The Glock is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock GmbH, located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearms design or manufacture at the time their first pistol, the Glock 17, was being prototyped. Glock did however have extensive experience in advanced synthetic polymers, knowledge which was instrumental in the company's design of the first successful line of pistols with a polymer frame.