A family boilermaking businesS

This project, led by ACS Chaudronnerie Industrielle, was launched in 2020 and is now supported by the IDEC Group. It aimed to allow the family business in Isère to reinvent itself, moving away from its original industrial model in order to integrate the hydrogen sector. This approach has led to the construction of a new industrial site and the birth of a new entity: SteelHy.

Here are some examples of ACS’ work: 

Today, ACS is headed by Sophie Catuogno, whose father founded the company in 2002. ACS is a family boilermaking business based in Isère with around fifteen employees equipped with highly technical know-how. It specialises in the fabrication of unit parts, short runs, and scale models and prototypes intended mainly for hydraulic energy, hydrogen, offshore wind farms, the mining sector, and the chemicals and special materials industries.

THE projeCt IN DETAIL

The “ACS Industrialisation” project is structured around 4 objectives:

• The construction of an Industry 4.0 site
• Upskilling
• The recruitment of 100 employees with a range of different profiles by 2030
• A significant rise in turnover from 2020 to 2024.

The creation of an Industry 4.0

After surveying the emerging players in hydrogen storage and distribution, it was clear that there was a real need for design, integration methodology and fabrication of hydrogen and biogas boxes of the future.

With the hydrogen and biogas markets growing rapidly, the containerisation of technologies is now a particularly important challenge.

To address this challenge, ACS decided to start the construction of a specialist site for hydrogen and biogas containerisation in Champanier, near Grenoble. Work was started in the first half of 2021, with a view to integration in the first half of 2023!

This new site will benefit from the existing diverse skills in boilermaking, together with the robotisation of means of production and artificial intelligence, making the automation of short production runs possible. Thus, employees will be able to progress by concentrating on tasks with a real added value. The idea is also to considerably extend the production area from 1000 m² to 5000 m², in order to integrate some subcontracted services and to facilitate information flows and discussion.

In concrete terms, the means of production is being modernised with software for the design/manufacture/transformation/maintenance of the production plant, and with augmented reality or virtual reality equipment.

Upskilling

The substantial progress made so far in the project is down to the wealth of knowledge the company has attained since its creation. It is also thanks to the fact that all employees are trained and given the important information needed about hydrogen (the basics, manufacturing processes, safety procedures, etc).

Recruitment of 100 employees

The creation of the new site and its production goals mean that around 100 skilled people will need to be recruited in line with the following areas:

• the creation of an R&D department and a design and engineering office,
• the arrival of engineers, PhD and sandwich-course students and block-release trainees.

SteelHy: The project becomes THE Solution

SteelHy’s project today:

The industrialisation of hydrogen station containerisation is now a reality with a range of products geared to series production.

A word from the project leader