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SAINT-GOBAINLes Miroirs18, avenue d'Alsace92400 CourbevoieFRANCE
Our research and development is international.
The Group has eight major cross-business research centers that serve all Activities, thus optimizing synergies between them. These research centers maintain and develop the highest level of skills and key technologies for the Group. Their size and multi-disciplinary focus facilitate effective interaction with the academic world, early notice of scientific advances, and the recruiting of talents. The Group also has approximately one hundred development units around the world, facilitating research into new products more closely tailored to customer needs and local market requirements.
Located in Cavaillon in the Vaucluse region, 20km from Avignon, Saint-Gobain CREE (European Research and Studies Center) was founded in 2002. Within the Saint-Gobain Group, its work is especially focused on the Innovative Materials Sector. The center employs around 200 people, including researchers, technicians and administrative staff. It is certified ISO 9001 and 14001 and hosts a joint CNRS/Saint-Gobain laboratory (UMR 3080).
Research projects mainly concern mineral materials, ceramics and refractories: formulation, synthesis and material packaging, product characterization and in-service performance, development of manufacturing processes. The products, in the form of grains, powders, and machined components, are designed into high-tech applications, in areas such as production, energy-saving or environmental protection, for major industrial sectors and sustainable habitat. Saint-Gobain CREE has state-of-the-art research resources for measuring techniques, characterizations and metrology as well as process technologies, including those at very high temperature (> 2,000 °C). The center has many relationships with Saint-Gobain’s plants and activities and collaborates with the R&D teams of major multinationals. It has also working partnerships with academic research labs, in France and abroad.
Saint-Gobain Recherche contributes to building materials research projects in the areas of plaster, mortars, insulation and glazing, develops virtual reality expertise for various habitat-related projects, and builds on its expertise in building sciences to meet the challenges of thermal, acoustic and visual comfort, and interior air quality.
Saint-Gobain Recherche develops specific key expertise. At the Aubervilliers center, it is concentrated on glass, coatings, surfaces and building sciences in general, bringing together a broad range of scientific disciplines combining optics and physics of soft materials, as well as design and applied mathematics. This multidisciplinary nature enhances Saint-Gobain Recherche’s ability to carry out its research work on products and their manufacturing processes.
The center also contributes to the Saint-Gobain University Network (SUN) by forming partnerships with academic laboratories in France and internationally.
Diversity enables Saint-Gobain Recherche to successfully complete its projects. This diversity is evidenced in the variety of profiles, backgrounds and the 20 nationalities represented, and even the center’s gender balance (40 percent women in 2015). A day-to-day reality at Aubervilliers, it is combined with more specific actions targeting disabled employees and supporting new graduates in their first professional experience.
Find out more
Contact: webmaster.france.sgr@saint-gobain.com
Saint-Gobain Research India (SGRI) is the 7th cross-functional R&D center for the Saint-Gobain Group. SGRI supports and develops existing and new businesses in India and provides and nurtures future talent for the Group in this country. SGRI collaborates with local universities and external partners to produce solutions for sustainable habitat in hot-humid climates. This center develops cross-cutting competencies through academic partnerships and interfaces with other R&D centers across the world to accelerate business growth in the region. SGRI is an "anchor client" of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) Research Park and will move into the new building located on the campus by the end of 2015.
SGRI works on improving manufacturing processes, from raw materials to adding new functions to our end product through collaborative work and project management. Our researchers are quickly integrated into multidisciplinary teams and they take part in research programs in collaboration with marketing and production.
Saint-Gobain's response to the challenges of sustainable development is informed by values shared by our entire corporate community. These values are described in the Group Principles of Conduct and Action. These are the fundamental values that unite corporate leaders and employees and shape each team member's conduct and the performance of their duties.
Mission
The primary mission is to provide active and forward-looking support for the Group's various businesses, leading to developments and innovations in terms of both products and processes, to serve our current markets and enhance our businesses' competitive edge.
The second mission is to contribute to the Group’s technological innovation and enable it to penetrate new markets. In line with the Group’s development and leadership strategy on housing and construction markets, the center supports the development of technologies to meet the challenges of growth, energy and the environment.
Focus Areas
Saint-Gobain’s Northboro R&D Center (NRDC) is the second largest multi-disciplinary R&D center for the Saint-Gobain Group located in the greater Boston area in the United States. Since 1985 NRDC has been both supporting existing businesses and helping to develop new Saint-Gobain businesses as well as nurturing future talent for the Group in North America. It has grown over the last decade to more than 350 employees.
This center develops and interfaces with other R&D centers across the world to accelerate business growth. NRDC is strongly aligned with the Group’s High Performance Materials and Construction Products Sectors and its cross-functional technical diversity is mirrored in its workforce and its representation by over 30 nationalities. In addition to the work by many Saint-Gobain businesses represented at the Center, NRDC also collaborates with local universities and external partners to produce solutions for many manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, medical and construction industries.
Key focus areas of NRDC
Contact: NRDCHR@saint-gobain.com
The CRDC (Chantereine R&D Center) is one of Saint-Gobain’s seven major R&D centers. Founded in 1982 and located near Compiègne (France), it has 230 employees, including around 80 researchers and 80 research technicians.
Mainly dedicated to Saint-Gobain’s Flat Glass Activity out of the whole worldwide business portfolio, it provides the Group with special skills and contributes to innovation by developing and industrializing new products and processes (manufacturing or control) for automotive and construction glazing. Products like the new generations of solvent-free mirrors, lighting glass showers or commercial refrigeration unit doors saving up to 20% of energy and panoramic windshields have been developed by its teams. On average, it files around 20 patents a year.
Players in world-class manufacturing, it deploys its teams of recognized experts and professionals to provide technical assistance to the operational units.
It builds networks with universities, technical institutes and industrial partners, co-developing with its clients and suppliers.
Open to the international scene, ite hires and trains high-level researchers, with or without experience, who develop careers thanks to the technical skills they acquire in R&D and their knowledge of operational requirements.
CRDC key competencies
Established in 2005, Saint-Gobain Research Shanghai (SGRS) is one of the major R&D centers of Saint-Gobain worldwide. Located at the heart of its Shanghai industrial complex and neighboring several our plants involved in Performance Plastics, Automotive Glass, Abrasives, Ceramics, Gypsum, Weber, SGRS serves as Center of Innovation to support Saint-Gobain’s growth in Asia-Pacific region. It has more than 200 employees, covering a range of research fields including: material science, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, modeling and building energy as well as grinding, coating, optical detection etc.
Since its inception, R&D teams in SGRS successfully help their businesses to develop and launch innovative new products with better performance for the Asia market. Through their efforts, SGRS scientists have generated hundreds of unique ideas and patents. Such developments provide a continuous engine for the sustainable growth of Saint-Gobain businesses. More recently, SGRS has established long-term collaborations with several prestigious Universities in China & Singapore like Tsinghua, Fudan, Tongji, National University of Singapore (NUS).
Main Missions of SGRS
