Seco Solutions Take Off

In the French aerospace industry’s heartland of Saint-Nazaire, Seco is helping FAMAT to machine parts for tomorrow’s jet engines.

The port of Saint-Nazaire on the French Atlantic Coast has traditionally been known for its shipbuilding. But today, the city’s reputation has extended to the production of another type of transport, with European airline consortium Airbus turning out fuselage parts from a local facility.

It’s no accident that this hub of engineering expertise is also home of FAMAT, a joint-venture between Snecma and General Electric that produces frames for the two companies’ ranges of jet engines. “We make structural elements of the engines that are non-rotating parts,” says Stephane Maurer, CNC Programming and Cutting Tool Manager at FAMAT. The Saint-Nazaire factory has some 40 machine tools for titanium, aluminum and Inconel. Maurer says FAMAT faces the same challenges as any other company: it needs to produce products quickly and economically, all while delivering a level of quality that is irreproachable.

FAMAT is working on the development of next-generation engines offering new standards of fuel economy and noise reduction, including the GE9X for the Boeing 777. “We developed all the titanium machining for the frame with Seco,” says Maurer. “We wanted to have the direct involvement of the tool manufacturer to bring a new generation of machine cutting tools and a cutting strategy with considerably improved machining time.” He estimates the time savings to be in the 10 to 20% range.

FAMAT has a long-standing partnership with Seco and the company supplies many of the plant’s machine tools. “The advantage of Seco is that they don’t make unrealistic proposals that might seem extremely attractive but aren’t guaranteed,” Maurer says. “They suggest things that they have tested before so we don’t have too many surprises. We prefer prudence to audacity and that’s the trademark of the Seco team. They dare to take risks but these are all very well calculated and explained to us.”

Florent Popilus, Sales Engineer for Seco, says what differentiates Seco from competitors is that the Seco sales team works very closely with customers like FAMAT. “We provide our expertise in cutting tools and they provide their expertise in machining,” he says. And it’s not just about tools: “Seco offers a full machining strategy and technical advice. We work with aerospace customers from the study phase all the way through production,” says Popilus.

To find out more information about Seco Winning Solutions in Aerospace, check out this video.

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