attraction to Montreal?” “It was the maple syrup,” he laughs. “No, for us it was an opportunity to continue to grow. We were interested in having a foot on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and we were not ready to speak English all day long.” He was also attracted to Montreal as an aerospace hub. He had visited the area a couple times for trade shows and was impressed by the list of companies belonging to Aero Montreal [an aerospace think tank comprised of major players in Quebec’s aerospace sector], so he made the decision to set up shop. “We have no real competitors right now,” he adds. “There are one or two other people who have not exactly the same technology as us and not the same type of production, so we think we have an opportunity here.” It was the summer of 2014 when he announced the launch of FusiA Impression 3D métal Inc. He is set up in a 3,000 sq. ft. industrial park unit, installing a newer-generation EOS M 290 that began operation this past March. And around that same time he also acquired HRT Industries, a 12-person Montreal-area machine shop with a history of serving the local aerospace industry.
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Sample parts printed on FusiA’s EOS M 290 in Montreal.
The FusiA Group now includes four companies, two in France and two in Canada, together employing about 100 people. Chanal explains that their work consists of production machining, prototyping and R&D projects. He notes how his role involves partnering with clients, working at the R&D level with aerospace OEMs, qualifying and validating metal powders, defining specifications and creating prototypes. “Finding a good business case for using additive is not always so easy,” he says. “We suggest to clients that we start with them at the very beginning of their projects in order to find the best and
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