JULY COVER STORY: Top technology in Turin

In its 40 year history, Prima Power has evolved into a leading manufacturer of sheet metal fabrication equipment spanning laser cutting machines (2D and 3D), welding, drilling and punching, combi machines (punch/shear and punch/laser), bending machines (press brakes, panel bending), automation systems (FMC, FMS) and software.

Essentially, Prima Industrie Group comprises two business units: Prima Power – which looks after the plethora of equipment mentioned above, and Prima Electro which specialises in industrial electronics and laser technologies. This includes the development and manufacture of power and control components as well as high power laser sources (fibre and CO₂) for industrial applications – used by the Group’s own machines and third party customers.

Prima Power is a global company in every respect: it operates eight manufacturing sites around the world; eight R&D centres, employs 1,600 members of staff and has a presence in 25 countries. Turnover is €364 million and during its long history it has installed some 12,000 machines.

Its rise globally over the years is a due to a combination of good old fashioned organic growth and a number of acquisitions and mergers along the way including Laserdyne from GSI Lumonics in 2001, Matra in Germany in 2005 and most notably Finn Power from Finland in 2008. A more recent milestone for Prima in March 2015 was its arrival in China, marked by the opening of a manufacturing plant in Suzhou.

Under one roof

Back on Italian soil; although only officially opened in May this year by chairman and founder Gianfranco Carbonato in the presence of the President of the Piedmont Region, Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, Piero Fassino and of the President of Confindustria, Prima has had its sights set on building a new Headquarters and Technology Centre (HQTC) in Turin for some time.

“We actually bought the land seven or eight years ago,” recalls Claudio Banchi, executive vice president sales, EU and South America – and the man operationally responsible for the HQTC. “But then the recession hit and everything was put on hold. Just over a year ago we decided the time was right to proceed and in terms of the Centre itself, things came together very quickly: the whole construction took less than a year to build.”

Chairman and founder Gianfranco Carbonato adds: “To accommodate our exponential growth, we needed to create a central hub capable of efficiently coordinating the various elements of the Prima Group. Finally we have a home for all our technologies under one roof.

“Having one of the most extensive machinery ranges in the world and a large, global customer base operating in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, energy, yellow goods and construction, it’s vitally important to have a facility that we’re proud to bring customers to,” he continues. “The HQTC can easily accommodate four guest delegations simultaneously; it has an 80 seat training room; a demo room; and 11 machines operating in the showroom area – including an entire automated production line. Customers today need all-encompassing manufacturing solutions rather than simply products and our new HQTC reflects those needs.”

Go green

Even for a business as established as Prima’s, at €15 million it represents a serious investment. It’s clean, modern, energy efficient and built from the ground up using ‘green’ materials and technology ranging from thermal isolation to energy production through photovoltaic panels, solar panels and a geothermal plant.

The Green theme extends to Prima’s equipment through its ‘Green Means’ technology which it builds into all its product lines. The company claims a 45% yearly CO₂ reduction through a shift from using CO₂ laser sources to fibre; a 64% CO₂ emission reduction through use of its servo-electric panel benders compared to hydraulic systems and on the punching front, 82% energy savings through Prima’s servo-electric punching with Ecopunch technology and 13% scrap reductions via its punch-shear technology which reduces material wastage.

Certainly worth of note is the fact that Prima reinvests 6.5% of its total revenues back into R&D. With that in mind, it’s probably no surprise that in the past year, the company has released four new products – each of which can be seen up and running in the new HQTC in Turin.

The Laser Genius 2D machine for example, features linear motors and F1 derived technology with the use of a carbon fibre carriage. The Laser Next 3kW 3D machine is boldly claimed by Prima to be ‘the fastest and most productive in the world’ with linear motors on all axes and direct motors on the head. In just over a year since its introduction, Prima has conducted more than 100 installations.

Elsewhere, the high performance Combi Genius punch-laser combination machine incorporates an inkjet marking system and can process material up to 8mm thickness.

At source

But perhaps Prima’s most significant recent announcement aside from the official opening of the HQTC is the development of its own high power fibre laser source. According to Prima, this makes it the first laser machine manufacturer to develop its own source using fibre technology and means that practically all constituent components used in the manufacture of its systems and machines can be produced – and consequently controlled – in-house.

The culmination of intensive development activity spanning several years, the 3kW CF3000 laser source has been successfully piloted at selected customer sites over the past six months and will be manufactured at Prima’s plants in Chicopee (Massachusetts, USA), Barone Canavese (Turin) and the Suzhou’s factory in China. A 4kW variant – the CF4000 – will be introduced later this year.

Until now, the sole supplier of fibre laser sources to the Group was US-based IPG Photonics. Prima emphasises that will continue to maintain a close relationship with IPG and will offer its products as an alternative to the CF3000.

The driver behind the development was market forces: Prima says it is anticipating significant growth across the board from its laser machines – taking advantage of the recent introduction of new models such as the Laser Next, Platino 2.0 Fiber and Laser Genius in the segment of 2D cutting, and Combi Genius in the laser punching combi machine arena.

Closer to home

Leading the charge for Prima in the UK and Ireland is Daniel McGinty and as he reveals, the home market is pretty healthy at the moment: “We’ve recently doubled the size of our UK showroom in Coventry and currently employ 10 (soon to be 11) field-based engineers,” he says. “We believe we have the best engineer to customer ratio in the country because we have one engineer for every 14 machines sold. After selling 14 machines, we employ another person – and that’s a policy set by head office.”

The facility in Coventry has two machines up and running: a 6kW Platino fibre laser and a Punch Genius Dynamic fitted with the Compact Express automation system, but as Mr McGinty emphasises, Turin is easily accessible and convenient for UK customers.

“Our Coventry showroom is geared up to demonstrate Prima’s laser and punching technology as well as automation systems and software,” he affirms. “We also stock a wide range of materials – from copper and brass through to aluminium and mild steel – so we can carry out thorough machining trials and testing on behalf of our clients.

“But if customers need a more detailed look at our entire product range, we recommend visiting our new HQTC in Turin. It’s only a few hours on a plane and for customers strapped for time, it’s certainly doable in a day.”

Prima Power www.primapower.com