Territory and Quality for the Group’s Success

Handling systems, sensors and plastic components, mechatronics. Faithful to these areas of interest, Gimatic continues its growth, based on research and production cycle efficiency. Starting from the supply chain, linked to the territory and increasingly integrated, as evidenced by the recent acquisition of the M.T.M. Montini company, specializing in the production of steel and aluminum semi-finished products.

by Cesare Pizzorno

Innovation, organization, supply chain. If we had only three words, we would choose these ones to describe the growth path that the Brescia company Gimatic started more than 30 years ago, in 1985. A growth that does not seem to stop. A few numbers: over 2 million components made each year, more than 180 registered patents, almost 100 employees in the production site in Brescia and just under 250 worldwide, considering the 17 branches that will soon become 19. 10% of annual turnover is invested in innovation, thanks also to an ever closer relationship with universities and research institutes. “Everything comes from the R&D department, with an increasingly mechatronic soul, which allows us to develop our products internally”, explains Giuseppe Cardovino, Strategic Marketing at Gimatic. “Speaking of research, we invest a lot in the development of prototypes, with the aim of obtaining a result that is as similar as possible to the component that will go into production”. Another Gimatic’s peculiarity is the close relationship with local companies, especially for the supply of semi-finished products, which are then assembled and tested and checked at the Brescia plant.

Assembly, testing, shipping
A factory organized to make the production process as fluid as possible, from assembly to shipment, also thanks to a system of vertical warehouses that allows the shipment of a component in 24/48 hours. The assembly operations, in particular, provide for a double check, which is carried out both during assembly by the operators and at the end of the process.
Another key department is the test room, where the products are subjected to specific tests. “Over time – says Mr Cardovino – tests have also increased in the case of components, for example plastic ones, which were previously subjected to less sophisticated tests. We consider this an extremely important step to be sure of the quality of our components”.
Gimatic also has machines for 3D printing, which are used with profit both for creating prototypes and producing special parts.

New acquisition for an even more integrated supply chain
We are at the third word mentioned at the beginning of this article: supply chain. The M.T.M. Montini company of Bagnolo Mella (BS) – a historic supplier of semi-finished products – has joined the Gimatic Group, making supply chain even more integrated. Founded 25 years ago thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Ivano Montini, the company can rightfully be described as “4.0”, since most of the 70 machine tools installed are networked, interconnected and capable to provide production data in real time. Today, M.T.M. Montini has a 10 million turnover,
just under 70 employees and 6,000 square meteres of production space, which will become about 9,000 after the construction of the new plant.
“Our production process starts with extruded profiles, mainly made of aluminum and steel, which are processed by machine tools and multi-spindle machining centers”, explains Ivano Montini, who has designed and implemented, in collaboration with Nova Robotics, a robotized interlocking system for modular and transportable machine tools.
“Initially, the system was fixed, then we decided to make it mobile to be able to use it with different machines. We have developed a mechanical honeycomb mechanism that adapts to the size of the piece and blocks it while waiting for the robot to pick it up”, adds Mr Montini.

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