Fives, partner of the Usine Extraordinaire to change preconceived ideas about industry
A celebration of the current industrial transformation
Fives, with the support of the Usine Extraordinaire Foundation, will offer the general public a unique experience over the four-day event held at the Grand Palais in Paris. The objective of this “live” factory is to change people’s preconceived ideas about factories and encourage them to consider a future in the industrial sector.
An immersive journey behind the scenes of factories
The Usine Extraordinaire provides visitors with the chance to rediscover the industrial sector and look beyond the clichés. The factory of today is a ‘smart’ factory in which tasks are less strenuous for workers and waste is transformed into resources. The usage economy is replacing the economy of ownership and wastage, and industry, owing to its ability to develop innovative technological solutions, has even become a means to address current challenges. Last but not least, the industrial sector offers exciting career prospects.
A laser welding line designed by Fives for Renault
A live automated welding line for visitors to watch
Fives’ is joined at the event by other industrial companies, associations, educational bodies and public authorities to send an optimistic message. In the manufacturing segment, the Group will showcase its expertise and industries through an industrial production system: an automated laser welding line, designed and developed for carmaker Renault, that can assemble up to 300,000 manual gearbox pinions every year. Laser welding assembly technology reduces the weight and size of components and, hence, the CO2 footprint of vehicles – a key topic for carmakers.
At the end of the exhibition at the Grand Palais, the Fives production line will head to the Renault factory in the northern city of Ruitz where it will be installed alongside an existing line also supplied by Fives to increase the carmaker’s production capacity.
A center of industrial excellence enjoying dynamic growth
The line drew on the skills of project leaders, assembly technicians, and mechanical engineers in the fields of automation and laser processes over a nine-month period at the Fives Machining factory in Saint-Laurent-Les-Tours. This industrial site is a center of excellence for high power laser applications and producing industrial equipment in the field of laser welding and 3D metal printing.
The factory in Saint-Laurent-Les-Tours, which is enjoying dynamic growth, currently employs 85 people and regularly hires new talents. In 2019, extensions will begin to double its production capacity.