In Thuringen, Germany, there was once a small cellular glass factory, VEB Schaumglas Taubenbach, producing the product Coriglas. After “Die Wende“, the factory was first owned by Heraklith and later on by an American multinational. The last owner shut down the production exactly 50 years after it was built. The shutdown induced a brain drain to Russia (STES), Ukrain (PINOSKLO) and GLAPOR and is one reason of the current price drop of cellular glass, making it economically available for more people.
Many cellular glass heroes worked here but I mention only two of them, which are today retired.
Dr. Fritz Ulitzsch, a famous glass scientist took over the factory during the Heraklith time and brought the production up to quality level of the competition with an interesting production cost, although energy was expensive in Taubenbach. On top of that, Fritz was a very respected manager and could also sell his product. We became good collaborators after the company was bought by a multinational, before that we were fair competitors. Today, Fritz enjoys his retirement in Ilmenau.
Dr. Rainer Zorn was a typical laboratory guy, tuning the process and the furnaces. On top of that, he extended my mind with other recipes to foam glass, many of them open celled. Together with Fritz, he took a patent on such an alternative foaming system. This patent claims to generate a cellular glass with a higher mechanical stability, especially above 500°C. Rainer is retired and spend his time as a grandfather.
It is probably not a coincidence that during the Heraklith times, a certain Walter Frank, today CEO and founder of GLAPOR, worked in Schmiedefeld as an employee of Horn Glass Industries. Although he developed a completely different process and product, he felt in love for cellular glass in that plant.
BELGLAS BV 
Pingback: An old but interesting German patent | BELGLAS BVBA