In 1931 the Wietersdorfer Zement- und Durit-Werke Phil. Knoch & Cie. company as it meanwhile called itself applied to the authorities to be issued a permit to establish a pipe manufacturing plant. The demand for asbestos-slate plates remained strong, and the programme was supplemented by “glossy slates” (the slates being coated with a glaze). Surprisingly, first signs of environmentally-conscious thinking were experienced even then in that the authority ruled that the outgoing water from the existing sewage plant “should be once more clarified from now on”. The issue of the permit to build pipes laid the foundation for the meanwhile extremely successful branch “pipes”.
