The Story of GED
GED – The Innovation Leader of the Global Window & Door Fenestration Industry
From its humble beginning on a back porch in 1977, GED Integrated Solutions has moved to its current rank as the state-of-the-art contributor to the glass industry through the determination of its co-founders, Dick Dietrich and Edmund Leopold. Having staked their claim in the North American residential window industry, the two provided window and door fabricators with technologies that increase productivity, reduce insulating glass unit costs, and improve IG quality.
In 1977, during our first year of operation, GED introduced the first Horizontal Hot Melt IG Fabrication equipment, making possible the first high-volume IG Line. The equipment allowed a fabricator to produce over 2000 units per eight-hour shift. In 1987, GED brought to market the first Break-Out Monitors for sorting cut glass into movable slot sorting racks. This GED innovation opened the market for computer-controlled glass cutting, increasing control and decreasing scrap. Soon afterward, the WinSystem 1 software platform completed the integration of the IG department ensuring better output and organization of production. Technological advances such as these caused PPG Industries, Inc. (now Vitro) to turn to GED as its manufacturing partner to bring you the revolutionary Intercept® IG Spacer System.
Through continuous improvement initiatives combined with a cellular manufacturing approach, GED has become the most efficient equipment manufacturer in the window and door industry. GED continued innovations with the introduction of numerous award-winning products in the new millennium including the Smart Extruder, Laminated Glass Cutter, two-tone muntin material, a completely new glass washer and water treatment system and the revolutionary i-3 technology platform. In 2004, GED greatly expanded its reach with the acquisition of Sampson Automation to create GED Integrated Solutions. We are now the only complete solution for the window and door marketplace. The i-3 system is truly world class manufacturing.