In March 1964 appeared for the first time in the universe of the Italian publishing a new quarterly review, published by Pubblitecnica in Milano. The first cover was completely grey, with an essential clarification, immediately under the writing “LAMIERA” that dominated at the centre of the page: “Technical review for the production, facing and machining of coils and sheet metal. Of tubes and structural steels”. On the current lively covers of our review nothing is left of the first austere edition, with the exception of the type of font of the word LAMIERA that has remained unchanged for half century. We trace back the development in the earliest years: since 1966 the review has become two-monthly, in the issue of January-February 1966 the first colour image appears (a production line of rotor and stator magnetic sheets with Widia carbide dies), since March 1966 the publishing company has become the current “Tecniche Nuove”, since October 1966 also the cover has been in colour and finally since 1968 the review has become monthly, clear sign of the interest that it arouses. In his first editorial, the editor Mr A. Giordano, wrote as follows «…We will therefore specify, first of all, that at the base of our initiative resides the shortage of adequate sector documentation for the requirements of current times. Engineering and metallurgy are fields of almost endless vastness, and to draw from the massive amount of the related technical literature the informative documentation of specific interest for those that have to do, in one way or another, with sheet metal becomes an unlikely affair, especially for the numerous medium and small companies to which the access to publications, not infrequently of fundamental importance, remains then actually precluded. … Of prevailingly practical nature, the content will embrace all fields, from the production to the use, giving the due space also to research and forefront techniques, as it is necessary for the timely orientation of the industrial and commercial initiatives in an era in which progress makes great strides …» I perfectly agree with what written several years ago. To the extent that in my first editorial (ten years have already gone by!) I wrote «…To express, in extreme synthesis, the target that I intend to reach in my new experience I would just say: To help sector players to understand how to tame sheet metal». And it is still undeniably true that, despite the extraordinary developments in the communication field due to Internet, it is still very difficult to gain access to qualified technical documentation. In this field the review Lamiera (but I daresay the whole publishing house Tecniche Nuove) has done and is still doing a lot. Concerning the contents, browsing the first issues we can notice that the review already showed high technical-scientific level, the published articles concerned the main interests of the sector players at half Sixties. Browsing the indexes, it was possible to find in-dept analyses concerning: drawing, forming, the behaviour of cold and hot rolling cylinders, protection coatings, tins for food conservation, innovative welding processes (at high frequency), bending, shearing and precision shearing (fine), tracing methodologies, metallurgy in general, the automation of production plants. If we analyse the index of the last issues of our review we can observe how some subjects (the majority) are still present while others, once reached the technological maturity, do not appear anymore (food tins for instance), others are obviously new (I just mention LASER). Evident proof that the review has been able to keep pace with the technological development, following productive processes from close up, without anyway losing sight of the problems of consolidated processes with which, however, the majority of the production is still implemented (for instance shearing, blanking, forming, drawing etc), absolutely not problem-free. It is difficult to end an editorial celebrating the fifty years of the review without wishing it at least as many, rich in successes, going on being, as it has been until now, a technical reference partner for sector players. Starting from the outstanding convention that will be held during «Lamiera» exhibition on May 16th. Finally, I wish that also in the future the review maintains the present balance in facing the problems of «old» and of new technologies, remaining, as a song by PierAngelo Bertoli says: «… with a foot in the past and open eyes looking straight ahead to the future ». Good fiftieth anniversary, dear old «LAMIERA»!
