Research & Innovation

Cement R&D works to develop cements with differentiating qualities and characteristics and high added value for customers.

This strategy responds to 3 industrial imperatives:

• improving the consistency and qualities of cement, for example the setting time and strength during the first hours following the pour,
• increasing the use of cement additives (slag, fly ash, pozzolan) in the context of an industrial-environmental approach to save nonrenewable resources and limit CO2 emissions,
• identifying and implementing different approaches to reducing CO2, particularly during industrial processes.

Concrete R&D is firmly focused on customer needs and seeks to:

• improve industrial processes.
• implement "rugged", consistent concrete formulas. Rugged concrete retains all of its qualities, even when working conditions change,
  
• develop the concretes of the future:
  
  • concrete with optimized qualities, so customers can use robust, aesthetic, made-to-measure products which resist fissuring and save energy through enhanced thermal inertia.
  • concrete suited to all applications, so customers can choose a concrete according to its end use (slab, wall, etc.).

Lafarge is the only building materials company to conduct research on aggregates. As aggregates are a rare natural resource, the R&D teams work to improve industrial performance in order to optimize resources. The 2 research orientations are:

• the improvement of industrial processes,
• the optimization of quarry materials through expertise in aggregate grading. The goal is to use all extracted aggregates, without distinction and without waste.

Gypsum R&D seeks to:

• improve production processes in order to improve environmental performance and reduce costs,
• optimize plasterboard properties by better controlling their microstructure. The intention is to develop the aesthetic dimension of plasterboard (surfaces, colors, joints, etc.), increase its mechanical strength (solidity, bending and shock resistance, fire resistance, etc.) and improve its acoustic qualities (insulation of floors and walls against aircraft noise and low-frequency vibrations, etc.),

• move from a "product" approach to a "customer solution" approach. Lafarge will thus be able to offer comprehensive solutions (wall partitions, ceilings, etc.) to players in the construction industry.

Each unit of the Group's Research center participates in projects which serve several Businesses. The goal is to develop a transversal, global understanding of building materials, upstream from other research projects which focus on specific products and customers. Overcoming scientific obstacles and received thinking is the best way to ensure genuine innovation.

 

Teams participate in 3 main types of project:

• analyzes of the physical or chemical properties of materials, for example to understand their behavior, their fluidity during use or their deformation when subjected to climatic variations,
• exploratory or experimental studies to observe the influence of each different parameter on each property of a given material. This helps determine the best combinations of cement and additives and the right mineral supplements to reduce costs for the factory and the customer while enhancing the consistency of the product,
• technological studies to obtain on-site validation of solutions found in the laboratory. The goal is to introduce products which bring real added value to the customer.