Founded in 2019, Belasolution specialises in the design and manufacture of flexible products. It currently has 300 active customers, 50% of whom are based abroad, with a turnover of €750,000 in 2024 and a target of €1 million by the end of the year.
“Very quickly approved by the International Automobile Federation, we designed racing car fuel tanks,” explains Bruno Slembrouck, who runs the company based in Fleurbaix, near Lille. “We gradually diversified into the defence sector, manufacturing tanks for drones and aircraft, as well as flexible jerry cans, but also into industry with the manufacture of inflatable cylinders, pockets, membranes and specific seals.”
With this expertise, the Belasolution team, which has its own manufacturing workshop, entered the nautical market four years ago, developing tanks for fuel, drinking water and black water, as well as ballasts for racing boats and floats for very specific applications. “A boat’s diesel tank is very similar to that of a Paris-Dakar vehicle,” says the managing director. “Both must be lightweight and address issues of liquid movement, degassing and chemical resistance to fuel. We have solved all these constraints for motor racing and transferred them to the nautical industry.”
Although boating currently accounts for 15% of Belasolution’s business, “the goal is to increase that to 50%,” says Bruno Slembrouck. “We want to focus primarily on ocean racing, because that’s where we offer the most added value. As we are a small team [around ten employees], we are flexible and committed to responding to our customers’ technical issues in order to find solutions, prototype, test and continue to develop new products.”
Belasolution already has a strong foothold in ocean racing, having designed a ballast for the Sodebo Ultim 3 trimaran. Thomas Coville’s team was convinced by the technical solution proposed by the northern French company, which uses “rubber-coated Kevlar fabric or a very thin sheet of polyurethane for its tanks and ballasts, which is lighter and more suitable for racing boats,” explains Bruno Slembrouck. “A 100-litre tank weighs around three kilograms.”
Elie Canivenc, technical coordinator of the Sodebo team, confirms: “Intuitively, one might think that the solution would be lighter by creating a tank around the existing structures, but the relatively thin carbon skins become porous over time, which requires replacing the honeycomb with foam, applying paint for waterproofing and installing small anti-roll bulkheads, which ultimately makes the structure heavier. The waterproof membrane offered by Belasolution is a more reliable and lighter solution, and is also equipped with an anti-pitching system.” The tanks are filled to 80% capacity with a very low-density foam that slows down the movement of the liquid – water or diesel – and prevents explosions.
“Their tanks are also custom-designed,” adds Elie Canivenc. “This means you can choose the number of connections: filling, discharge or vent. We also benefited from all of Belasolution’s expertise, particularly regarding the risks of chafing and wear over time.” It is also as part of this approach to innovation and adaptation to customer requirements that Belasolution uses 3D printing to produce flexible products and carbon and rubber hinges which, according to Bruno Slembrouck, “are strong, lightweight, watertight, aerodynamic and do not oxidise, they can be used for skippers’ tablets or bunks inside the boat.”
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