A milestone in the history of Pilkington was its invention of the Float Process. It was announced in 1959, but further development work was necessary before the process could be fully exploited commercially.
Pilkington decided on a policy of licensing the process to existing major glass manufacturers. At the same time the company encouraged its licensees to assist in the further development of float by granting them free use of any improvements they might make on condition these were also made available to Pilkington itself. The first float license was granted in 1962. Others quickly followed.