Company Profile

Fives Stein, a Global Supplier for the Glass Industry

Fives Stein is a group of engineering companies operating in the steel and glass industries, which belongs to the industrial group "Fives", with a total combined workforce of 5000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover in excess of 1 billion Euro.

Fives Stein itself has a workforce of more than 600 employees worldwide, of which 400 reside at the headquarters in Paris, with important subsidiaries located in the UK, Belgium, China and India. The order intake of the group in 2007 was over 200 M€; with significant growth predicted for 2008.

These companies represent interests in a variety of sectors covering a spectrum of glass types and of end products.

FLOAT GLASS: “THE PREFERRED PARTNER OF NEW GLASSMAKERS”

Currently, Fives Stein stands as the major engineering and hot end equipment specialist supplier of the new glassmakers and has already successfully delivered Hot End for 20 float glass plants worldwide.

The company’s services and proprietary glass production equipment encompass:

* the complete float plant general engineering,

* the design and procurement of melting furnaces, tin baths, annealing lehrs and air pollution control systems,

* integration of on-line float glass coating equipment for value-added glass products: coloring, reflective, TCO, etc.,

* design and procurement of specialty glass equipment such as ultra-thin glass, PDP, TFT,

* training of the plant staff and operators,

* the start-up of the plant and, when necessary, on-site assistance with the production of the new plant,

* services for plant modernization, production upgrade, cold repairs.

Fives Stein production equipment is internationally recognized and is in operation in almost half of all the float glass plants in the world.

Currently, the group is implementing 5 major float glass contracts in Russia, Turkey, Poland, India and Saudi Arabia. These contracts generally include the float glass plant engineering and the delivery of the Hot Ends: melting furnace, tin bath, annealing lehr and air pollution control.

Solutions for Solar Glass Production

In the field of Solar glass, Fives Stein supplies specialized float glass plants and patterned glass plants incorporating advanced equipment such as on-line coating systems and the recently patented SUNBATH™ technology to produce high quality float glass substrates with a natural anti-reflective surface.

Fives Stein, with its experience, technologies and technical partnerships, is in a position to address all the glass making needs of thin films and c-Si solar modules production.

NON-FLAT GLASS

In "non-flat glass sectors" Fives Stein is a recognized supplier of melting and conditioning technology in all types of glass, from large volume container production to small output hand-made lead crystal.

Glass Melting & Conditioning

Fives Stein Limited, with the integration of BH-F and Penelectro Technologies is a world leader in high quality glass melting and conditioning. Having supplied over one thousand BH-F 400/4000 series forehearths and 100 working ends, 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 Glass Fibre

The rapid growth in the production of glass fibre has provided an opportunity for the group to extend its activities in this sector, especially in the realm of electric boosting and oxy-fuel combustion technology.

Importantly, Fives Stein can offer furnace re-design services to optimise performance; solutions can include the possible integration of advanced technologies such as CGM burners, and BH-F Technology forehearth oxy-fuel firing systems. Projects can be handled on a group basis to give the client a "global" technical solution to the re-vamping of the hot-end.

The Future

The Fives Stein group is working together to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly processes. The group is activity involved in numerous product and process development to achieve its longer term objectives, whilst also recognising the importance of experience and established practises. The recent change in group visual identity symbolises the harmony of its companies in working towards these objectives.