R & D: Several examples 

Rhodax®, making technology ecological and economical
Rhodax® offers the optimal combination of ecological and economical technology for the dry material preparation in the manufacture of anodes dedicated to the aluminium production process.
Using 40% less equipment than conventional crushing technologies, it reduces potential sources of dust emission and so helps enhance health and safety conditions in the workshop while improving anode quality.

The Flash Cooling® technologies

The Flash Cooling® technologies originally intended for the production of high-performing grades of steel, were recently extended by adding a wet process based on the thermal cycle for the treatment of steel with very high elasticity limits. The Wet Flash Cooling® developed in record time by Fives Stein and proven on a small-scale mock-up at its Bar-le-Duc testing center, France, cools the steel strip by spraying it with a water-nitrogen mist. It was first commissioned industrially on an annealing line at Posco in South Korea. This new process makes it possible to reach cooling rates of over 400°C per second, which is two to three times faster than the current controlled cooling processes, dry or wet (such as jet cooling, rapid cooling, roll quench or mist cooling). This technology also features a highly accurate and uniform cooling curve and is versatile enough to produce a wide range of steels. Wet Flash Cooling® opens new possibilities for producing martensite steels on an industrial scale. These steels, historically produced with an added quenching step, are much desired by the auto industry to manufacture lighter vehicles. At Posco’s Gwangyang site, Fives Stein kept to the tight deadlines the client required while minimizing downtime and production losses. Fives Stein offered an original solution consisting of pre-mounting the whole new tower equipped with Wet Flash Cooling® on rails beside the production line and then moving it into its final position in two days’ time. The initial production was successfully run in early 2009 and the expected cooling performance was soon attained.

The flexibility of Wet Flash Cooling® makes it possible for Posco to continue producing its existing grades of steel while trying out the production of new steels and thus be the first to offer automobile manufacturers industrial quantities of new steels such as M-TRIP.

Developing the first "clean" grinding machine

Fives has designed a grinding machine that reduces the leakage of cutting fluid mist and thus limits pollution. It has also developed machining techniques that reduces the emission of particles and, consequently, the consumption of cutting fluid. These grinding machines, marketed under the Landis trademark, have received a certificate of excellence from Ford.

The CFCFrixline developed by Fives Cinetic (Cinetic Assembly), updates the

friction conveyor concept. The idea of attaching connecting bars so that carriers

can be set up in trains lowers the cost and energy consumption of the conveyor

and guarantees operator safety on the shop floor. With its modular design,

CFCFrixLine has the advantage of being totally flexible as a complete or partial

component of a handling line. Its simplicity also provides high reliability and more

rapid, less costly and easier maintenance.

CFCFrixLine is environmentally friendly because it reuses the existing guides of a

chain-driven conveyor, requires no compressed air or grease and reduces noise

pollution significantly.