New Management and Expanded Product Line at Armatec Vierhaus GmbH

Date: 5 March 2005

Armatec Vierhaus GmbH, a subsidiary of Bystronic glass, has a new president. Bernd Bedner has succeeded Ulrich Vierhaus, who retired at the end of last year.Bernd Bedner assumed responsibility for Armatec Vierhaus GmbH, located in Gunzenhausen in Franconia, in April 2004.

The contract with the previous owner and former company president Ulrich Vierhaus ended on December 31, 2004.

Founded in 1983, Bystronic-Armatec Technology is considered the leading brand worldwide for customer-oriented complete solutions for the manufacturing of laminated glass. The company is also a well known provider of efficient handling equipment and transport devices for all sectors of sheet and flat glass processing.

Since 2003, Armatec Vierhaus GmbH has been owned by Bystronic glass. Bystronic is the global supplier of total solutions for the economical, application-engineered manufacture of architectural and automotive glass.

Mr. Bedner has been active for eleven years in an executive position in machine and system construction. Before his Armatec assignment, he was the president of a well known mechanical engineering company in the electrical industry for four years.

Even in the first few months of activity at Bystronic-Armatec Technology, Mr. Bedner was able to successfully introduce a number of product innovations to the market.

glasstec 2004 saw the presentation of a semi-automatic cutting table for laminated and float glass in the form of smartlamicut with a previously unattainable cost-to performance ratio. The smartlamicut guarantees efficient processing of laminated and float glass and is thus the ideal entry-level solution for laminated glass cutting.

Also in the area of system solutions for laminated glass manufacturing, smartlamiline, a new product with great promise, has been introduced to the market next to firstlamiline, which has already proven successful for many years.

The laminated glass that is manufactured on a smartlamiline is identical in quality to firstlamiline, and is every bit as compelling a product. The differences between the two systems are in the different type of production and in the differentiated level of fittings. Thus smartlamiline is especially designed for customers who are just intending to get started with laminated glass production or who want to concentrate on manufacturing specialty items with small batch sizes.