In August, the Fives Machining teams at the company’s Capdenac workshop completed the assembly and commissioning of an additional Forest-Liné V-Star machine. The project, which included the configuration of a shuttle extension, completed the three-unit cell for Fives customer, Nexter, a specialist manufacturer serving the defence industry.

As soon as the customer confirmed acceptance, the machine was disassembled and shipped to Nexter’s plant in Roanne, France, where reassembly by Fives technicians is currently in progress. The Forest-Liné V-Star machines are intended to trim and drill the thick aluminium plates required to manufacture the sides of the armoured vehicles in the SCORPION programme (Griffon, Jaguar, Serval). With the three machines in operation, the cell will enable Nexter to produce parts for 450 vehicles per year, meeting the army’s need to renew its vehicles and machines.

In August 2021, during the inauguration of this new FMS (flexible manufacturing system) equipped with the first two Forest-Liné V-Star machines, Sylvain Rousseau, Nexter’s director of operations, underlined the unprecedented capacities achieved on an industrial and technological level thanks to the know-how provided by Fives Machining.

Forest-Liné V-Star machines offer a high dynamic accuracy, supporting the manufacture of parts with a rapid production throughput. This capacity to process extremely long and wide components, as well as the combination of milling, trimming and drilling, is adapted to the processing of many complex parts, including aircraft structures, wing panels and boat hulls. For all vanguard applications, this high-velocity solution can efficiently process different materials, composites, resins, alloys and hard metals from rough- to the finish-milling.

The installation is part of the NextFab modernisation project at Nexter’s Roanne plant, which aims to triple the annual vehicle production capacity by 2025.
For further information www.fivesgroup.com