“We can see some positive signals from the market. I believe that the LME returns to a level that is viable for our customers, which should free-up investments”, Benjamin Ulmann, Fives’ Aluminium Regional Sales Director, Middle East

Benjamin, graduated in 2005, worked for 8 year as Sales & Marketing for US based company named LUFKIN (now part of GE), a worldwide leading manufacturer of gearing solutions. Then in 2013, he worked for a UK based company named WELDING ALLOYS, a manufacturer of advanced welding consumables, automated equipment for wear protection, and engineered wear solutions. In 2016, he joined the Aluminium division of the French group Fives. After having worked with several subsidiaries of the division in the UK and in France, he is now Regional Sales Director for the Middle East. Benjamin has shared his insightful thoughts on how the use of smart automation solutions in aluminium plants will increase remarkably in 2021. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

AlCircle: Do you plan to design any new process equipment or revamp any existing technology for the aluminium industry this year?

Benjamin: Fives is an engineering company and R&D is part of our DNA. If we are not planning to develop any new process equipment in 2021, we will keep developing our digital solutions - AMELIOS Suite - to provide smelters with a complete ecosystem and comprehensive solutions to improve the efficiency of the aluminium production. Fives started this journey more than ten years ago and continue to develop breakthrough solutions to position the Aluminium – material and industry wise - as the future.

Today, our AMELIOS suite includes End to end anode tracking system (ATS & RTS), MIREA on-line automatic anode electrical resistance measurement, SOFIA Smart On the Fly Inspection and Analysis, along with several SMART solutions dedicated to crane, gas treatment centre, vibrocompactor…)

In 2020, our Anode Tracking System based on Vision has been rewarded by the Light Metals Community (TMS), and in 2021, the SOLAR IMPULSE FOUNDATION has labelled the whole AMELIOS Suite SOLAR IMPULSE EFFICIENT SOLUTION.

I would like to take advantage of this interview to give you a quick glimpse on the SOLAR IMPULSE FOUNDATION and explain to everyone why its label matters:

Back in 1999, Bertrand Piccard completed the first nonstop round-the-world flight with a hot air balloon (BREITLING ORBITER 3) and landed in the Egyptian desert after a 20 day-journey circumvented the globe. At the time of the landing, only 40 kilograms of gas propane were left in the gas cylinders, meaning roughly 5 hours of autonomy.  Despite the success of the mission, Bertrand Piccard started to wonder about a round-the-world flight without fossil energy to achieve the dream of a “perpetual flight”.

On March 15, 2015 - 16 years later – SOLAR IMPULSE 2 (a solar plane with the span of an AIRBUS 380 and the weight of a mid-size car) took off from Abu Dhabi (host-city of the project) to complete the first of the 17 legs of the round-the-world flight.

On July 23, 2016 – 16 months after take-off – SOLAR IMPULSE 2 came back to Abu Dhabi setting-up 19 world records and achieving major milestones, like a 5 days and 5 nights nonstop flight over the Pacific Ocean.

This historic flight was a great success, however the SOLAR IMPULSE team acknowledge that solar power technology was and is not yet mature enough to revolutionize the aviation industry. Therefore, SOLAR IMPULSE was not built to carry passengers, but to convey messages and demonstrate that the actual alternative energy sources and new technologies can achieve what some consider impossible.

The purpose and the aim of the SOLAR IMPULSE foundation is to pursue the journey started in 2015 by selecting and promoting specific efficient solutions with a positive impact on environment and quality of life, and changing the mind-sets. In this respect, Amelios Suite, while optimising carbon consumption, can potentially reduce the amount of CO2 emitted per tonne of aluminium produced.

Being rewarded by our peers (TMS) and labelled by a renowned international foundation (SOLAR IMPULSE) show that Fives’ digital solutions are recognized and trusted as solutions for the future of the aluminium industry. 

AlCircle: Do you think the use of smart automation solutions in aluminium plants will increase remarkably in 2021 after the COVID19 outbreak last year?

Benjamin: Definitely yes! The industry is transforming and as explained previously, Fives is actively supporting it for many years. Today, most of the smelters are putting together digital roadmaps and several projects should already materialize this year. 

At an aluminium smelter in France, we have recently implemented our SMARTCrane technology to remotely monitor an entire fleet of overhead cranes. Using sensors, SMARTCrane acquires data through a dedicated unit installed on the crane, which is then transmitted to the monitoring platform where it is concatenated. This gives the customer a clear view of the operations in the potroom, helpful for improving quality and reducing equipment damage.

AlCircle: Will you come up with more advanced automation solutions in the near future to further lessen the human interference in aluminium plants, given the rising spree of COVID-19 cases?

Benjamin: Yes. The COVID-19 pandemic raised some news concerns and we will continue our efforts towards digitalization to ensure that our customers can achieve more with less human interference, but also that OEMs can support them remotely.

Using various remote support and collaborative tools, the Fives’ teams were able to ensure a virtual presence on site and work on complex tasks in close collaboration with customers. All over the world, our experts have been committed to accompanying customers and helping them operate their facilities and maintain production

On the other hand, the COVID-19 highlighted the importance of maintaining a physical presence with our customers as remote assistance and videoconferences have inherent limitations. Thanks to the regionalization strategy initiated by Fives several years ago, our customers can rely on our Service subsidiaries located in Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, allowing roughly 50% of our colleagues to be within reaching distance to a majority of the smelters.

During the COVID-19, a lot of events and gathering have been postponed or cancelled. Fives used to organize several events every year, which serve as platforms to meet our customers, exchange information and provide training. We decided to maintain most of them and turned them into digital events. Our customers warmly welcomed our efforts as the number of opportunities to meet and network went down drastically. A special mention to EGA (Emirates Global Aluminium), the exclusive sponsor of our 2020 “BACK2SCHOOL” edition that has been held remotely last December. Going to a remote event, allowed us to gather 175 people representing 11 smelters, when we typically welcome 50 to 80 people in a single location representing 6 to 7 smelters. In other words, a great success!

AlCircle: Do you expect the growing awareness on reducing carbon emissions will increase the demand for Fives’ solutions in 2021 and beyond

Benjamin: Of course. Aluminium is the ideal material for an environmentally friendly future. Fives, as a worldwide leading supplier of the primary aluminium industry, should ensure that industry wise, aluminium is also the industry of the future.

Pragmatic solutions are available and we can see a strong interest of our customers, which aim to increase the efficiency of their production, leading to a reduction of emissions.

AlCircle: Do you expect a hike in your machines and equipment sales in 2021 with the gradual resumption of business in the aluminium end-user market?

Benjamin: We can see some positive signals from the market. I believe that the LME returns to a level that is viable for our customers, which should free-up investments. As I mentioned previously, some projects are about to materialize in 2021 and since the beginning of the year, we have already seen a rebound through service projects such as audit or modernisation or spare parts orders. 

AlCircle: How do you think the aluminium market will overall perform in 2021?

Benjamin: 2021 is going to be a difficult year. The COVID-19 pandemic is still with us and it will take few more months before we return to a “new normal”. However, I trust that we can remain optimistic and that the future is made of aluminium: growing environmental awareness is increasing the attractiveness of a light, efficient and recyclable metal like aluminium.