Mecartex SA + Muzzano + Since 2000
Mechanisms machined in one piece, moving over millimetres, positioned to the nanometre.
Mecartex SA designs and manufactures high precision systems for positioning and measuring, built on flexures: joints that move through the elastic properties of matter, where conventional bearings slide or roll. Conceived in 1997 at the Robotic Systems Laboratory of EPFL, the company develops and machines its mechanisms in its own workshop in Muzzano.
No stick and slip at low speed, no mechanical hysteresis. Only the internal friction of matter remains, and it is practically negligible.
Lifetime is limited only by material fatigue. Designed below the fatigue limit, a Mecartex flexure comes with nearly a lifetime guarantee.
Rolling bearings often need complicated play compensation. By definition, a flexure has no play.
Well designed flexures can be much more rigid than small rolling bearings, statically under load and dynamically under vibration.
Wire electro discharge machining cuts very complex flexible structures in a single piece: compact, precise, nothing to assemble.
No lubrication, no particles released. Flexures suit clean rooms and vacuum, and dirt does not stop them.
Clients entrust Mecartex with part of the development of their new precision systems. A systematic evaluation comes before every project, so that a unique and original solution reaches the client with a short time-to-market.
Mecartex manufactures complex, high precision mechanical parts by milling and electro discharge machining, then assembles and tests them. OEM manufacturing completes the offer.
The two crafts feed each other. The rare know-how of the workshop defines a design for manufacturing before the first part is cut, and that is what makes complex flexures possible.
Very High Precision Flexure's Stage
MX_099-9000 · 6 mm · < 1 nm
XYZ Very High Precision Stage
MX_033-9001 · ±2.25 mm · delta
High Stiffness Goniometer
MX_060-9013 · 0.2 µrad
Dynamics High Precision Linear Stage
MX_079-9012 · 50 mm · 200 mm/s
Direct Drive XY Stage
MX_079-9205 · 103 × 103 mm · 0.4 µm
Direct Drive XY Stage 220 mm
MX_074-9400 · 220 × 220 mm · 1.5 g
Miniature Rotation Stage
MX_079-9010 · 360° · 12 mm aperture
Dynamics High Precision Linear Stage
MX_079-9013 · 25 mm · 0.5 µm
Minimum incremental motion, MX_099-9000
Resolution of the goniometer developed for CERN
Eigenfrequencies of the flexure linear stage
Conceived at the Robotic Systems Laboratory, EPFL
The MX_060-9013 is the result of a specific development for CERN in Geneva: a flexure-based rotary stage with a 20 mrad stroke, 0.2 µrad resolution and an eigenfrequency near 200 Hz, built for vacuum and radiation.
Beyond stages, Mecartex develops the 3D Nanotouch Probe, very precise aligners and force sensors used in industrial applications such as the assembly of chips and micro manufacturing for the automotive industry.
A fully automated 5-axis Mikron UCP 600 Vario in 2016, a new 5-axis machine and a larger wire EDM machine in 2021, an Agiecharmilles CUT F 350 wire EDM machine in November 2024.
Conceived at LSRO, EPFL.
Stefano Bottinelli founds the company now known as Mecartex SA.
Thrust balance for a liquid micro pulsed plasma thruster, measured in a vacuum chamber.
Mikron UCP 600 Vario, fully automated.
ISO 13485:2016. Granite platform at EPHJ: 200 × 200 mm, 1 nm encoder, over 2 g.
New 5-axis milling and wire EDM machines.
Agiecharmilles CUT F 350 wire EDM.
ISO 9001:2015 audit passed on 1 and 2 July.
The company rests on a mix of theoretical know-how in micro mechanics and flexures, acquired at EPFL in the late 1990s, and years of designing, machining and assembling flexure-based motion systems. Its mission: keep leading as a product and solution provider for high precision measuring and positioning.
Degree in microtechnology, then planning and production manager for a watch company, then researcher at EPFL. More than two decades in high precision systems, flexible structures and EDM. He founded the company in 2000 and lectures the Precision Systems course at SUPSI.
Engineer surveyor by training, with a track record in manufacturing for the tooling industry and six years as technical manager of a 120-person team in watch manufacturing. Head of production since the foundation.
ISO 9001:2015, certificate 2026 to 2029. ISO 13485:2016 for third-party machining of non-active medical devices since 2017.
Ahead
Since the LSRO laboratory, Mecartex has kept two crafts under one roof: a workshop that machines what conventional processes cannot, and a motion maker with its own catalogue of stages.
Chip assembly, clean rooms and instruments built for vacuum ask for exactly what a flexure gives: no wear, no play, no particles.
The decision ahead is which of the two leads, and how the rare know-how of the workshop becomes the first reason a customer chooses the stage.
About this page
This page is a proposal made to Mecartex SA from its public content. The three packages, from the CHF 1'200.– fixed price to additional materials, are set out on a dedicated page.
Contact
