Glock introduced ferritic nitrocarburizing into the firearms industry as an anticorrosion surface treatment for metal gun parts. Glock had extensive experience in advanced synthetic polymers, which was instrumental in the company’s design of the first commercially successful line of pistols with a polymer frame. The company’s founder, head engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearms design or manufacture at the time their first pistol, the Glock 17, was being prototyped. Glock currently dominates the market for US law enforcement handguns. After that, Glock never looked back and went on to produce 40+ different handguns in various calibers and configurations. Winning the Austrian pistol contract put Glock on the map, and soon other nations had adopted the Glock 17 as their military sidearm as well. The G17 was submitted for the Austrian handgun trials in 1982 and was ultimately selected as the winner. Based on the requirements provided by the Austrian government and input from experts in the fields of shooting, military combat, and law enforcement Glock developed a working prototype that would become the Glock 17. Subsequently, Glock decided to explore the possibility of developing a handgun. Although Glock had no formal experience in making arms, they did have specific experience in polymer design.

Glock first rose to fame in the early 1980’s when Austria announced that it would be holding trials for a new more modern handgun to replace the Walther P38 models that had been in use since WWII. Glock also produces a line of clothing, knives, and entrenching tools. Founded in 1963 in Austria by engineer Gaston Glock, the Glock Company is best known for its line of polymer framed pistols.

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