JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #122 - July 2018 - 4

OPlNlON bringing expertise on board

"Stratiforme stands out from its competitors
by its comprehensive global offering"
Stratiforme Industries is specialized in designing and
manufacturing of composite parts for railway, nuclear
and defense industries. With more than 50 years of
experience, the company and its CEO, Guy Leblon,
share with us the experience and expertise of an
historical player on the railway sector.

JEC Composites Magazine: What does
Stratiforme specialize in, and what sets
you apart from your competitors?

Guy Leblon: Our "DNA" is in com-

posites with organic thermoset matrices
or thermoplastic fibres. Our company's
development has led us to become a designer/integrator in order to supply our
customers with comprehensive functions,
in particular in the railway vehicle industry, e.g. for driver cabs that are equipped,
or toilet modules.
Stratiforme stands out from its competitors by its comprehensive global offering,
which ranges from development to series
production and is worldwide, covering
Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.
For example, on breakthrough technological projects:

For example, in response to a requiring
known techniques and processes:

We also have a foothold in other industries, like infrastructure, defence, medicine
and energy. This enables us to merge and
share our innovations across industries.
What major industrial projects marked a

with

Guy LebLon,
CEO
GROUPE STRATIFORMECOMPREFORME

historical milestone for the group?

G.L.: The TGV high-speed train, which

led to the launch of our engineering firm
for structural analysis (in partnership
with the French national railway company SNCF) and our laboratory for the
characterization of the mechanical and
fire/smoke properties of materials. This
positioned Stratiforme as a major railway
composite player.
- The renovation of the TGV Lacroix
vehicles, for which Stratiforme designed and produced 2,200 toilet
modules in addition to the engineers'
cabs, leading us to become an integrator of equipment and complex functions.
- The Warsaw metro, which led to our
establishment in Poland to provide
support to Alstom.
- The Chennai metro, which furthered
the development of a joint venture
that had been set up in India a year
before.
- Our participation in the I-Trans competitive cluster for accelerating innovation, which enabled us to reinforce
our skills, in particular with:
* the design/manufacturing of a
100% infused carbon/glass-fibre
structural floor for a metro car, in
collaboration with Alstom;
* the development of a radically
different composite support
structure for an overhead contact line
compared to current solutions, in a
consortium with the SNCF.

jec composites magazine / N°122 July 2018

- More recently, there were also the
Grande Vitesse NTV Alstom or
Regio 2N projects with Bombardier
for an infused, equipped structural
cab. The Regio 2N project made it
possible at the same time to develop
a flax-fibre reinforced prototype. In
all, the series should comprise nearly
800 cabs.
The railway sector and composite materials account for how much of your activity?

G.L.: The railway vehicle sector accounts

for 90% of our activity. In 2020, it will account for 70%, showing that our readiness
to diversify translates into overall business
growth.

What are the challenges and limitations in
this sector?

G.L.: This sector demands quality, reliability and performance first of all, and then
increasing competitiveness and a worldwide supply capacity. It also demands
more innovation with 100% technical reliability. Operating in project mode makes it
more difficult, production has to begin as
soon as development enters the end phase.
This requires an anticipatory strategy
that is based on developing technological
"components" and on responding quickly
to implement the innovations in order to
deliver a safe product to the customer.
From the standards and regulatory viewpoint, we've worked a lot these past two
years on fire/smoke properties, requirements on the registration, evaluation and

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #122 - July 2018