Querétaro, QRO. 40 percent of the planes that fly in Mexico use an engine made by this company. Since 2007 it has opened 13 production sites, the last two in February. Four years ago, it employed four thousand skilled Mexican workers: today there are six thousand ... and the numbers continue, but 25 years after its first investment in our country, the growth of Grupo Safran seems to be limited only in the minds of engineers and designers, who day by day create the innovations that drive the aeronautical industry in the world.
This was stated by Daniel Parfait, president of Safran Mexico, who during an aeronautical congress held in recent days spoke about the importance of Mexico to this worldwide consortium.
One of the most representative actions of the multinational in our territory is the installation of a new plant for the production of parts for the LEAP engine, established in partnership with Albany.
"There was a fight for months to know if it was installed in any other country and who won? Mexico. And in Mexico: Querétaro, "said the manager.
Boeing 737 MAX turbines are being manufactured in this plant under a process of fabrication of extremely complex composite materials.
This technology gave the engines greater strength, robustness and lightness to save 15 percent of fuel, reduce their emissions by half, and be quieter, characteristics that have put these turbines at the top of the market, with more than thirteen thousand orders from aeronautical manufacturers around the world.
Currently, this component is manufactured only at three Safran / Albany sites: Rochester (United States), Commercy (France), and now Querétaro.
"All the technology that exists (in Querétaro) is the future of engines for many years. So, Mexico is at the cutting edge of innovation in terms of future aircraft. "
The executive said that they are about to launch the first batches of blades produced in this plant. Production volumes are also expected to increase to reach an annual rate of more than 20,000 sheets by 2021, which would enable the company to meet its target of producing 2,000 engines per year by 2020.
In addition, five other plants in the shoal cover business lines as varied as: CFM56 engine parts; landing gear components; maintenance of engines and landing gear, and renewal of engine parts, as well as a design and engineering center with 250 Mexican engineers.
Labor "spectacular"
Regarding the quality that the engineers and collaborators of Safran Mexico contribute to the processes of manufacture, research, design and development of products, Parfait assured that the company was extremely happy with the workforce of our country, which he simply described as " spectacular". And he gave two testimonies of this:
The Safran Engineering Center in Querétaro has twice won the Safran Innovation Award.
The 4,300 employees of the Chihuahua plant - inaugurated in 1996 and currently the world's largest center for the manufacture of aeronautical cabling - generate between 8 and 10 thousand new ideas every year.
For all this, Grupo Safran will continue to focus on the generation of innovation and technology projects, now with the signing of a collaboration agreement with the National Council of Science and Technology.
"We accompany this important movement of the country to go from manufacturing to innovation: in manufacturing we are well but the future is in innovation and the two combined make Mexico have a great future in the aerospace sector," he said.
