From laboratories to start-ups

In the past few years, several start-ups have expanded from the SIMAP and LEPMI laboratories. Four examples among these "success stories" are TITACREUSET, ACERDE, ENERSTONE and METAMORPH.


TiTaCreuset was created through the metallurgical casting expertise of the SIMAP laboratory. It offers solutions for the recycling of sensitive metallic materials. It also focuses on the recovery of metal waste through the remelting of noble materials (titanium, zirconium, chromium, etc.), obtained via a cold crucible melting platform that they created. TitaCreuset has received an award from the Ministry of Research.

ACERDE, winner of the grant offered by the national competition to help create innovative technology businesses, specialises in high temperature chemical vapour deposition processes. It has used this process to develop single-crystal aluminium nitride (AlN) coatings, in particular, which feature exceptional semi-conductive properties. These materials may, inter alia, serve to develop electroluminescent UV diodes for multiple applications (blanking, air or water purification, etc.). The HTCVD process is also used for other applications developed by ACERDE such as the production of thick tungsten depositions with underlayer, the development of new stacks such as tungsten on SiC or the development of polycrystalline SiC wafers.


ENERSTONE, 2013 winner of the OSEO national competition to help create innovative technology businesses is a start-up sponsored by GRAIN and hosted at LEPMI since 2011. The start-up develops solutions designed to enable the electronic management of rechargeable batteries optimised for increased longevity and possible maintenance. The aim is to provide the manufacturers of rechargeable batteries with solutions to increase the service life of their products by 30%, thereby reducing their environmental impact. Through the use of an electronic circuit for diagnosing and optimising charging and discharging cycles, efforts are made to identify, support or replace the weakest cells of an electric bus battery rather than replacing the entire battery.

There is strong demand in the micromechanical industry for millimetric-sized metallic parts featuring good dimensional and geometric precision, mirror surface states and high mechanical properties. To date, it is still extremely difficult to manufacture this type of parts. However, the future start-up METAMORPH intends to solve these problems by using the specific properties of the amorphous metallic alloys. These alloys possess exceptional mechanical properties and very high wear and corrosion resistance and hardness levels. Through their specific make-up, they also make it possible to use new extremely precise micro-moulding processes. This start-up creation project initiated within the framework of an ANR Emergence project, is based on the skills acquired at the SIMAP laboratory which led to the filing of a patent. This project has also received active and constant support from the GRAVIT and FLORALIS valorisation structures.