could be used. The aim was to develop a jointing technology that would adequately complement the plastic piping that had first been introduced on the market at the beginning of the 1950s. A type of material was being used that was completely new to this specialist area. Applying the material to process engineering and developing it so that it met the most exacting requirements in many different fields of application represented the key innovative challenge.

After an extensive phase of R&D, Georg Fischer created a new-to-the-world product based on production-ready processes – an achievement that is the exception rather than the rule in the field of product development. A number of years of intensive preparation were necessary before Georg Fischer was finally able to commence series production of plastic fittings in 1957 at what was then its Singen plant. The field of injection moulding was already benefiting at the time from the production of new machines, enhanced mould parts and optimized compounds. Thanks to its farsightedness back then in identifying plastic as the material of the future and the expertise it has since acquired in the field of materials processing and jointing technology, Georg Fischer is today an extremely well established system supplier with production sites in Europe, Asia as well as the US and a presence in over 100 countries. Georg Fischer continually develops existing products while driving ahead into new areas of application such as shipbuilding, biotechnology and chemical processing.