Specialist in electronic CAD
since 1987

Times and demands have changed but CAO Concept’s expertise is maintained as technology evolves and electronic CAD tools are developed.

CAO Concept, our key points:

  • A team of experienced and versatile technicians
  • A diversified service using electronic CAD reference tools and software
  • Each company activity organised, clearly identified and approved by ISO 9001 certification
  • The guarantee to develop your ideas up to mass production thanks to West Advanced Electronics Group’s (WAE Group) constituent members which also include SERETEC and Quasar Concept
  • A company committed to student training (hosting interns every year)

CAO Concept in five milestones

From the founding of the company in 1987 to its sale in 2017 by its two original managers and subsequent integration into the WAE Group. A retrospective on more than three decades of evolution and adaptation to innovation in order to constantly offer the highest level of technology.

Founding of CAO Concept

CAO Concept was founded in Angers by four original partners from Thomson (micro-computing), including Christian Morin and Patrick Loquen.

Its positioning is immediately electronic CAD. A core business that has not changed since 1987 as a result of technological innovations, the evolution of software and tools, and new uses linked to digital transformation.

Through the training of its team, investment and permanent adaptation, CAO Concept has responded to market expectations and its customers’ requirements from inception whilst being permanently concerned about reliability and quality.

Launch of prototyping and production workshop

At the turn of the new century, when CAO Concept’s premises were established at the Technopole site in Angers, the directors decided to extend the range of the business by offering a service related to electronic card research: this was the birth of the prototyping workshop.

Two decades later, this vision of a combined service between CAD design and prototype production, with the idea of simplifying project management for the customer, still drives the employees of CAO Concept on a daily basis.

A CAO Concept branch is opened in Rennes

A new stage in the development of CAO Concept, eighteen years after its founding. The Western electronics cluster being divided between Angers, Rennes and Brest, a branch is opened in the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture to cover Brittany and Pays de la Loire.

It currently employs four people. It works in synergy with CAO Concept’s head office in terms of resources (CAD software, prototyping workshop and small series).

ISO 9001 certification renewed in 2019

Twenty years after its inception, CAO Concept obtained its first ISO 9001 certification. This certification has been renewed ever since. The last positive renewal audit took place in 2019: it is valid until 2022 with an intermediate audit every year.

All quality management systems are codified in a reference document: each stage of the activity is described between operational processes and controls. The guarantee of the high standards advocated by CAO Concept.

CAO Concept sold and integrated into WAE Group

Thirty years after their start at the head of CAO Concept, the original managers Christian Morin and Patrick Loquen sold the company to Frédéric Fabre who also acquired Quasar Concept based in Avrillé.

In 2020, Frédéric Fabre bought SERETEC and merged it with the two previous companies to form the WAE Group (West Advanced Electronic Group). From design to product life, the WAE Group provides a global service in industrial electronics thanks to its three entities’ complementarity.

Our strengths: experience, expertise and service!

Experience
and skills

Successful cooperation is based on stable human relationships. The majority of our technicians have been with CAO Concept for many years. This low turnover is the assurance of our approaches and methods’ stability and permanence. In addition to their experience, they receive ongoing training in the latest electronic CAD tools.

Expertise
and innovation

CAO Concept’s knowledge and expertise are recognised by its presence in all the most high-tech electronic sectors. In the fields of microelectronics, defence and aeronautics, power, connected objects and IoT… Our team is also in permanent contact with printed circuit manufacturers.

Customised
and reliable

Each CAO Concept employee in charge of your electronic board research maintains constant contact with you. This customised and flexible approach allows us to reduce the margins of error and scope for misinterpretation to a minimum. In order to ensure reliability and meet our deadlines, we also constantly monitor our PCB manufacturers’ capabilities.

Responsiveness
and short deadlines

Our router team allows us to quickly take charge of your electronic board research. Thanks to our integrated prototyping workshop and its dedicated production resources, we are also able to deliver a prototype within a short timeframe, managing the entire manufacturing chain including the supply of components. All this combined with a high level of quality.

CAO Concept by the numbers

A company can hardly be summed up in a few figures! Cumulative years of experience, number of electronic board CAD projects completed since the company’s founding, number of circuits created per year or total number of customers served… can be taken as indicative milestones.

years of experience

More than three decades of expertise in the field of electronic CAD and electronic board routing for any sector of activity, in France and for export. With the 2017 integration within WAE Group, allowing a complete industrial approach, from the idea to the implemented and on the market electronic product.

projects/year

With an expert response from the CAO Concept team, according to technological evolution, in terms of electronic board design in the most varied application fields such as microelectronics, military and aerospace, industry and energy but also transport, media and IoT and consumer electronics

circuits/year

Thanks to its latest generation logiciels updated according to the recommendations of the publishers, as well as the constant training of its technicians, CAO Concept ensures a high level of precision and rendering in electronic CAD, PCB placement and routing.

customers

For example, whether it is a question of designing an electronic board for power  or for a connected object (IoT), CAO Concept assists its customers in requirements qualification and then design up to prototyping, industrialisation and production.