Safe Metal
Who are we
Safe Metal, world leader in green sand cast steel components
A subsidiary of the Safe Group, a leading international industrialist, Safe Metal is the world leader in green sand cast steel components. In each of its markets, Public works and mining, Heavy-duty trucks, Rail transport, Handling and lifting, Agricultural machinery, Defense vehicles, Safe Metal supports its clients in a process of co-design of products meeting their needs for components in cast steel.
Turnkey solutions developed for each of our clients’ markets
The shaped steel components produced by Safe Metal benefit from know-how based on:
- 9 factories (7 foundries and 2 plants specialized in machining), located in Europe, Mexico and China, efficient and complementary, with a total capacity of 78,000 tons of products per year;
- international and multidisciplinary teams capable of offering optimized solutions and services to all global manufacturers;
- a constant commitment to technical progress and innovation to develop the products and production processes of tomorrow.
Our history
Over 50 years of industrial culture and international growth
Constitution of Aciéries et Fonderies de l’Est
Merger of 2 family companies created in 1918, and carrying out a production activity of cast steel on models: Aciéries et Fonderies du Doubs (Sainte-Suzanne) & Fonderie Maître (Colombier-Fontaine)Acquisition of Fonderies et Aciéries Electriques de Feurs
They will subsequently be renamed Feursmétal then Castmetal Feurs.Creation of the company FWF
Aciéries et Fonderies de l’Est becomes AFE. Creation of the company Feurst (Feurs - France)
Distribution company specializing in wear parts for public works machinery. Creation of the company FWF of Mexico (Cuauhtémoc-Mexico)
Acquisition of the assets of a Chinese company to create the company AFE Métal Castings Xuzhou (Xuzhou - China)
Subsequently became Castmetal Xuzhou AFE changes its name and becomes Safe. The branches are also renamed
The corporate names of the branches are harmonized around a common root: Castmetal, then added to the name of the city where the plant is located.Creation of the company Castmetal Vitoria (Vitoria - Spain)
After acquisition of the assets of the Novacero steel foundry. Creation of the company Castmetal Leon
By taking over the assets of the Endaki Tecnocast foundry (La Robla - Leon - Spain). Deployment of the Industry 4.0 approach
To accelerate the Group's growth and launch a program of new industrial acquisitions.Sale of the company Castmetal Leon
Acquisition of the Mécanique2L group
The Branch Safe Metal continues its strategic value integration plan with the acquisition of the Mécanique2L group, a recognized specialist in machining.Acquisition of the Nantong Rising Machinery Manufacturing Co, Ltd factory in China
The Safe Metal Division is pursuing its strategy of growth and value integration by acquiring Nantong Rising Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd, a steel foundry with a machining capacity of 20,000 tons, autonomous in machining. 0 years
cumulative experiences
Expertise
Established as close as possible to its clients around the world, Safe Metal is the world leader in high value-added steel foundry for the transport, handling and construction markets. A long-term partner who invests in creating sustainable value, Safe Metal provides its clients with turnkey solutions. With the expertise and experience built up over 150 years, Safe Metal supports its clients from design to commissioning for parts ranging from one gram to several tons.
Each year, Safe Metal produces more than 78,000 tons of parts whose unit weights vary from a few grams to several tons depending on the application.
As part of a responsible approach to saving resources, Safe Metal recycles 35,000 tons of scrap, mostly from the automotive industry and over 90% of the sands used for casting steel components.
From a few kilos to several tons, depending on the dimensions, the weight of the parts and the size of the series, the sales network and the design offices direct the production towards the unit with the most suitable molding site and technologies.
Specialist in co-design and tailor-made production, Safe Metal’s mission is to offer its client the most suitable solution in terms of economics and feasibility.
The Safe Metal teams operate in an international network (Europe, Americas, Asia) by associating their sales, project and quality functions with those of their clients in a co-development process.
To simplify the overall chain and improve economy, Safe Metal offers a wide range of services ranging from simple components to complex sub-assemblies.
Safe Metal also offers its expertise in services and advice.
Thanks to powerful IT resources and multi-skilled teams, Safe Metal is able to:
- optimize the design of parts according to the final application,
- to check their behavior under the constraints of use,
- reliably simulate production conditions in order to prevent faults,
- to produce prototypes in the final form,
- to design the alloys adapted to the required constraints.
Safe Metal has mastered experience in all of its processes, and supports its clients through to the finishing phases:
- Heat treatment
- Machining
- Painting
- etc.
Research
and development
Research and development
The Safe Metal technical organization is made up of two distinct divisions:
- On the one hand, the development of new decentralized products on production sites in order to optimize flexibility and responsiveness.
With approximately thirty engineers in the Design Office and Industrial Methods functions, Safe Metal is developing all of its tools in the digital 4.0 sector. From mechanical calculation with co-design through the use of advanced software such as topological design, to 3D scanning of prototype parts, Safe Metal is at the forefront of digital design and simulation systems (mechanics and foundry) and this up to the workstations in the production lines.
- On the other hand, centralized R&D focuses on more fundamental aspects.
With around ten people, the majority of whom have PhDs in metallurgy, Safe Metal R&D focuses on three missions for the benefit of two objectives. The missions of R&D are the experience which makes it possible to support, first of all the expertise at the service of internal and external clients (Design office, metallurgy, Quality, Non-destructive testing, etc.), and then disruptive innovation.
These missions are aimed at improvement, excellence and innovation both in terms of the process and the products we offer to our clients.
Centralized since 2010, Safe Metal R&D relies on an extensive network of partners in order to remain at the forefront of steel foundry technology and to offer innovative solutions.
The team of around ten people works in close collaboration with private laboratories and companies that supply foundries, but also with universities at the forefront of research such as the ENSAM / ECAM material division with which a LABCOM (Joint Laboratory) should be created in 2020.
R&D partnerships also exist with the Mines Saint Etienne Engineering School, the UTBM of the University of Belfort Montbéliard, the University of Aix Marseille via the IUSTI laboratory as well as the AGH, University of Mines and Metallurgy from Krakow.
On the institutional side, in addition to participating in various projects of French competitiveness clusters, Safe Metal is a member, through its structures in the US and Mexico, of the prestigious SFSA (Steel Founders Society of America) where the R&D team offers high-level scientific and technical communications every year.
With its clients, Safe Metal is the co-holder of fifteen active patents in fields as varied as penetrating tools for excavator and loader buckets (GET) or even parts for railway braking systems (TGV and TER) with SNCF. Other technological innovations with its clients have not been the subject of patent applications but have enabled technological leaps in all the markets of Safe Metal, heavy goods vehicles, buses, defense, railways, public works, mining and agricultural machinery as well as lifting & handling.
Although the foundry industry is not seen as an indispensable recycling industry for the world of tomorrow, Safe Metal has a long history in this field, and has held ISO 14001 certification for over ten years.
As proof today, more than 98% of its raw materials come from recycling (scrap metal or waste from other competing industries such as forging or mechanical welding).
In terms of the molding process, unlike the usual practice in steel foundry which uses sand molds with chemical setting (furan resin (dioxin family), phenolic resin, etc.), Safe Metal is the world leader in the production of steel parts molded in green sand, 99% of its molds are composed of sand (87%), clay (10%), water (3%) and starch additives (<0.5%) from corn food residues. Safe Metal sand plants recycle 99% of the sand used to make the molds.
Our R&D partners
