Charlyrobot, the French manufacturer of milling devices for light modelling and prototyping materials and for use in education, is now part of the Mécanuméric S.A. group. This group, also headquartered in France is a maker of heavy 3- and 5-axis milling equipment and machines for laser cutting and marking, thermoforming, and bake treatment, and ICT Technologie, which designs custom thermoforming and baking solutions and provides specialized technical support.

Pooling their staff capabilities, subsidiaries, distributors, and customer technical support, Mécanuméric and Charlyrobot expect to be able to improve customer response and after-sale follow-up.

The companies expect to jointly develop products, the complementarity of their design teams increasing overall creativity. Also, Mécanuméric’s considerable production capacity will cut down Charlyrobot’s use of subcontractors and raise quality levels by reducing production costs and delivery time. Centralization of industrial purchasing and growth in production volumes should make both firms more competitive.

Arthur Païs intends to position the Charlyrobot brand within the Mécanuméric offering as representing a line of “easy-to-use 2D and 3D cutting-edge milling machines at affordable prices.” The four Charlyrobot milling machine lines enables the group to offer standard machines in formats ranging from 310 x 220 mm to 6,100 x 2,100 mm, he says, as well as customized products, since “Charlyrobot designs and develops the related mechanics, electronics, and CAD/CAM software.

“Another strength,” Païs concludes, “is that the products are open and can be piloted by other CAM software.