The future? Improving quality while decreasing price

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Slitting lines 1,650 x 0.10-2.0 mm, with packaging line 500 m/min for aluminium
Slitting lines 1,650 x 0.10-2.0 mm, with packaging line 500 m/min for aluminium

Euroslitter S.r.l. (Dolzago, LC) designs and manufactures slitting lines, coil packaging lines, cut-to-length lines, flatteners and rotary shears intended for “processing” strips and coils of aluminium, steel, stainless steel and other metals.

Ezio Rinaldo Ribolzi, owner of Euroslitter S.r.l. (Dolzago, LC)
Ezio Rinaldo Ribolzi, owner of Euroslitter S.r.l. (Dolzago, LC)

The owner of Euroslitter, Ezio Rinaldo Ribolzi, explains: «We propose slitting lines, for thicknesses ranging from 0.1 and 6.0 mm, at high speed (400 [m/1’]), sturdy, able to aid users in reducing idle times. Currently, the demands for standard products are almost null: today the market requires special, customized machines, often designed from scratch. Besides, recently the requests of machines for big-thickness coils are high but the market is getting saturated for this plant typology, too. On the other hand, all manufacturers are trying “to go” where the demand is more pressing». In general, however, today the market asks for machines featuring better and better quality and precision at increasingly lower prices, which is anyway impossible today. «To reduce prices – adds Ribolzi – we have tried to simplify the structure of our machines, eliminating “unnecessary frills”: but it is only a dream, we have just reduced margins. On one hand, this represents a compelling and exciting challenge; on the other hand, such decrease mortifies our efforts and the strongly innovative content of our products. Sometimes, we are anyway compelled to conform to that trend to avoid losing customers». Can you indicate some clear technological trends? «Quality, efficiency and productivity are taken for granted. Today customers’ budgets are low, this is the truth, in other words they pay a small initial sum and then they “open” a leasing on the longest possible period. In this way, however, we producers are obliged to operate with very scarce liquid assets and it is very difficult to obtain funding. Investing in innovation is really complicated in this situation. Nevertheless, it is the only solution since a machine with a design dating back to 5 years ago is no more demanded by the market».
In the opinion of Ezio Rinaldo, in the future we will have to stake on markets not “harped on”, yet: «The technology in the coil machining is already very advanced and inventing something really new will be difficult indeed. To grow, paradoxically, it will be necessary to “resize” the offer, in other words the market, nowadays saturated, will do a natural selection and leave room to the best enterprises only. In the meantime, we must “resist” and look for new commercial outlet areas. Since today it is difficult to acquire orders at interesting prices even in the so-called rising Countries, like China, we will search elsewhere, where industry is developing and entrepreneurs are going to invest».