High Added Value Mechanical Machining
Aiming at technical and design excellence in partnership with clients. Italo Vezzoli explains MM Automotive’s approach
by Alberto Pomari
Talking to Italo Vezzoli, who with his sons founded MM Automotive, reveals all of the pride and energy which allowed him to grow and acquire a standing on the market of aluminium mechanical machining. By all means this is a characteristic shared by many entrepreneurs who never stopped when faced by market and environmental difficulties. Italo Vezzoli founded MM Automotive twenty years ago in Berlingo (near Brescia) and since 2008 the company has been operating in its new headquarters in Coccaglio. From his considerable experience in the extruded aluminium world, Vezzoli was able to derive the right inspiration: “MM Automotive was founded as a company dedicated to the assembly of Diesel engine components, especially balancers. Later we installed mitre saws for aluminium, to cut components for gas valves. Today we can claim a high knowledge of the product and its processes, without ever neglecting the human aspect: an efficient technical office takes care of the development and fine-tuning of products for our clients, even on a vast industrial scale”.
The MM Automotive method
The partnership with clients begins with a feasibility study. The technical-sales office collects all the necessary information to process the offer for clients, getting back to them promptly with the first cost and productivity analyses.
We then move on to the executive phase of the project, where MM’s staff evaluates all of the production aspects: the machines required, tools, size allowances which need to be respected and the packaging of the finished product. This is where design ideas and proposals are analysed in detail and shared with the clients, working to obtain the best possible solution suitable for the product and its final use.
“We are able to machine every kind of non-ferrous metal”, Vezzoli explains, “especially extruded or drawn aluminium, but even bronze, brass and copper. We carry out precision mechanical machining on dedicated CNC work centres, especially cuts with minimal allowances up to 0.02 mm. We use numerically controlled mitre saws and can also carry our deburring, tumbling and washing operations as well as the assembly of very complex components. If our clients’ specifications so demand, we can provide such surface finishings as coating, oxidation and more, by means of a qualified network of external suppliers”.
From supplier to client’s partner
In Italy, mechanical subcontracting is going through a moment of difficulty, but according to Vezzoli there are in any case numerous opportunities that may be seized: “Regarding the current market situation, we are optimistic. Of course we are not only moving in the automotive field, which is currently going through a difficult phase especially abroad, but even in many other sectors: from gas valves to design furnishing, to components for the mechanical industry and photovoltaic panels. Currently our export sales account for 70% of our revenues, but we are receiving important orders from the United States. In order to grow, we count on our experience and knowledge of persons and projects, but above all on the good reputation which we built”.
“Personally”, Italo Vezzoli concluded, “I think our activity will become increasingly important. The optimization of corporate resources, the need to invest more in research and development, is leading an increasing number of companies to transfer to external suppliers parts of their production process, even relevant ones. If the supplier, as in or case, can also suggest solutions which lead to further improvement, then the job is done. Even the growing expansion of Chinese exports does not seem to be poised to affect our activity to any great extent: the flexibility and ingenuity proposed by companies such as ours are the most serious argument to contrast the import of mass-produced and standardized products”.