Exploiting a technological and market specialization to approach new productive and commercial possibilities can be the trump card not to lose competitiveness and to make one’s own company grow. Invimec, at Sovizzo (VI), has done it.
To be able to suit the market needs is a “must” for all companies, of whatever industrial sector. To keep steady one’s own productive mission, without revolutionizing it but implementing or refining it according to the demands coming from customers is instead a quality that few own. A modus operandi that allows not only remaining competitive but also growing and increasingly standing out from competitors. It is with this attitude that Invimec, company located at Sovizzo, in Vicenza province, specialized in cold rolling mills and forming solutions, has strengthened – for a good 50 years – its presence in the general mechanics sector, succeeding also in entering successfully fields where special and niche applications are requested.
“In 2013 we celebrated our 50th anniversary, thus highlighting what is a really long life for a small engineering company like ours – explains Mario Ghezzo, managing director of Invimec – . A goal that we have reached thanks to the capability of suiting the market changes several times and because we have been able to modify in time our core business without losing all the technical peculiarities that have always characterized our production”.
Changing with the market
Invimec was born in 1963, in Vicenza province, for the production of special and standard machine tools intended for the mechanics sector, the plastic, textile and automotive industry. Over the years, it has specialized in the production of rolling, forming and cutting machines, for small and medium productions. To face the economic crisis, starting from 2000, it has been committed to the development of rolling mills for the wire and strip processing, thus orienting its production to increasingly diversified markets. From the historic jewellery sector, where it has been present since the Sixties, to the watchmaking and precision mechanics fields.
“Our company has always been distinguished by the will of not specializing in machining processes intended for a single industrial sector – explains Mario Ghezzo –, for this reason we have always tried to offer particular machines to customers, able to solve whatever operational problem, in various ambits and with solutions often differing from those generally offered by our competitors”.
For this reason, Invimec could successfully approach the most various production ambits: first of all, the jewellery sector, which requires machinery able to work with great precision extremely particular materials and special alloys. Starting from this specialization, Invimec has anyway succeeded in proposing its technical know-how also to other industrial sectors, which needed the same operational and productive characteristics, that is to say the use of fast and precise machines, not very big, able to produce medium-small batches, with flexible rates.
“From 2000 onwards, we started proposing our wire and strip working machines, intended for the gold sector, also in other industrial ambits – says Ghezzo -. Our machines have always stood out from those offered by our competitors for being small, technologically simple and minimal, suitable for productions in small batches. To satisfy the market requirements, we have then developed our machine fleet, widening it with slightly bigger-size machines, suitable for larger productions, intended for roll milling and forming operations both on precious metals and on special alloys. In this way we have tried to fill a market gap, satisfying also the productive requirements of companies coming from the general industry, operating in niche fields, which were looking for machines for particular applications”.
“In 2013 we celebrated our 50th anniversary”, explains Mario Ghezzo, managing director of Invimec.
Approaching new sectors
Everything starts with a prototype: “Some years ago, on behalf of a big company that produces welding materials and wires, we carried out a research and development activity for the implementation of a machine for special machining – explains the managing director of Invimec – . The technology that sprang from that, from simple testing, has then become an active component for their production under all respects. This was just the beginning of new collaborations. Since then, we have produced machines to process platinum and palladium alloys and other special materials used in the military, medical or agricultural ambit, where it was needed the capability of working any type of material in flexible way”.
Today Invimec destines about 40% of its activity to the gold sector, where however, unlike the past, year by year it is introducing application and product novelties, already experimented in other ambits and intended for being used in critical applications. The remaining 60% of the Vicenza company’s turnover comes instead from the production of wire, pipe and strip machinery, demanded by all those general industry companies that need the machining of high added value materials.
“Thanks to this operational modality, in the last few years we have also manufactured two plants for the production of super conductive wires, conquering the confidence of one of the few companies in the world that manufactures them”, ends Ghezzo.
An increasingly wide and specific offer
To maintain and to further develop one’ s own productive peculiarities, it is necessary to try to invest as much as possible in the realization of innovative solutions, in the technological forefront. That is the reason why Invimec has never stopped staking on the growth and the differentiation of its offer: “Over the last few years, we are trying to widen our machine range, in terms of both productive capacity and dimensional level, naturally following the trends coming from the market. At present, our machines can work wires up to 16 mm of diameter, even if we are designing the manufacturing of models that can reach 25 mm. The same issue is valid also for the workable strip width, which currently stops at 50 mm on our machines, with the aim of reaching 120 mm”.
Another novelty in technical study phase at Invimec is also the development of machines able ‘to squash the wire’, transforming it from round to flat: “It is a demand that is more and more frequently coming from enterprises that work materials and products for the photovoltaic sector or operating in electro-technical machining – explains Ghezzo -. In this ambit, we are developing a plant that allows executing all the necessary operations ‘to squash the wire’, offering anyway a finished product in all respects”. All that with the use of a forefront technology, but at a very competitive price, as they state in the company.
“Thanks to our business philosophy, over the last 3-4 years we have grown a lot in terms of turnover and we are going on doing that– explains Mario Ghezzo -. We are very satisfied with this result, especially if we think of the world crisis in recent times. Last year we scored +30%, but also +20% in 2012 and in 2011. Besides, we expect that also the year in course will witness a general expansion for our company”.
The demand that creates a product
Born from the specific requests of a customer and from the demand more and more often coming from the current market, EFFE 2010 i Single Drive is a wire multi-stand mill suitable for the cold rolling of wires, bars and profiles that Invimec presented to the public during the Wire 2014 Exhibition in Düsseldorf. Thanks to its particular design, it grants extreme operational flexibility: it stands out in fact for its high power, compact overall dimensions and very intuitive use modalities.
“It is a smaller version than a model that has been part of our product offer for a long time – explains Mario Ghezzo, managing director of Invimec -. Actually, this machine executes the same operations as its bigger sister but, considering its size and the lower price, it can satisfy smaller and particular market ranges. It has lower working speed, of 100 metres per minute, and it can machine wires, pipes and bars from 10 to 0.5 mm. Besides, in this new model we have introduced the possibility of rolling the wire, then reducing its size, but also of shaping and forming it directly on the same machine, thus avoiding an additional passage. This operation allows giving it the needed shape, to make it become, for instance, round, half round, rectangular, square, oval, and even profiled, not necessarily with a regular geometric shape”. Besides, EFFE 2010i Single Drive is a very flexible machine: a hydraulic circuit moves each stand, so that it can be included or excluded from the rolling sequence. Finally, thanks to the Single Drive system, each present stand is individually operated by an AC motor with encoder (on demand DC brushless), controlled by an adequate drive and by a PLC regulator with feedback.
