Our ambition is to develop innovative assembly systems leading to real technological breakthroughs.
This is why we are actively involved in several collaborative industrial research projects.
The goal?
To prepare the technical foundations for the solutions we will offer you tomorrow.
→ the opportunity to remain at the forefront of research to continue to provide a quick response to our customers’ technological challenges
→ the opportunity to develop partnerships and collaborations with key players in fundamental research
→ developing the skills of our researchers and engineers, who are constantly faced with new challenges
→ the valorisation of high-potential research work at the industrial level, within a short timeframe
Monitoring and predictive maintenance of industrial machines2018 to 2023, cofunded by BPI France
As part of the 2018 Innovation Competition, funded by the Programme investissement d’avenir (PIA) (“Investment Program for the Future”)
The project aims to apply the concepts of the Industry of the Future to robotic micro-assembly machines, based on the very high precision assembly market.
As a leading company in the development of modular micro-assembly machines, we want to develop Industry 4.0 tools to make the machines communicative, predictive and integrating adaptive robotics. In particular, we wish to bring new modes of interaction between the operator and the machine in the micrometric range to improve the training of machine operators at the customer’s site and to facilitate maintenance operations by the customer himself.
The work on new human/machine interactions and predictive maintenance tools is done in close collaboration with university research teams that are internationally recognized and specialized in their field.
While many miniature products are still assembled by hand, our ambition is to provide new cobotic solutions to improve assembly performance at this scale, and to enable robotisation of SMEs in Europe. In particular, this project has enabled to develop new technologies – including a new gripper with an integrated force sensor and a haptic interface offering force feedback to the operator – and new collaborative control modes. The operator’s intelligence (analysis, decision-making, flexibility) and the machine performance (repeatability, precision, reliability, access to micro-scale) are combined to carry out tasks that are difficult to automate, and with a tenfold increase in efficiency compared to manual assembly.
As an actor already strongly involved in the development of cobotic solutions, we bring our expertise in order to allow the operator to have an easier and more reliable access to micro-manipulation and micro-assembly.
MEMS silicon production chain for innovative sensors
2015 to 2019, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union
As part of the “Smart Specialization Strategy” Call for Expression of Interest (AMI S3)
The ambition of this project was to create a regional industry for the design and manufacture of innovative products based on silicon/metal hybridisation, by bringing together actors from the Franche-Comté region who specialise in advanced microtechnology. The various partners in the consortium have enabled the development of a new type of sensor that can be manufactured on an industrial scale, thanks to the development of new technologies for clean room manufacturing and new modular assembly machines that are compatible with mass production. Silicon/metal hybridization makes it possible to improve precision levels by a factor of 10 to 100 compared to the microtechniques that are usually used and to offer new, more efficient products in many fields (medical, space, transport, energy, microelectronics, etc.).
Integrated microforce measurement cell with hybrid technology (“Cellule Intégrée de mesure de microforce par Technologie HybriDe”)
2015 to 2019, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union
As part of the INTERREG France-Switzerland 2014-2020 program
The ambition of the project was to develop a new assembly technique that would allow the production of complex miniature components at low cost, even in small numbers. The aim was to optimise manufacturing processes and ensure reliable quality control of production. The design, manufacturing, testing and validation methodologies resulting from this project are generic and can be applied to many areas of complex miniature component assembly.
In particular, the project has made possible the design, fabrication and assembly of force measurement cells based on piezoresistive strain microgauges that are arranged on a test body which size can vary from centimeter to micrometer scale. The performance of this sensor allows force measurement in Newton scale, with a resolution in the micronewton range, in one to three directions.
Industrial cobotics for micro-assembly in Fine Watchmaking
2013 to 2018, cofunded by BPI France
As part of the Innovation Stratégique Industrielle (ISI) (“Strategic Industrial Innovation”) program
The fundamental objective of this project was to initiate an industrial revival of the French watchmaking sector, as part of a rethought watchmaking process, thanks to the close collaboration with 4 university research partners and 6 SMEs, most of them located in Franche-Comté.
For this purpose, the consortium aimed at the design, production and assembly of blanks and components for the casing, generally using new materials, and designed with a rethought process thanks to innovative processes.
In particular, our company provided its expertise in the development of watch assembly machines, based on cobotics, in order to combine human intelligence and flexibility to the high precision and robustness of the assembly machine.
Voir pour optimisation de la représentation visuelle :
– au centre : partenaires institutionnels
– qui gravitent autour : partenaires scientifiques
