Comat will double the surface area of its premises near Toulouse
After 45 years of existence, Comat is about to take a new step. This space SME will double the size of its premises in Flourens, near Toulouse. Already equipped with an industrial site of 1,800 m2, the company will invest nearly two million euros to build and fit out a new building of 1,400 m2. The new site will be equipped with offices and a large clean room for the integration of satellite equipment. The building will be open to New Space startups who could especially come and test their innovations on the industrial equipment made available by Comat.
“We are planning to adapt our industrial capacities to our order book. More than an extension of premises, it is a question of carrying out a new project in the continuity of the existing project to develop the smallsats sector, support the startups that allow us to access the market more directly and on our side bring our expertise, experience and industrial will to the new space markets “, explains Ludovic Daudois, CEO of Comat at La Tribune.
The building permit will be filed in December for the start of work expected in May 2022 and delivery of the building at the end of the first quarter of 2023.
Giant contract for Airbus
Founded in 1977, Comat first developed around space exploration (an activity which still accounts for 20% of its turnover today). This year, for example, the company produced the mechanical housing of the camera
The backbone of the company remains the telecommunications and Earth observation satellites (60% of its turnover). In this area, Comat announced at the end of November a contract worth more than ten million euros with Airbus to deliver mechanisms for the Onesat family and its 24 fully reconfigurable satellites in orbit. “This partnership with Airbus is not new, but it reinforces our desire to switch to series production and above all to become a benchmark equipment supplier for the sector.re-spatial “, comments Ludovic Daudois.
Comat’s third activity concerns nanosatellites, with great progress here too. The SME has already won a first contract to deliver deployable antennas for the constellation of Kinéis IoT nanosatellites. Other smallsats contracts are expected in the coming months.
Three contracts via the recovery plan
In addition, Comat won three contracts as part of the recovery plan for the space sector. The SME won a 1.2 million euro contract (70% funded by the government) to create a product line for deployable structures like the antennas manufactured for Kinéis. The second contract (900,000 euros, 70% supported by the State) aims to develop an assembly technology by laser welding. “This is a new assembly process technology for the space industry which makes it possible to gain in competitiveness and reduce the equipment manufacturing cycle”, underlines the leader of Comat. Finally, the company will produce a pointing mechanism for a laser communication telescope as part of the Coop project led by Airbus.
“We are the living example that these innovation contracts will then be used to prime the pump to open a market. It is a virtuous system. We do not have the capacity to innovate alone. The Agency space, the Cnes helps us and guides us. Then, it is up to us to go and capture the market and work on an industrial tool capable of producing “, underlined Benoit Moulas, President of Comat, on the occasion of the visit of the Chairman of the Cnes at the company’s premises on December 1.
Philippe Baptiste recalled during his trip “that since the creation of Comat, contracts have been signed with the Cnes”.
“These contracts are not subsidies at all. They are objects that we need and which are integrated into our equipment. One of the roles of a space agency like Cnes today is precisely to develop contracts with partners, whether new operators, small, medium or very large“, he added.
This series of contracts will allow Comat to continue recruiting. 13 positions are currently open project managers, technicians, préparateursémethods) in the company which has 105 employees.