This grouping has been thought through to the smallest detail for over a year with the Société d’equipment de la Touraine. In the summer of 2026, the site on Avenue Yves-Farge in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps will host the offices and workshops of La Ville-aux-Dames, a company specializing in the design and manufacture of electronic systems. their 400 employees. The official presentation of the project is scheduled for May 29, 2024.
Railway equipment manufacturer Wabtec and its subsidiary Faiveley Transport are investing around €30 million in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps to expand their factory specializing in the production of mesh doors and brake systems.
3D to produce parts
Manufacturers such as Bombardier and Alstom, as well as operators (RATP, SNCF) use Faiveley’s know-how. A year ago, the Saint-Pierre-des-Corps factory acquired a new production line with 3D printers. “This 3D center, explains Patrick Rosay, CEO of Faiveley Transport Tours, allowed us to invest in specialized equipment that works with aluminum metal powder. So we can produce metal parts. The advantage of this solution is that it can be quickly made to measure and in very small quantities. The machine stacks laser-solidified micro-layers on top of each other and creates a 3D part. Possible size: approximately 50 cm cube. In the railroad world, our products and those of our competitors have to last thirty to forty years. Here we have a quick response from the point of view of development and from the point of view of implementation. It is very beneficial for the customer. Because a stationary train costs hundreds of thousands of euros. »
Unique in Europe
3D applications are not only focused on railways. “We can work on other parts than Wabtec. We need to have a plan or do a backscan to recreate the room,” adds Patrick Rosay. Faiveley repeatedly manufactures parts for a local company that uses its after sales service. More original: replacing the tram shoes. A certain number of these that were stolen could be identically remade.
The Wabtec Group had an identical 3D center in the United States and another in India to cover the two regions. But there was none in Europe until the choice to invest fell on Touraine.
Norman and International
Patrick Rosay, who was appointed to head Faiveley’s two units in September 2022, is of Norman descent. Born in Le Havre sixty years ago, he studied engineering in Bordeaux before joining his first employer in Rouen, Lincoln Electric, the world leader in arc welding. For three years, he is responsible for after-sales service and is the contact person for the other European branches of the group. For five years he was responsible for the industrial methods of manufacturing welding machines and consumables, then for marketing, he was selected to join an MBA course with six Americans at the University of Cleveland and went to Australia for six months. He then took over as general manager of the Normandy plant before setting up the Lincoln plant in Shanghai from scratch. The adventure will last four years. He was then noticed by a headhunter to join Cnim, an industrial group in Seyne-sur-mer (Var) with many activities: military, nuclear, environment (waste processing) and transport (mechanical stairs). Patrick Rosay joins this latest division working with Asia. He then discovered railways with a competitor, Wabtec, and then with Wabtec, first in Shanghai before arriving in Touraine.