At the beginning of March 2010, the Kerneos Group’s Central Research Team moved into its new Research and Technology Centre in the Urban Development Zone of the Vaulx-le-Milieu Technology Park.
Covering a total area of 4,000 m², the “Kerneos Research and Technology Centre” or KRTC comprises specialist laboratories, storage areas and offices. The team includes around forty people: high-level scientist, engineers and management, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel.
Construction of the KRTC was undertaken by the GSE Group, which has had a presence in the Rhône-Alpes region for twenty years, in conjunction with the architects, Amplitude, based in Grenoble. GSE specialises in the design and implementation of building projects in the research and development buildings sector, and has gained an excellent reputation for its expertise in terms of high-tech construction techniques.
The Kerneos Research and Technology Centre will be focussing largely on the following activities:
- The KRTC teams will be primarily helping to broaden our understanding of the key mechanisms of calcium aluminates, their behaviour and properties that could be exploited in final concrete applications. Kerneos R&D teams have always maintained and developed a high level of scientific and technical expertise as regards their professional focus, calcium aluminates; Kerneos’ R&D always attaches great importance to the consolidation and sharing of critical knowledge and know-how, which also enables the company to continue to promote calcium aluminate technology.
- These teams represent the “centre of excellence” entrusted with product innovation, working to constantly improve existing products, developing new applications for existing products and, ultimately, developing new products and solutions, by incorporating new expertise and technologies.
- The KRTC teams also provide support for technical teams in contact with customers, at the same time as encouraging the use of Kerneos products by customers within the framework of new applications; the aim always being to offer the latter a high level of expertise, most frequently by means of technical partnerships. The KRTC also coordinates the work of Kerneos’ applications laboratories around the world.
- Finally, the group’s central research team has the added dimension of unlocking “technological potential”: it is involved in analysing construction material trends and developing new ideas for solutions based on aluminate technologies, enhanced by other technologies.
The new Kerneos Research and Technology Centre therefore represents a major asset in implementing the group’s strategy and expresses the group’s desire to offer its customers a high level of expertise. As the world leader in a specialist sector – calcium aluminate cements -, Kerneos is distinguished by its ability to provide customers on its various markets with innovative solutions and improved performance.
Jean-Marc Bianchi, Managing Director of Kerneos, highlights the fact that “the construction of this new Centre will allow our teams to work in the best possible conditions and illustrates Kerneos’ ambition to pursue its strategy of product innovation for its customers, notably on the construction chemistry and refractory markets.”