Introduction to the ETFE industry
The use of ETFE in the construction industry started some 25 years ago when the Vector Foiltec Group began development of the Texlon® transparent cladding system. Today, the group has built several hundred projects throughout the world, and is the market leader in terms of turnover, technical ability, and production capacity.

Using air to support and clad buildings is not a new idea; pressurised cushions were first used in the 1950s in the development of air supported structures. It was not until fluoro polymer foils, which do not degrade under sunlight, were made commercially available, that this form of construction could be considered for permanent building applications.

The best known example of flouro polymers is Teflon (PTFE), first developed in the USA by Dupont during the 1930's. During the early days of space exploration, Dupont, in conjunction with NASA, developed ETFE as a thermo plastic version of Teflon. ETFE was created for use in the space industry as electrical insulation. ETFE's chemical stability, and resistance to cosmic radiation made this possible.

Ethylene tetra flouro ethylene, or ETFE, is more commonly known as Texlon® foil. Chemically, ETFE is constructed by substituting a fluorine atom in PTFE with an ethylene monomer. This retains some of PTFE's qualities such as its non-stick self cleaning properties, as in non-stick pans, whilst increasing its strength, and in particular, its resistance to tearing.

In 1981, Vector Foiltec invented drop bar welding, and used ETFE to construct a small cable structure, originally made from FEP, which had failed due to the low tear resistance of the material. ETFE provided the perfect substitute, and the Texlon® cladding system was born. This building, commissioned by Dr Van Hof, still remains and is the World's first Texlon® ETFE foil structure.

Dr Van Hof went on to procure several buildings from Vector Foiltec, including the world famous Burgers Zoo Rainforest, which changed the way zoos were perceived, and set the scene for the Eden Project, the world's second largest ETFE project, which was built by Vector Foiltec in 2001.

The technology took some time to be adopted in Europe due to the conservative nature of the building industry. Vector Foiltec's best clients in the early eighties were leisure centre operators in Northern Europe, who wanted to be able to replicate a Mediterranean climate for their guests. The short market payback for the leisure industry enabled clients to take a risk on a new technology. We have built approximately 60 large aquatic environments and have unparalleled expertise in the design and engineering of high humidity environments. In the mid eighties, the technology began to be adopted for long life buildings in Europe, and particularly in the UK, where today, it has been accepted as an alternative to glass for all building types.

Company History
The Vector Foiltec Group started in Germany in 1981. The company now have offices worldwide including the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Australasia. Production facilities have also been expanded through the opening of a manufacturing plant in China in 2005 to augment our existing facilities in Europe.

The Vector Foiltec Group currently employs over 300 people and has a turnover in excess of 50 million Euros. The group specialises in ETFE and all the personnel are dedicated ETFE workers.

Vector Foiltec maintains its market lead over recent competition by continuing to invest heavily in Research and Development. Extensive material testing, engineering approaches and constructional data were first developed and researched by the Vector Foiltec Group in the early 1980's, and then increasingly with a number of leading international engineers such as Buro Happold and Ove Arup, as well as a number of international research institutes.

Vector Foiltec now has the largest and most comprehensive body of material research available worldwide for ETFE foil technology, and has been responsible for all key technical innovations in the field, many of which are patented and only available from the Vector Foiltec Group.

Production processes were developed in tandem with drop bar welding during the 1980's and the Vector Foiltec Group now owns and operates the largest, most efficient foil processing plant in the world.