History

Quadrant history:

The first plastic materials for machining.

Now the broadest range of materials for the most cost effective choices.

New products for new needs, from the industry's only global product and application development team.

For over 60 years, the companies that formed Quadrant have been developing new materials to meet changing demands of our customers around the world. The innovative, collaborative spirit between our people and our customers has shaped our success and led to the industry's broadest range of engineering plastics for machining. Our investment in innovation will only increase in the years ahead, to support your requirements for higher levels of performance, productivity and value.

A brief chronology:

1933	Robert Tavernier founds the company Formica (Tielt, Belgium) for the production of plastic consumer goods e.g. buttons.
1936	Formica introduces the process of injection moulding of thermoformable plastics.
1940-45	First production of a new plastics nylon with special features for industrial applications.
1946	Louis Stott founds Polymer Corporation (Pennsylvania, US) and pioneered the use of engineering plastics in a wide variety of industrial uses.
1947	Polymer / Polypenco patented the first process for extruding nylon stock shapes.
1948	Formica becomes Erta n.v. (Etablissement Robert Tavernier). Production of engineering plastics is on full speed.
1950-60	Further development in custom moulding and start of production (extrusion and casting) of nylon stockshapes for machining.
1957	First European Polypenco subsidiary (Welwyn Garden City, UK) was set up to pioneer a new range of nylon and PTFE.
1960-75	International expansion of production and distribution network, not only in Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy), but also in South Africa, Canada and Japan.
1967	Erta buys Cestidur SA (Balan, France), producer of Polyethylene HD plate. Polymer starts production facilities in Almelo, the Netherlands.
1976	Erta n.v. taken over by Dutch chemical concern DSM, extension of global distribution network and focus on High Performance Plastics.
1983	Erta-group starts production of Polycarbonate Axxis n.v. (Tielt, Belgium) after having taken over Sheffield Plastics USA, producer of Polycarbonate plate.
1988	DSM acquires the Polymer Corporation and Polypenco companies; the two biggest players in engineering plastics for machining go together.
1990's	Establishment of joint ventures Terraglobus (Hungary) - Kaprolan (Poland) - Polypenco (Korea) - Nylamid (Mexico) and Surlon (India). 100% ownership of Asia Pacific Ltd (Hong Kong).
1996	Symalit AG acquired by Quadrant Holding AG.
2001	Swiss Quadrant Group acquires EPP business and 'DSM Engineering Plastic Products' becomes 'Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products'.
2004	Quadrant acquires the majority of the Hungarian operations.
2005	Quadrant acquires Poly Hi Solidur, the world market leader in UHMW-PE products with a global presence almost equal to Quadrant EPP.
2006	Quadrant starts a new 100% owned operation in Mexico and in China.