The maxon Group, headquartered in Switzerland, has established a new innovation and production center in France, making a EUR 10 million investment into building its mechatronic capabilities there in support of an ambitious growth program. The site will have extensive research and development operations along with production operations for the company’s IDX drives which feature brushless permanent-magnet motors and magnetic encoders.
The location is at a new site at Beynost near Lyon, home of the company’s long-standing partner MDP, which was integrated into the Group seven years ago and now is officially called maxon France. The building, with a total area of 4200 square meters, provides space for 60 offices, a mechatronics production hall and warehouse.
The competence center focuses on the design, development and production of customized drive systems, particularly the new IDX compact drive product range for industrial, robotics and logistics applications. The drives consist of a brushless permanent-magnet motor, a magnetic absolute encoder, and a positioning controller with integrated field-oriented control.
“The inauguration of this new site is an expression of a promising French-Swiss collaboration,” says Alain Pontille, managing director of maxon France. The company aims to achieve sales of EUR 40 million in France by 2030 and the number of employees at maxon France is to be doubled from 50 to 100.
Known as maxon France Lab, the R&D operation will provide a competence platform in the field of mechatronics, focus on training researchers, engineers and technical sales specialists, and support research projects. As part of the group-wide Young Engineers Program, innovative projects by young talents will receive increased technical and financial support from maxon. In addition, the lab will accompany French start-ups in the fields of e-mobility, industrial automation, and robotics from conception to series production.
