Safran entrusts Actemium with the maintenance of all its mirror polishing machines used to build the world’s largest telescope

The European Southern Observatory awarded Safran Electronics & Defense Poitiers, a company specialised in optronics, avionics and electronics, the contract to polish and mount the mirrors of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

Located in Chile and scheduled to be completed in 2025, the telescope will be the most powerful in the world. Spanning nearly 39 m in diameter, it will be composed of 798 hexagonal segments, each measuring 1.45 m across and produced at a factory near Poitiers, western France.

As polishing represents a crucial and meticulous stage on which the precision of the telescope depends, the project requires considerable technical prowess in terms of processes, such as ionic milling and robotics. In addition, the production rate introduces further constraints in mounting, commissioning and availability of the equipment.     

A turnkey service that combines process digitisation, construction of a maintenance plan, implementation of ranges, definition of a stock of parts and operational maintenance.


Actemium Maintenance Ouest Centre, a VINCI Energies company, was entrusted with the maintenance of all the equipment within the facility. Therefore, it put together a turnkey service that combines process digitisation, construction of a maintenance plan, implementation of ranges, definition of a stock of parts and operational maintenance.  

The four employees on site each day ensure preventive and corrective maintenance on the equipment. The team provides dull transparency, a rigorous methodology and flexible management, which offer the client complete satisfaction.

The contract began in September 2019 and is scheduled to come to an end at the end of 2022.