Fives Stein: Leading supplier of glass manufacturing technologies
A strong R&D focus combined with a worldwide presence and a considerable experience in glass have enabled the Fives Stein group to become a leading supplier of glass manufacturing technologies in all segments of the industry.
Fives Stein is an engineering company operating in the steel and glass industries, which belongs to Fives industrial group. The Fives group has a total combined workforce of 5,700 employees worldwide and a 2008 annual turnover of EUR 1,4 billion.
Fives Stein itself has a workforce of more than 810 employees, of which 453 reside at the headquarters in Paris, with important subsidiaries located in the United Kingdom, Belgium, China and India. The order intake of Fives Stein group in 2008 was in excess of 180 million Euros.
Global presence in Glass
The Fives Stein trade name covers several companies with a proven expertise and advanced technologies for steel and glass. In the glass industry, the company includes:
- Fives Stein in France, the headquarters located south of Paris, specialised in large-size contracts particularly for the float industry;
- Fives Stein Belgium, specialised in tin baths and forming equipment for flat glass;
- Fives Stein Limited in UK, specialised in electric melting technology (electric furnaces, boosting systems, etc.) and glass conditioning technologies (working ends, forehearths and feeders) for all types of glass;
- Fives Stein Shanghai, covering the Chinese market for the Fives Stein company plus the other subsidiaries and representative offices in India, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, USA, Mexico, etc. which ensure a true global presence and a customer support in close proximity.
The range of glass production equipment encompasses the float and patterned applications with a strong development of the photovoltaic and fibreglass segments together with the more traditional segments of container glass, glassware and other specialty glass products.
Float Glass: “The preferred partner of the new float glassmakers”
For float glassmakers, Fives Stein stands as the major independent float engineering and hot end specialist, having been already successfully contracted for more than 20 float glass plants worldwide. The company’s services and proprietary glass production equipment include:
- - the complete float plant general engineering;
- - the design and supply of melting furnaces, tin baths, annealing lehrs and air pollution control systems;
- integration of on-line float glass coating equipment for glass coloring, reflective, self-cleaning and anti-reflective layers;
- - the start-up of the plant with on-site assistance with the production of the new plant;
The value of Fives Stein’s production equipment is also acknowledged by the leading float glassmakers: AGC, Saint-Gobain, NSG and Guardian and is in operation in more than one third of all float glass plants in the world.
In 2009, Fives Stein is currently implementing the following major float glass contracts in various parts of the world:
In Turkey for Okan Group, a fast growing regional glass group
The scope of supply includes the plant engineering and the complete delivery of the 600 ton/day melting furnace, the tin bath and the lehr.
In India, the first independent “High quality” Indian glassmaker
The scope of supply includes the plant engineering and the complete delivery of the 550 ton/day melting furnace, the tin bath, the lehr and the air pollution control.
In Russia for YugRosProdukt, the new Russian glassmaker
The scope of supply includes the plant engineering and the complete supply of the process line including the furnace, the tin bath, the lehr, the production of process gas plant, the cutting line and the air pollution control.
In Poland for Euroglas, a long-lasting customer of Fives Stein group
The scope of supply covers the tin bath equipment for a 1,000 ton/day per day float glass line.
In Saudi Arabia for Obeikan Glass Company, which will become the largest float glass plant in the Gulf States
The scope of supply includes the plant engineering and the complete delivery of the 800 ton/day melting furnace, the tin bath, the lehr and the air pollution control.
Patterned Solar Glass
Fives Stein also supports the growth of the photovoltaic industry by designing and providing high-quality and high-efficiency patterned glass lines with on-line specific coating systems. Fives Stein is currently executing two contracts for the supply of equipment in this field.
Non-flat glass
Fives Stein is also recognized as a leading supplier in high-quality glass melting and conditioning for all types of glass, from large volume container production to small output hand-made lead crystal. Having supplied many electric melters, boost systems, working ends and over 1,000 forehearths, the company is able to tailor its equipment to best match production requirements whilst remaining within the many space constraints that are imposed.
Business growth in fibreglass
The rapid growth in the production of fibreglass has provided an opportunity for Fives Stein to extend its activities in this sector, especially with regards to electric boosting and oxy-fuel melting technology.
Fives Stein also offers hot end re-design services to optimize performance and boost productivity. Solutions can include the possible integration of advanced technologies such as super-boosters, CGM™ burners, and forehearth oxy-fuel firing systems. Projects can be handled on a group basis to give the client a complete technical solution for the revamping of its facility.
Research and development: Over 40 active patents
Fives Stein’s R&D efforts are focused on improving the competitiveness and on reducing customer’s ecological footprint. The most recent innovations of the company have been:
- - The development of a new generation of forehearths and highly energy-efficient oxy-fuel based melting furnaces for the fibreglass production.
- - The SUNBATH™ system for the production of high quality anti-reflective glass substrates. This system is dedicated to the production of solar glass and especially to the growing thin-film glass segment. It can produce float glass substrates having a natural anti-reflective surface and combines the technical advantages of patterned glass anti-reflection surface with the perfect flatness and virgin glass surface of the float bath manufacturing process.
- - A new pyrolitic coating furnace which provides hardened TCO glass for the PV module makers. This glass processing equipment features Beneq TCO coating technology. It is aimed at providing glass processors with a solution to directly address the high-end PV glass substrate market for thin-film applications.
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Plants & Accessories
Issue N° 1/2009 January/February