Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries

Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries (CETIM)

The Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques (CETIM - Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries) is the benchmark French institute in the manufacturing sector. Cetim was created in 1965 at the request of manufacturers from the mechanical engineering industry as a means of providing companies with the resources and skills to boost their competitiveness, take part in standardisation and forge links between scientific research and industry.

The centre currently employs over 1,000 people, mainly engineers and doctors, spread across the three main sites, four regional technological resource centres, three international subsidiaries and a scientific foundation.

In 2017, its economic activity represented USD 165 M mostly from technological services provided to Industry.

At present, as a Carnot Institute and spearhead of the Industry of the Future in France, Cetim primarily operates throughout Europe, North Africa and South East Asia where it has set up facilities to support major French corporations.

Organisation and governance

Cetim is led by a Management Board and an Executive Committee assisted by a Scientific and Technical Committee, Programme Committees and Professional Commissions.

History

The status of industrial technical centre stems from the joint desire of the French government and industrial manufacturers to restore the production base after the Second World War.

In 1972, for the first time Cetim implemented numerical tools with integral equations adapted to solids. CASTOR, one of the first 2D software applications was therefore created in the 80s. These same tools gave rise to Catia and Euclid. As a result of this expertise, Cetim developed the first numerical models of large structures such as the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower.

In the 1980s, Cetim decided to support Professor Carpentier’s project, considered utopian at the time, centered on the production of an artificial heart fully contained in the ribcage. Despite the fact that motor and intelligent control technologies were still in their infancy, the first animal-tested prototype was created in 1989.

Cetim began working on numerical controls in the 1970s. In 1990, it acquired the first high speed machining systems in order to study the specific characteristics of tools, spindles and work piece carriers and especially contribute to the spread of the technology.

At the same time, 10 years of research jointly conducted with university and professional partners led to the first complete simulation software of a forging operation.

Building on the first polymer and composite pilot workshop created in 1987, Cetim is one of the driving forces behind Technocampus Composites. In 2015, this initiative resulted in the launch of the first French high speed manufacturing line for composite parts.

International expansion

In 2006, Cetim embarked upon an international strategy by establishing the first production monitoring test site in Morocco. The goal was to provide support to the major contracting authorities in the mechanical engineering sector.

Cetim therefore developed relationships with international manufacturing companies, especially in the oil and gas, aerospace, automotive and energy sectors, bringing its core expertise in areas such as production optimisation, testing and failure analysis.

Key figures

• USD 165 M turnover in 2017
• 50% of resources dedicated to R&D and innovation, 25% to support for SMEs and 25% to assistance for mechanical engineering trades
• Services provided to over 6,500 companies
• 16 patents filed in 2017 and 112 patents since 2012.
• Actions and tasks

Cetim has set itself three main tasks: conducting and taking part in pooled research and development actions, providing comprehensive and tailored services and support to SMEs.

Research and development actions

Cetim devotes considerable financial, human and technological resources to collective projects and actions carried out for mechanical engineering companies. These actions are financed by an earmarked tax and allow Cetim to be the largest CTI (Industrial Technical Centre) in France.

Cetim's Research and Development actions are focused on 4 main areas:

• Processes-materials
• Design-simulation-tests
• Sustainable development
• Mechanical engineering-inspection-measurement

Synergy is achieved with the upstream research, inter alia via the Cetim Foundation, common laboratories with universities and the CNRS (French national centre for scientific research) and the co-funding of theses.

Accordingly, Cetim co-funds over 35 theses and is directly involved in 9 common laboratories with higher education and research institutions (ENSAM, ENS Cachan, Centrale Nantes, CNRS, etc.).

This investment in university and research actions has been acknowledged by the Carnot label (allocated by the Ministry of Research), as well as the filing of several patents each year.

Services

Cetim offers comprehensive and tailored services to companies and assistance to SMEs and major corporations from the functional analysis phase:

• Engineering and design support
• Tests and simulation
• Consulting, expert investigation, training

Resources and equipment

Cetim has several facilities in France and across the world. In addition to its own sites, it has a number of technological platforms dedicated to composite materials, mechatronics, forging, additive manufacturing and agricultural engineering. These platforms were developed through university and industrial partnerships and are in keeping with the Carnot initiative desired by public authorities and are a genuine response to the German Fraunhofer Institutes. They help to secure significant breakthroughs in R&D which can be directly applied to major issues.

Composite materials

Technocampus Composites is a technological research platform geared towards the use of high performance composite materials. Technocampus houses activities ranging from fundamental research to preindustrial production by pooling the resources of major industry and research players such as Cetim, Airbus Group, CEA, CIMPA, DAHER and École des Mines in Nantes.

Mechatronics and connected objects

The Institute of Mechatronics (Cetim and UTC) is an applied research centre and a common space for the development of solutions. Its aim is to foster the training of engineers and to provide a joint skills offering for international companies.

The mechatronics activity also focuses on the development of autonomous and communicating sensors, mechatronic actuators and driver assistance systems. It features in particular a platform for industrial connected objects.

Forging

The Vulcain technological platform (Cetim and Arts et Métiers ParisTech) made it possible to conduct approximately one hundred projects in the forging sector. The platform is structured around 6 main areas:

• Forging simulation
• Process control and range optimisation
• Innovative processes
• Near net shape processes
• Agile forging via robotisation
• Integration

Agricultural engineering

Pima@Tech is a technological platform dedicated to R&D for agricultural engineering with specific resources for the agricultural machinery sector:

• A power bench for tractors, development or endurance test benches for transmissions
• Various items of inspection and measurement equipment, high power vibrators, high dynamic actuators, mobile vibration-acoustics booths, climatic generator.

Additive manufacturing

The Additive Factory Hub provides for the pooling of expertise and resources to meet the challenges of additive manufacturing and increase its impact in the industry. The Additive Factory Hub is located on the CEA List site in Saclay and is coordinated by Cetim. It represents an international showcase of French know-how.

The platform that was initially created based on the needs of industrial manufacturers now leverages on a research ecosystem that is world renowned (Paris Saclay University) in the areas of digital technology, physics and materials. It is also forum for dissemination, training and technology transfer to SMEs.

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