Positioned in Cholet, M/s. Aequs Aerospace France stands as a key participant within the machining of advanced portions for the aerospace sector. With a workforce of 65 folks and a heritage of experience spanning a number of many years, the corporate embodies a type of business excellence. This luck is in response to a successful aggregate: extremely certified collaborators and state-of-the-art apparatus. Amongst those, the WFL M120 Multi-Serve as Millturn play an crucial function, making sure unrivaled efficiency and precision in operations.
A Tale of Partnership and Era
Since 2016, Aequs Aerospace France has carried a reputation derived from the Latin “aequus”, which means equivalent. This selection displays the corporate’s philosophy, inquisitive about equality and partnership with all its stakeholders, whether or not they’re workers, purchasers, companions, or providers. This collaborative manner could also be evidenced via Aequs’s dedication to making price via cutting edge and environment friendly world ecosystems.
The Cholet web site, the crowd’s heart of excellence for production engine portions and touchdown gears, advantages from a singular synergy between custom and modernity. Aequs combines confirmed experience with state-of-the-art era to fulfill the rising calls for of the aerospace sector. The collection of WFL machines, specifically the M120, completely embodies this manner.
The WFL Machines: A Primary Asset for Aequs
A distinguishing function of Aequs is its collection of apparatus. The corporate owns two WFL M120 Multi-Serve as Millturns, machines able to appearing turning and milling operations on large-scale portions with remarkable precision. Those machines, central to the manufacturing on the Cholet plant, play a the most important function in production essential aerospace parts, similar to engine portions and touchdown equipment.
Laurent Gouin, HSE Technical Supervisor and a outstanding determine on the corporate, has been a key witness to the mixing of those machines into manufacturing. With over 30 years of revel in at Aequs, Mr. Gouin first of all skilled in Linz, Austria, when buying the primary M120 within the yr 2000 and the second one in 2004. He states: “We found out this kind of system via our purchasers, and it briefly turned into transparent that we had to spend money on apparatus able to appearing advanced operations on vast portions. With a unmarried system, we will carry out a substantial collection of operations. Lately, I will be able to verify that those machines are indispensable to our manufacturing.”

The M120 from WFL isn’t just a system; it’s a strategic device that allows Aequs to stay aggressive within the world marketplace. Due to its versatility, the M120 can meet tough specs whilst providing remarkable longevity. “We now have been the usage of those machines for twenty-four years, they usually nonetheless perform in addition to ever. Their high quality and robustness are spectacular”, provides Mr. Gouin.
A A success Modernization Operation
In 2024, Aequs took a brand new step via modernizing its system park. Probably the most two M120s was once changed with a retrofitted type, a fancy operation that required greater than a yr of preparation. Frédérique Baudin, Manufacturing and Repairs Supervisor, explains the demanding situations of this formidable undertaking: “The primary function was once to make sure the continuity of deliveries to our purchasers. To reach this, we needed to look forward to manufacturing, adhere to a decent agenda, and make sure a clean transition between the previous and new M120.”
The retrofit procedure was once conscientiously arranged. In one day, WFL technicians delivered and put in the brand new retrofitted system, then departed with the previous M120, repurchased via WFL, to be retrofitted in Austria for some other consumer. “The entirety was once completely coordinated. We deliberate a manufacturing forestall of 3 weeks all over the end-of-year vacations to reduce the affect on our operations. This meticulous making plans was once crucial for the luck of this transition”, specifies Mr. Baudin.
The luck of this undertaking additionally rests at the involvement of upkeep groups and operators. Noël Bellanger, operator and setter is amongst those that took price of the brand new system. “The primary distinction lies within the numerical keep an eye on, which has been fully modernized. However due to the transient coaching we won, we briefly were given again on the right track and resumed manufacturing with none downtime”, he explains. The reliability of the brand new system conjures up self belief amongst operators, who admire operating with a device this is each fashionable and reassuring.

Claude Octave, Crew Chief Repairs, expresses his enthusiasm: “The combination of the brand new system went completely, with none hitches. We misplaced no manufacturing time, due to a clean transition and easiest coordination with the WFL groups. Their technical enhance, coupled with attentive listening, was once the most important for making sure the luck of this operation. Now that this operation has long gone nicely in this system, we don’t have any apprehension about appearing it on the second one M120, which has been operational for twenty-four years.”
A Dedication to a Sustainable Business
Innovation at Aequs isn’t restricted to machines; it extends to their imaginative and prescient of a sustainable trade. The Workforce targets for carbon neutrality in its electrical energy intake via 2025, due to investments in renewable energies, together with the set up of sun panels at its websites in India.
This dedication is accompanied via a approach to combine extra processes internally to scale back shipping and thus decrease environmental affect. There are initiatives into account to reintegrate manufacturing steps, similar to floor remedy of portions, which have been up to now outsourced. This is able to permit the corporate to scale back shipping and concurrently enhance inside experience.
A New Breath to Keep Distinctive Experience
Since January 2022, Olivier de Rohan Chabot has been main the Cholet web site of Aequs Aerospace France with the function of bettering the paintings surroundings and injecting new momentum into this innovation heart of the crowd. Beneath his management, the corporate will depend on a extremely certified workforce to proceed creating its talents whilst reinforcing its strategic function throughout the crew. The technical portions produced in Cholet, which constitute about 10% of the worldwide turnover, illustrate the significance of this web site in Aequs’s economic system. To satisfy the demanding situations of an aerospace trade in complete transformation, the corporate will depend on steady innovation and adaptation to the brand new realities of the post-Covid-19 marketplace.
A Long run Marked via Expansion and Innovation
Aequs Aerospace France is gearing as much as meet the demanding situations of an increasing aerospace sector, with call for rising via greater than 30% every yr. To stay aggressive, the corporate is modernizing its manufacturing amenities and adopting a sustainable technique, thus making sure its capability to fulfill the long run wishes of the trade. “Because of this, even though practical, the verdict was once made to modernize one of the most M120s to look forward to a heavier workload in this system,” specifies Mr. de Rohan Chabot.
The Cholet web site, as a central hub of this dynamic, continues to play a the most important function due to a mix of state-of-the-art apparatus and confirmed experience. Aequs exemplifies how custom and innovation can coexist harmoniously to take care of a management place in a tough marketplace. The WFL machines, crucial to their luck, will proceed to be on the middle of this quest for excellence. With a transparent imaginative and prescient and bold targets, Aequs is well-positioned to innovate and develop sustainably within the coming years.