Selecting metal materials - Implementation and players

In France (1990), industrial activity related to mechanical engineering employs around 1.2 million people, almost half of whom work in the "mechanical engineering" sector (excluding aerospace, steel and metallurgy, and automotive). Within this sector, 40% of production by value is in metalworking, and 28% in industrial equipment. But the structure of the sector is highly dispersed: 86% of the 7,000 companies have fewer than one hundred employees.

Design and manufacturing facilities are therefore numerous, and the working environment for designers varies greatly: alongside large companies with powerful design and engineering departments, there are many smaller units, where resources are much lighter, and the design team can be reduced to just a few people.

What needs do companies express? A study by Cetim (Centre d'étude des industries mécaniques) of 3,500 industrial requests in the sector gives the following breakdown:

• 27% concern processes ;

• 21% concern materials (three-quarters of which are metallic);

• 11% design, modelling, CAD ;

• etc.

With regard to materials and processes, in 1996 Cetim (table 1 ) detailed the needs expressed over three years, distinguishing three groups: in the first, the need is closely linked to the material; in the second, the choice of material and mastery of the process are closely linked; in the third, the process is dominant (table 1 ).