A new levelling line, designed and manufactured to be efficient, flexible and highly productive, allows a renowned service centre to stand out on the market.
Novastilmec S.p.A. is a company of international relevance in the production of plants for the sheet metal treatment, transformation and working. For over 35 years it has been standing out in the sector relying on two production sites, at Garbagnate Monastero (LC) and Renate (MB), boasting a global market with installations implemented in the most important service centres and steelworks worldwide. The strong points of Novastilmec are technology, high flexibility a well as the impeccable after sale service. It proposes a range of process and treatment lines from 0.3 to 30 mm of thickness to the market, including complete levelling and cut-to-length lines, slitting and packaging lines. The company takes care of two main markets: those that start up their activity and need an “entry level” product, and those that intend to perfect their already advanced activity, investing in high-tech solutions, with highly automated plants and with high performances. Novastilmec satisfies both user typologies, in any case proposing solutions characterized by high quality and great versatility, configuring them in different manner, tailor-made for customers.
Flexibility: a concrete case
It is part of the “high end” category of customers of Novastilmec Euroacciai S.p.A. (Villa Carcina, BS), enterprise specialized in the marketing of flat stainless steel laminates manufactured according to standard sizes or customized according to the requests. Its President and managing director, Alessio Tommasini, starts analysing the current economic situation: «In the first months of the 2014 year we perceive a moderate improvement in the order collection, thanks also to the complicity of the forecast of price increases connected with the rising trends of raw materials. This modest confidence growth is likely to accompany us until the Summer period». As far as the most merely technological aspects are concerned, Tommasini explains: «Our company has acquired a complex productive structure targeted to the “cut to measure” of flat stainless steel laminates, for instance AISI 304, 316, 430, etc., in order to offer a customized, punctual and complete service to customers». Euroacciai is, more precisely, a service centre whose market is mainly concentrated in Italy and, secondarily, in North Europe Countries, and in time it has specialized in the cold cutting from coils, for the production of cut-to-measure strips, frames and sheets, in the cold shearing for the production of disks in several diameters as well as in the surface finishing through the lines for the satin finish of the strip and “scotch-brite” brushing. Among the most cutting-edge and technologically advanced machines of Euroacciai we can find the levelling line manufactured and supplied by Novastilmec (which has also provided the automation equipment for the brushing line). Alessio Tommasini specifies: «For some years by now the “high end” market like ours has been demanding to work with versatility and efficiency high-strength materials like exactly stainless steels, with thickness included between 0.6 and 3.5 mm. That’s why we have turned to Novastilmec, whose levelling line represents a warranty of success when our purchasers ask for certain machining operations to us, some even really “exacting”». The line, with approximate 30- metre length, is provided with combined multi-pack leveller, double-eccentric rotary shears and no-stop stacker up to 10 metres. Besides, it allows the in-line trimming with scrap shear system and the application of several materials including PVC and paper; all that harmonically managed and efficiently controlled, optimized through state-of-the-art electronics and cutting-edge software. «In comparison with the past – further adds Tommasini – the introduction of the new Novastilmec line has allowed us to enhance performances significantly, both from the point of view of the productivity and of the quality of the implemented parts. What is clearly appreciable is the high flexibility of the line, and this is one of the most important reasons that has generated the productivity rise. On average, depending on the size of batches and on the type of job orders, the possibility of varying material, thicknesses and widths quickly represents an undisputable advantage, especially in this market phases that calls for smaller production batches than few years ago, but more varied». Not only: another of the aspects currently making the difference is the “simplicity” with which the line and the equipment by Novastilmec are managed by Euroacciai operators. Tommasini: «It is a decisive characteristic. The user-friendly programming and control allow avoiding errors and then drastically reducing inefficiencies or delays. In other words, the overall perception is that we have acquired a plant standing out for notable technology, in the forefront, granting high productivity but also really simple to be managed. Which is just what we needed». Novastilmec’s contribution was decisive in that: «Certainly. Some manufacturers often “rest” on consolidated solutions and do not go “further”. The Lombard Company, on the contrary, is a really dynamic and attentive supplier, which likes perfecting designs, researching the detail for each machine composing the line, and which aims at really satisfying customers’ requirements, accepting observations and answering the requests, also in after sale service phase». On the other hand, Novastilmec knows that the targeted research, the continuous will of improving and satisfying customers and the “engineering effort” are the only “true” way to be undertaken to remain competitive and to meet customers’ expectations. The president of Euroacciai ends: «We are really satisfied with the performances that the Novastilmec line allows us to obtain. What more satisfies us is the sensation of housing machinery featuring cutting-edge technology with which it is really possible to make the difference on the market».
