The Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (the Alsatian Corporation of Mechanical Engineering), or SACM, is an engineering company with its headquarters in
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...
,
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, which produced railway
locomotives, textile and printing machinery,
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
s,
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
s, lifting equipment,
firearms and mining equipment. SACM also produced the first
atomic reactor at
Marcoule
Marcoule Nuclear Site (french: Site nucléaire de Marcoule) is a nuclear facility in the Chusclan and Codolet communes, near Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard department of France, which is in the tourist, wine and agricultural Côtes-du-Rhône r ...
.
History
Foundation
The company was founded by
André Koechlin in 1826 to produce textile machinery. In 1839, he opened a factory to build railway locomotives at
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...
in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
. The business grew rapidly but in 1871, the annexation of
Alsace-Lorraine by Germany, brought about the transfer of some production to
Belfort
Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Terri ...
in France. In 1872 the company merged with the
Graffenstaden company of
Illkirch-Graffenstaden
Illkirch-Graffenstaden () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Strasbourg, and is adjacent to it on the south-southwest. Illkirch-Graffenstaden is one of the ...
(a suburb of
Strasbourg) to form SACM.
Alsthom
The new company diversified into the production of boilers, steel equipment, printing equipment, compressors, firearms and other engineering products growing to 4500 employees by 1910. A new foundry was built in 1922 for textile machinery. In 1928 the
Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston merged with the Electrical Engineering division of SACM to form a new company named Alsthom, (Alsace-Thomson), later changed to
Alstom.
Alcatel
In 1940, Alsace and Lorraine were again annexed/occupied to
the German Reich, the production of locomotives for Germany began. After the war, the remaining divisions of SACM continued operating independently until 1966 when the company became a subsidiary of the Company's Hispano-Alsatian machine-building (SHACM) and Alsatian Society of Industrial Investments (ALSPI). In 1970 a new company
Alcatel Alcatel may refer to:
* Alcatel, a former French telecommunications equipment company, which became Alcatel-Lucent and is now part of Nokia
* Alcatel Mobile, a brand of mobile phones, tablets and wearables, formerly a joint venture between Alcatel ...
was created by merging The Industrial Telephone Company (a subsidiary of the General Electricity Company), with the Nuclear energy telecommunications and electronic Department of SACM.
Wärtsilä SACM Diesel
In 1982, the remaining parts of SACM separated the textile machinery division which closed in August 1986, and became SACM DIESEL in 1989. In 1993, the company changed its name to Wärtsilä SACM Diesel with the Finnish group
Wärtsilä Diesel taking full control of the company Mulhouse.
Site changes
The historical Alsatian diesel engine plant closed in late 1999 and has been rehabilitated as an extension of the
University of Haute Alsace. The conservation of the SACM foundry received a
Europa Nostra
Europa Nostra (Italian for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement to relevant inte ...
award for outstanding heritage achievements on industrial and engineering structures and sites in 2010. A new plant devoted to diesel and gas engines has opened in Lyon
SACM Power and does the manufacturing and refurbishing of diesel and gas engines and mini-power plants.
Steam locomotives
Production of steam locomotives was originally carried out at Mulhouse and Graffenstaden (for German production), and Belfort for the French production. Both plants also exported models. However, after the First World War, Mulhouse and Graffenstaden built French steam locomotives, and Belfort specialized in the construction of electric locomotives.
During the 1890s the company was particularly noted for its fast and efficient
compound locomotive
A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three stages were used in shi ...
s designed by
Alfred de Glehn.
Diesel Engines
Diesel engines built at Mulhouse have been sold worldwide primarily for ship propulsion, locomotives and railcars, and as power generators. The range of diesel engines produced by SACM included:
* MGO (MAREP Grosshans Ollier) 175 mm bore, 6 to 16 cylinders
* AGO (Alsacienne Grosshans Ollier) 195 mm bore, 12 to 16 cylinders
* AGO (Alsacienne Grosshans Ollier) 240 mm bore, 12 to 20 cylinders
MAREP Moteur MGO was the Société de Matériel et de Recherche Pétrolière. Grosshans Ollier refers to Georges Frédéric Grosshans and Jacques Gaspard Ollier who held a patent for liquid-cooled pistons, US patent 3,323,503 of 6 June 1967. Examples of
SNCF locomotives using these engines were BB 63400 (MGO engine) and CC 72000 (AGO engine).
See also
*
List of SNCF classes
List of locomotive and multiple unit classes of SNCF. Classes in bold are in use, whilst those in ''italics'' have been withdrawn.
Numbering Scheme Locomotives and Multiple Units
Vehicle numbers are three to six digits long. The first (not alw ...
References
[http://www.SACMFrance.com ]
Bibliography
*Michèle Merger, ''Les entreprises et leurs réseaux,'' Presses Paris Sorbonne, 1998 ()
*Marie-Claire Vitoux, ''SACM, Quelle belle histoire! : De la Fonderie à l'Université,'' Mulhouse, 1826–2007, La Nuée bleue, 2007 ()
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Alsacienne De Constructions Mecaniques
Locomotive manufacturers of France
Wärtsilä