Spotlight on Safran Innovation Day 2024!

Celebrating innovation in all its forms: that is the goal of Safran Innovation Day. This year’s edition was once again held at the Paris-Saclay site, which is home to several entities dedicated to innovation, such as the Group’s Innovation Department, the Group’s R&T center Safran Tech, Safran Corporate Ventures, and the Aerogarage. 

The 500 or so participants enjoyed a particularly rich program, which included pitches, visits of the various stands, a conference on the impact of CO₂ in the aerospace industry, and of course the long-awaited finale of the Safran Innovation Awards. 

At times, Paris-Saclay’s central corridor was difficult to navigate due to all the attendees. And with good reason! The finalists of the Safran Innovation Awards were on hand to present their projects alongside the Safran Explore open innovation program, as well as projects from the “We Love Intrapreneurs” program. 

Towards the end of the morning, startups such as Buawei, Estuaire, Airudit, Greenerwave, Wormsensing, AIIR Innovations and Yxir of the Safran Explore program carried out a pitch in front of Group employees. Each startup was given five minutes to present their technologies and use cases, including those developed with Group companies. 

"For a start-up like Greenerwave, participating in this event that brings together Safran's internal and external innovation ecosystem is a fantastic opportunity that can open up new business prospects," explains Pierre-Adrien Jaubert, Strategy Manager at Greenerwave. "It gives us a global view of the Group’s activities," adds Rémi Faggiani, Innovation Program Director at Greenerwave. "It is therefore a great showcase for us to present our technologies and see how they could meet the challenges of various Safran entities."

From open innovation to entrepreneurship, the diversity of the Group’s innovation ecosystem was showcased at nearly 40 stands. 

This year’s event also showcased the Group’s training platforms. The Digital Academy, the Sustainability Academy and the Supply Chain Academy presented their training catalogs. 

For the first time, generative artificial intelligence – which is already an integral part of the day-to-day operations of some employees, notably with Secured ChatGPT – also had its own dedicated stand. With a presentation of the different AIs used within the Group, use cases, examples of prompts, etc., all essential information on AI was presented. During the event, attendees were even able to take advantage of a unique Photo Booth: either alone or in a group, they could print photos edited by an artificial intelligence. 

Moreover, decarbonization was at the heart of the discussions with a conference entitled: “Non-CO₂ effects: challenges for the aerospace industry and the R&D roadmap”, which was led by Nathalie Stubler, Group Sustainable Development Director. A round-table discussion was held between Valérie Guenon (head of Product Environmental Policy at Safran Aircraft Engines), Nicolas Jeuland (the Group’s expert emeritus on sustainable fuels), Florian Allroggen (MIT Fellow) and Maxime Meijers (CEO of Estuaire), as they discussed the current state of knowledge and issues relating to non-CO₂ effects, in particular condensation trails. 

The competition kicked off at 10:15 am with pitches from the finalist teams. Each team had two and a half minutes to present its project convincingly and effectively. The final stage of the competition took place at around 1:30 pm: the jury, which is made up of Executive Committee members, visited the stands of the finalist teams. 

The Safran Innovation Awards ceremony, which took place at 5 pm, marked the end of an exceptional day. As part of their opening remarks, Marjolaine Grange (Group VP Industry, Purchasing and Performance) and Eric Dalbiès (EVP Strategy, R&T and Innovation) underlined the importance of innovation in improving our performance and meeting the major challenges in the aerospace industry, in particular the decarbonization of aviation. They also recalled that last year, over200,000 ideas were submitted by employees, underlining the strength of collective intelligence within the Group.  

Operational Excellence & Competitiveness: STREAM

Developed by several sites and teams, STREAM uses trepanning to recover material from current bars and forged parts, thus offering over 400 tons per year of potential recovery (of which approximately 200 tons could be reused internally or within the supply chain). The solution, adapted to the equipment and methods of each site, optimizes the existing machinery pool, improves customer satisfaction, guarantees better on-time delivery while maximizing material utilization, and provides an advantage in managing raw material shortages.

Service: Logbook Connect

Intended for customers under flight-hour service contract (known as SBH for Support-By-the-Hour), the Logbook Connect service provides, in addition to the paper engine logbook, an "INIT MIS" file compatible with their information system. This way, customers can integrate the engine logbook data into their maintenance tracking software (MIS) in just a few clicks.

Digital Transformation: RepIA

Safran Nacelles' Customer Support Engineering handles approximately 8,000 repair requests per year, where meeting deadlines is crucial, especially in the event of an Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situation. Currently, 60% of these requests require manual searches of previous cases, which can sometimes be tedious and time-consuming for the teams. With RepIA, an artificial intelligence, the turnaround time has been significantly reduced. Developed through cross-team collaboration, RepIA is capable of identifying similar repairs by analyzing the history of all existing cases. This improves the speed, relevance, and drafting of responses. Based on the RAG technology, the tool enhances the efficiency and quality of customer support while being adaptable to other projects within the Group.

Low-carbon & environnement : ECOFURNACE

ECOFURNACE creates a barrier against densification gases through backpressure, reducing insulation damage. This innovation extends the insulation lifespan of furnaces at carbon brakes production sites, resulting in annual savings of 2,850 tons of CO₂ and 5,800 MWh in energy consumption, with a return on investment of less than two years. Since 2021, a furnace prototype has operated for over 20,000 hours, and qualification tests along with final industrialization are currently underway to maximize performance.

Field Experience : Fun game in the machine shop

The “Fun Game in the Machine Shop” project proposed by Safran Aircraft Engines was implemented to address the lack of knowledge about the standards of quality, which causes numerous deviations from quality fundamentals. The initiative consists in offering a kit of playful and user-friendly games that put the operator in a real-life situation, taking on the role of an auditor. This kit is universal and can be adapted to all types of training for control or production operators.

Product, Technology & Patent : MAMBO

The MAMBO project (which stands for Self-supporting Membrane Maneuvered by Opening Rods), led by Safran Nacelles, aims to develop a membrane-based thrust reverser for high bypass ratio (UHBR) engines. The innovative Mambo solution proposes replacing rigid blocker doors with flexible membranes and grid fins with external deflecting curtains, which aim to block and deflect the engine's secondary flow to slow down the aircraft. This concept improves aerodynamics and reduces weight, increases the acoustic treatment surface, and allows for better integration into narrower translating cowls. After successful testing in 2023, Safran filed over a dozen patents. The goal is to bring this technology to full maturity by 2027.

The jury's special prize goes to OTTAWAN!

OTTAWAN is a flying demonstrator for an 800-volt hybrid electric propulsion chain that will contribute to the electrification of tomorrow's aircraft. It is entirely manufactured with Safran equipment.