“Les Mécamiens: de métal et d’avenir,” literally, “made of metal and future,” is the most telling phrase to introduce the company. As a member of the French Fab, the company has completely transformed itself from a traditional sheet metal prototype business serving the automotive market into a dynamic, human-centered company. Today, Les Mécamiens accompanies customers in developing processes for all sheet metal forming needs, addressing a wide variety of business sectors. Nadège Anselme, CEO of Les Mécamiens, tells us about the key role of simulation in the company’s modernization and strategic evolution.
Fig. 1: Les Mécamiens, a dedicated team to bring your ideas to life
Les Mécamiens, Reinventing the Company
Les Mécamiens just turned 30. When I took over at the end of 2012, the company had already existed for 18 years. Over the past decade, our strategy has transformed completely, while we have maintained our strong technical focus. We shifted from 80% automotive prototyping for three main customers to serving a diverse range of sectors, including aerospace. In recent years, we have contributed to projects for Ariane 6, medical devices, luxury goods, traditional industries, helicopters, and railways. Thanks to our brand-new industrial tools, we also offer parts production in small and medium volumes—from hundreds to typically ten thousand parts—which secures recurring revenue. This diversification has been a resounding success.
Bring Your Idea and We’ll Bring It to Life!
Our core business remains the ability to develop sheet metal parts collaboratively with our customers, optimizing them from the design stage. We contribute our stamping expertise from part design to process planning and simulation, tool design, milling and assembly, tryout, and production.
To develop processes and ensure optimized production runs, we approach every project as an advanced collaboration with our customers, working hand in hand toward the same end goal. Co-designing parts with them is the best way to guarantee robust part production at the lowest possible cost. What has simulation provided in that regard? Efficiency and peace of mind.
The Role of Simulation in Our Transformation
We now handle completely different types of parts, ranging in size from a couple of centimeters to over a meter, featuring deep drawing shapes and various materials. Expanding our market and engaging in production required new ways of working. Processes must be optimized early to ensure the production of consistently high-quality parts, making simulation the obvious choice for a successful transition.
Simulation ensures safe part and process designs, allowing us to confidently explore innovative ideas that we might otherwise hesitate to implement. It alleviates stress in technical decision-making and enables us to provide customers with the best solutions, clearly advocating our choices.
Selecting the right simulation tool was pivotal for our team. We sought the best fit for our diverse activities as a small-sized company. To make an informed decision, we conducted a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of available software solutions, evaluating their performance across different development phases.
As detailed further, AutoForm proved optimal due to its reliability across various parts and processes, a user-friendly interface tailored for stamping experts, and exceptional setup speed and calculation efficiency. Another important aspect is AutoForm’s readily available and responsive technical support, which provides valuable stamping expertise on demand.
Fast and Reliable Quotes for Our Customers
During the bidding phase, AutoForm-DieDesigner allows us to find and validate process geometries within just a few hours, unmatched by other market options.
Simulation also enhances our costing reliability, generating significant savings for customers. Early in the process, we can reduce operations and justify cost-saving modifications or tolerances, basing prices on optimized, reliable processes validated by simulation. Customers recognize the direct added value, strengthening the competitiveness and credibility of our offer.
Our goal is not simply selling services but ensuring safe production. This approach benefits Les Mécamiens by reinforcing our position as a reliable, long-term market partner for our customers.
An Effective Asset for Tool Design
We’ve seen the clear benefit of AutoForm’s virtual press during tool design: rapid and reliable design-simulation loops validate and optimize tools, closely aligning them with reality. Simulation also helps anticipate try-out needs, notably by designing tooling inserts with separate elements for ease of maintenance or repair. Predictive geometrical results allow accurate anticipation of springback, confirming the technical decisions made by our experts.
Fig. 2: AutoForm’s virtual press, our everyday tool.
The Referee for Tool Try-Out
In the try-out phase, we greatly value AutoForm’s excellent correlation between simulation and reality. Simulation helps avoid unnecessary tool modifications, ensuring we commit only to essential corrections on physical tools.
If deviations occur during try-out, simulation serves as a referee, guiding us to optimal solutions and reassuring customers that we’ve identified the best compromise to ensure part functionality.
A Pillar in our Development
AutoForm is our optimal techno-economic solution, with accurate simulation speed being a critical factor. Our team now systematically employs AutoForm’s solutions, gaining fluidity, security, and efficiency from costing to try-out and lifecycle phases, achieving a solid ROI. It has become our everyday tool.
We recently became a tier-1 supplier for a major aeronautics customer, with our simulation capabilities establishing us as a reliable partner equipped with essential resources. Our efficiency is driven by three pillars: transparency and active cooperation, our expertise, and our simulation tool.
We May Be Small, But We Are Strong
We are a team of 18 people. In 2014, we envisioned our future. By 2025, we are “Les Mécamiens,” a name that represents our core values: placing people first and fostering a culture of collaboration. We specialize in deep drawing and have the right productive tools—industrial and simulation—to build and innovate alongside our customers.
What are we dreaming about now? The future is yet to be built, but we feel confident moving forward together. Simulation is the foundational tool that will enable us to dream even bigger.
Visit our site: https://lesmecamiens.fr/
