6. Conclusions

The brief presentation we have just given only sketches the outline of the vast territory of innovation created by these new generations of equipment. We are witnessing a technological breakthrough in processes, which, while not intended to replace conventional macro-processes, is fully in line with the perspective of sustainable development in the service of the 3Ps: "planet, people, profit": products of controlled and enhanced quality, requiring less transport and storage, generating fewer by-products, and possibly manufactured in units that blend in better with the landscape...

In France, awareness of this new field of investigation came a little later than in Germany, the USA or Japan. Nevertheless, academic research is now fully involved in the subject, and is also playing its part in the technology watch it makes available to companies. The various industrial...