โ Scribed by Jacques Sejourneti
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
In 1935, at the request of my father-in-law who was about to retire, I had agreed to give up my position as engineer with Renault, the French automobile manufacturer, to become Manager of his company, the Comptoir Industriel d'Etirage & Profilage de Metaux.
It was a small company specializing in the production of sections by cold-drawing.
The equipment included draw benches and a small 600ton extrusion press working non-ferrous metals-copper, brass and aluminum.
The shops as well as the equipment were old and it was obvious that my activity was going to be in the direction of modernizing the plant.
Within a few years, I became thoroughly familiar with the details of all the elements of the company's various operations.
I was particularly interested in questions concerning tools which represented the largest item of our cost. I observed that no systematic research whatever had been undertaken in this field and I decided to get in touch with a steelmaker to improve this factor. This is the origin of my relationship with the Ugine Steelworks and M. Labataille who was in charge of the Tool Steel Department of that company.
This co-operative effort led to fruitful results.
At this same time, the Ugine Steelworks' Laboratory was studying new types of heat-resisting steels and had developed a new grade with excellent hot-working properties.
Ugine had, for many years, been interested in steel extrusion and it occurred to the technicians of that company to try to see whether the new grade would render possible successful manufacture of dies for the severe conditions of steel extrusion.
M. Labataille thought at once of Comptoir d'Etirage because it presented the advantage of a small company, whose administrative organization was small enough to permit expediting the research under consideration.
In addition, the extrusion press was in Paris, thus making technical co-operation easier.
Negotiations in connection with the research agreement lasted quite some time, but an agreement was finally signed, providing for: (a) cx- penses to be borne equally by the two companies; (b) joint ownership of eventual patents; and (c) parting of the commercial field in case of a successful conclusion-tubes for Ugine, sections for Comptoir.
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