Organization

The 250 researchers at the Lafarge Research Center seek to understand physical and chemical mechanisms and elaborate new technologies.
The 15,000 m² site boasts state-of-the-art laboratories, pilot workshops and high-tech equipment including electron microscopes, field-effect microscopes and nano-scale instruments.
The Research Center also houses an experimental concrete plant in its technological building, the only facility of its kind in the world. This allows industrial-scale testing of laboratory results, speeding up the time to market for Lafarge’s innovative concrete products.

Discover the life at the Research center on video!

Technical centers and development laboratories work with the Research Center and the Group’s business units to adapt new products developed by Lafarge’s researchers to the needs and specific characteristics of local markets. They also work to improve industrial performance: plants throughout the world can therefore call on a network of local experts to intervene rapidly to improve plant processes, for example optimizing formulas to reflect the availability of local raw materials.

Lafarge has 4 Technical centers for Cement located in:

• Vienna, Austria, and Lyon, France, serving Europe (Europe Technical Center - ETC),
• Montreal, Canada, serving the Americas (Corporate Technical Services - CTS). The CTS has a branch in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
• Beijing, China, serving Asia (Asian Technical Center - ATC). The ATC has a branch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
• Cairo, Egypt, serving Africa and the Middle-East (Cairo Technical Center - CTC).

Lafarge also has a number of concrete development laboratories, which work in close partnership with the Lafarge Research Center to carry out testing to adapt new products to local market conditions.

The Technical Development Center for the Gypsum Business is based in Avignon, France. The Center studies the application of products and systems in real environments. For example, it has a very sophisticated acoustic measurement laboratory which allows it to:

• analyze different systems developed all over the world and evaluate and measure their performance under identical conditions,
• promote knowledge transfer between the countries where the Group operates.