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Supported by Cetim, the Carnot-labelled Technological Institute of Mechanics, and the Hauts-de-France Region, with the support of the Beauvaisis Agglomeration, GIMA and AGCO Massey-Ferguson, the international centre of expertise and innovation in agromachinism was inaugurated yesterday in Beauvais rue Albert de Lapparent. Built in line with the development strategy of the Beauvais Rev'Agro territorial pole – launched in 2018 by the Beauvaisis Agglomeration Community with AGCO, Isagri, Gima, Cetim, UniLaSalle, with the ambition of reconciling ecology and economic development in the territory, it is also an integral part of the region's project, aimed at mobilizing all the actors in the innovation value chain.
"It is an economic, political and social project both on industrial ambition, and on how to marry ecology and environmental economy with a real consumer dimension. Everything that we are going to allow to develop here will have consequences for the economy and therefore for employment," says Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts de France region.
Aymeric Bourleau, Vice-President of the Beauvaisis agglomeration community, also explains: "This centre is part of our strategy as an industrial territory that aims to accelerate reindustrialization and build a resilient common territory. The challenges are vast, it is a question of considering together the best ways to cope with economic, ecological or societal changes".
2500 m2, 20.5 million investment... sizeable means for a single centre in France and a reference in Europe
Located in the immediate vicinity of the UniLaSalle Campus and as close as possible to the engineering centers of the industrialists of the sector, the new center integrates on 2500 m2 means with unprecedented performances made to measure for the needs of the entire profession of agricultural machinery but also manufacturers of heavy mobile machinery such as those of public works, handling-lifting or defense. Examples include the tractor power bench, the dynamic focus bench for mechanical transmissions, the structural and chassis stress bench and versatile means of multiphysical stresses...
Major projects to meet the technological challenges associated with the ecological transition
With funding of €20.5 million, which is evenly divided between public (Hauts de France Region and ERDF) and private (Cetim) financing, this investment is a precursor to strategic technological projects, with which Cetim intends to strengthen the position of mechanical industries in value chains that will contribute to meeting major socio-economic challenges. The aim is to target the main challenges of the socio-economic transition: development of decarbonised hydrogen, decarbonisation of industry, sustainable agricultural systems and agricultural equipment contributing to the ecological transition, digitalisation and decarbonisation of mobility...
Thus, to meet energy performance objectives and new regulations on CO2 emissions, a first major project aims to electrify offroad mobile machines with an electrohydraulic demonstrator currently being built. Beyond this project, Cetim's collective work dedicated to agricultural machinery is related to the reduction of noise and vibration of machines, the monitoring and application of regulations, standards and recommendations in progress (or at the project stage) in connection with the professional union AXEMA, the improvement of manufacturing processes or the fatigue life of equipment. Other projects include: digital hydraulics, mulching simulation.
"The innovation projects we are embarking on this platform aim to produce more sustainable, more reliable offroad means that take on board the challenges of the energy transition and responsible agriculture." Daniel Richet, Executive Director of Cetim, summarizes:
Thierry Lhotte, President of AGCO SAS and Vice President and General Manager of Massey Ferguson EAME said: "In this context of crisis and fierce international competition, this centre allows us to equip ourselves with a very competitive tool, accessible to all, on our doorstep in order to expand our engineering resources to win new development projects... It is fully in line with the growth ambitions of AGCO Massey Fergusson and GIMA as an economic player at the service of innovation and industrial production."
