About us...

LIM sa was established in the Lyon region of France during September 1985 by geologist Frédéric Malinet.

On 1 January 2005, the LIM Group acquired the company EGS sa, based in Luxembourg and specialised in geophysical borehole logging. All new logging business and prospects are managed under the banner of LIM sa.

The business object of LIM sa lies in the development, fabrication and commercialisation of electronic geological measuring instrumentation and associated software, as well as services , training and equipment sales in geophysical borehole logging.

The principal sectors of activity of LIM sa are Foundations, Geotechnics, Hydrogeology, Mines & Quarries and underground workings such as Tunnels.

History

In the words of the Managing Director:

"Since its creation in 1985, LIM sa has always put the emphasis on technical innovation driven by the professional and personal qualities of its staff.

The respect of our development and delivery committments is another fundamental cornerstone of our business method, as is being responsive to our client and markets.

During the early days, our efforts were mainly orientated towards the foundation and special structures sectors. Thereafter, between 1995 and 2000, we diversified into the European geotechnical and quarrying sectors.

From the year 2000 onwards, our technical and commercial emphasis was turned towards the surface and underground mining sectors.

At this point in time, LIM sa is embarked on a phase of rapid expansion into multiple major international markets (Western Europe, Russia, South Africa, Canadu, USA, Chile, Peru, Australia...), with the year 2006 being a turning point in the sense that more than 50% of annual turnover was generated from the export of high value-added products and services..

Many prestigious international companies in these different domains have been able to count on our technology for more than 20 years.

Our ambition is to be able to propose to our clients a complete measurement solution for boreholes, comprising of both Instrumentation for acquisition during drilling and Logging in the resulting borehole, as well as for foundations and special structures, incorporating innovative technology that begins at the sensor, continues through the various application-specific acquisition systems, and expresses itself in powerful yet user-friendly software for data processing, interpretation and presentation".

[photo F.Malinet]

LIM sa's story is above all about technology and innovation.

Over the last 10 years, the company has devoted on average more than 10% of its annual turnover on R&D in order to be able to incorporate the latest technologies into its products.

Among the many major developments achieved at regular intervals as a result of this investment, we can list:

French patent nr. FR 2 593 606 of 23 January 1986 concerning a "Procedure for calculating the instantaneous speed of advance of a rotating body, notably a drilling bit, and the apparatus permitting this parameter to be obtained in practice" which resulted in the market's first all-digital drilling parameters recorder the LIM 8000S (8 parameters) in May 1986;
US patent nr. US 4 831 871 of 23 May 1989 concerning a "Process & apparatus for calculation of the instantaneous speed of a tool" extending our patent coverage to US territory;
French patent nr. FR 2 657 964 describing a "Procedure for displaying the rate of penetration of a body into a material based on its successive positions in the alignment of the penetration and the apparatus permitting this parameter to be obtained in practice" which gave rise to our second generation (2G) systems the LIM 3000 and LIM 4000S;
French patent nr. FR 2 694 399 of 31 July 1992 concerning a "Procedure and apparatus for determing the relative hardness of ground layers" and being part of a global technological advance that led to the appearance of our third-generation (3G) instruments (FORALIM II) with multiple applications in drilling, grouting, compaction and jet grouting;
The incorporation of a graphic display and CAN BUS technology in the fourth generation (4G) series of instruments appearing in January 2000;
cable-less data transmission using GSM/GPRS technology from January 2003;
the incorporation of a graphic display and CAN BUS technology in the fourth generation (4G) series of instruments appearing in January 2000;
cable-less data transmission using GSM/GPRS technology from January 2003;
the integration of a tactile colour display, ARM technology and Linux kernel for the fifth (5G) series of instruments, May 2006;
new developments in logging acquisition systems and core sample scanning, March 2007

Activities

Our two principal complementary activities :

The Instrumentation side of the company is based in Lyon and covers all the different aspects related to our equipment for drilling support (drilling parameter data displays and recorders), for foundations and special structures (grouting and jet grouting, pile boring, "Lugeon" tests etc.) and in-situ geotechnical testing (such as deformation and penetrometer tests); as well as the software associated with these different instruments and for processing and presenting the resulting field data. Our products are available both for sale or rental (in France exclusively) and we provide a complete installation, training and after-sales service.

Our geophysical Logging department is based in Luxembourg and provides geophysical service logging on a world-wide basis as well as training and equipment sales. The available services range from basic logs (natural gamma, density, resistivity, caliper, fluid logs) to more complex methods such as acoustic and optical formation imaging, spectral gamma, IP and magnetic susceptibility as well as borehole video camera inspection. The majority of the methods can be carried out at depths of up to 2000 m. Since the middle of 2007, the Luxembourg base can also provide for sale or rental, or on a service basis, a scanner allowing the creation of a digital archive in true colour of drill core samples.

Organisation

Our multi-discipliniary personnel can intervenir on a world-wide basis in order to install our Instrumentation, for service or for training on the sites of our clients and partners.

In Logging, we can also travel throughout the world to provide our professional, high-quality services, equipment sales and training in data acquisition, processing and treatment.

Our engineers (geologists, geophysicists, electronics specialists and software developers) are united in their desire to bring to our clients the most effective solution to their requirements.

For France and the European region, our bases in Lyon, Paris, Nice and Luxembourg allow us to intervenir rapidly and effectively for our clients.

Specialist resellers and distributors are in place in over 10 countries, worldwide.

Personal and professional qualities of our personnel:

Going beyond the technical capabilities of the individual, the company places a particular emphasis, both at engagement and during their subsequent career within the company, on personal qualities such as dedication, the respect of committments made, independence, open-mindedness, as well as a respect for diversity and the human spirit.

Our status as a European PME franco-luxembourgish has obliged us to build a team of dynamic and adaptable multi-national professionals. Our job itself, and the worlwide travelling necessary, requires an independently-minded and mobile personnel.

The respect of our clients and our committments remains a central principle in our business activity.

A few figures...

Since its creation in 1985, our Instrumentation division has developed 4 generations of equipment, building and selling more than 1000 data display and acquisition systems over 5 continents to clients in diverse domains of activity.

In terms of geophysical Logging, recently integrated into our range of products and services, our experience amounts to over 500 km of boreholes logged, processed and interpreted since 1993, again on a worldwide basis.

As of 1 January 2007, the LIM sa staff, including Instrumentation & Logging divisions, comprised 26 professionals, of which over 70% at engineer level and 7 individuals completely dedicated to R&D.

Global company turnover in 2006 amounted to 3.5 million Euros, continuing the double-figure growth achieved over the last five years.

More than 50% of company turnover in 2006 was generated from our export markets.