In the ROBOT era

Tools that extend the hand of man

Fontax Technologie S.A., a company whose sales and management services are at Prilly (Vd) has taken possession of its new production premises in Palud at Bulle. Mr Pierre Baur, director of the firm, has outlined its history and presented the products which the company produces and sells worldwide.

Founded 30 years ago in the Vallon de Saint-lmier (it settled afterwards at Prilly with a production centre at Bulle) the firm specializes in the manufacture of tweezers, those fine pincers that are among the tools most used by watchmakers.

In the ROBOT era

In the industrial world today, one is always talking of automation, "flexible" assembly lines and robotics with everything this involves in the way of restructuring and changing of production methods. Automation was destined to replace difficult, delicate and repetitive jobs that were so tedious for human beings.

The watch industry was a pioneer in this automation that was on everybody's lips. How is it then that a company such as Fontax Technologie S.A. should have developed an activity that seemed to be condemned as obsolete and that new premises had to be built to enable some twenty workers of both sexes to deal with a constantly increasing production ?

Electronics and microtechnics

The watch industry was the company's launch pad. Tweezers, those extensions of man's hands and fingers have found other applications. There was a time when the watch industry was the example for quality precision products of small dimensions. Today one is talking more and more about "microtechnics". Electronics namely have given a new meaning to miniaturization which now takes its place amongst the most varied products and industries.

This does not mean that the watch industry should be forgotten. It must be considered as one of the many clients of the company. Tweezers therefore are used in other highly varied sectors of activity: electronics (which incorporate many special skills), jewellery, micro-technics, without leaving out the sectors of biology, chemistry, microscopic research and microsurgery.

All product lines or specific activities cannot be automated or robotized. This is why there is a future for companies such as Fontax which succeeded in diversifying their products and their clientele.

A deserved reputation

The company's reputation does not stem uniquely from its primary activities. It could not have taken its share of the market by merely using traditional know-how and tools. It had to innovate, to follow technological evolution, invest in research and development, in other words, be at the forefront of progress for an instrument that looks much simpler than it really is.

Complex problems to solve for quality products.

Let us examine the complexity of the problems that Fontax had to face. Part of the instruments this firm produces are manufactured from a very special alloy called "Taxal". Fashioned under high vaccum made of chrome, cobalt and titanium. These instruments are 100% stainless, resistant to corrosive agents and to acids, anti-magnetic, impervious to magnetic fields, very elastic, dimensionally stable and unbreakable. They maintain all these properties too at high temperature (500_C and more). They do not draw the temper when welded and their average life is 15 times longer than that of steels. How far we are from the tweezer of bygone days.

The other part of production is made of chromed steel, chromed steel coated with Teflon. stainless steel, carbon steel, titanium, treated CVD and PVD, ceramics or other materials.

A wide range of products

The product range is therefore very wide, all the more so when one remembers that tweezer shapes (the tip especially) are innumerable. That is why the company's range of products exceeds 400 different types.

A world-wide presence

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that FONTAX
® is selling its products all over the world. That means a lot. First of all, Fontax had to renew its structure to ensure such an extensive product distribution.

It also means that quality and precision of instruments are major factors to make the firm's products reliable and worldwide competitive, especially in Japan. For it might be surprising to know that Japan is the largest consumer of FONTAX
® articles at a time everyone fears Japanese competitors. One needs the greatest assets to make its way on the very market of a large scale producer widely exporting to the Western countries.

The second of the company's big customers are the United States - another prestigious reference.

One can estimate without risk of being mistaken that the potential markets of Fontax Technologie S.A. will continue to develop. This is why the company can view the future with confidence, not forgetting however that is must never cease making efforts to take advantage of new technologies, at the level of materials namely and at the commercial level. The inauguration of the new Bulle premises proves that the firm knows well the price of success.

Fontax Technologie SA, P.O. Box 159, CH-1008 Prilly