Story #2: Frans and a better blueprint

After the first world war, Europe is rebuilding. The construction industry is booming as well, generating great demand to create and copy building plans and technical drawings.

Blueprint has existed for decades as a process to reproduce drawings, creating white lines on a blue background. But the chemical coating on blueprint paper is still light-sensitive after fixation, so the copies have a very short shelf life.

Frans van der Grinten, the son of Lodewijk and a trained chemist, develops a more durable coating with a much longer shelf life. He patents the process and begins production of a blueprint paper with a shelf life of up to one year. It’s a market success.

The result is a highly profitable new business: the production of blueprint paper in addition to the already successful production of butter coloring.

The chemistry is right! The Van der Grintens take their first steps into the field of copying and document solutions. Many more steps will follow.

1919 1945
Production blueprint paper