On Monday, August 28th, 2023, Safran Aero Boosters invited its partners to participate in the laying of the first stone for the new Safran compressor blade plant for aircraft engine. Safran Blades is located on a former ArcelorMittal site, in the Province of Liège, using the expertise of ten economic players from Walloon.

The ceremony was conducted in the presence of Willy Borsus, Vice- President of Wallonia, Thomas Dermine, Secretary of State for Recovery and Strategic Investments and Christie Morreale, Minister for Employment.

The creation of Safran Blades was announced in December 2022 by François Lepot, CEO of Safran Aero Boosters. It represents an investment of €50 million, in partnership with Belgian and Walloon federal authorities, Wallonie Entreprendre (WE) and the Belgian Federal Holding and Investment Company (S.F.P.I.M), both company shareholders (22%) alongside Safran Aero Boosters (56%).

Covering some 10,000 m2, every day the center of excellence will produce 2,000 blades; hundreds of the component are used in Safran Aero Boosters aircraft modules. As part of Safran’s strategy of consolidating its autonomy and supply chain, the Factory 4.0 will have heavily digitized technical resources (automation, connected objects, automatic controls, artificial intelligence, cobotics, etc.). It will employ about one hundred people and is scheduled to become operational in 2025.

The renovation and reconstruction work was awarded to Galère. The building permit is set to be obtained in August, with work beginning in September, 2023.

Walloon companies at the heart of Factory 4.0

"We are developing this next-generation plant in conjunction with innovative Walloon companies,” Mathieu Deladrière, CEO of Safran Blades, stated. "Thanks to a robust and agile local ecosystem, we will be able to relocate this industrial activity to Walloon."

In the project, Safran Blades is working closely with two research centers: the CRM, which will be developing forge tool control skills, andSirris, which will be developing its contactless real-time control skills.

The teams will also be drawing on the expertise of 5 state-of-the-art companies, each specialized in a particular field. Each of these genuine partners will play a part in the design and construction of Safran Blades:

ID will be implementing a standard cell that can be adapted to all types

of production, integrating very different areas of expertise (mechanical, automation, specific verifications).

Indutec will be developing a water-jet cutting cell with characteristics similar to traditional digital controls in terms of precision, speed and control.

Smartyou will be deploying ‘MES’, a comprehensive and autonomous SME-oriented IT production management system which will act as the workshop coordinator.

Rovitech will be developing a tool for assisting automated decision- making and non-destructive quality control processes.

Finally, based on all of the collected information and with the help of Pepite, the teams will develop an artificial intelligence that will be able

to anticipate non-quality production and adapt the tools in real time.