Caleotto, a steel company specialized in lamination, invests in new technologies, with the four-step calibrator, a tool that will enhance company production and expand professional skills in the direction of three keywords: research, development and growth, but also professionalism and determination, which allowed to fill some technical gaps with the rest of Europe.

Caleotto’s goal is to consolidate the market in Italy and expand it to Germany, through the improvement of quality and the expansion of the product range, in compliance with the standards of safety, guarantee and environment.

The one on which Caleotto has invested is the first calibrator of this type installed in Italy and focuses on quality, laser technology for continuous measurement of the profile and closer collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano – Lecco territorial pole.

The new calibrator is supplied by the German Sms Meer, part of the world-class Sms Group plant engineer. The calibrator’s laser measurement system ensures that the dimensional tolerances remain within the desired limits.

The numbers: Caleotto’s factory in Lecco covers an area of 96 thousand square meters, of which 47 thousand are covered and last year it exceeded the threshold of 100 employees. In 2018, turnover grew by 7.7%, reaching 98 million euros. Total investments for the 2016-2018 three-year period amounted to around 20 million euros.

The calibrator is not the only new Caleotto system, which has also created a loop for the production of thermomechanical steels and a new shaft for forming skeins. A new presser will be installed shortly to improve product packaging.

Domenico Campanella, president of Caleotto, commented on the successes of his company: «Today the first phase of our history, born in 2015, ends with efficiency and quality. The challenge is to be able to compete in an increasingly complex market, continuing along the path taken. The objectives were ambitious, but after four years, we can say we have achieved them and the budget proves it. These investments will give new energy and new stimuli for the coming years, improving the production range».

Lorenzo Angelini, Caleotto’s managing director, is of the same opinion: «We plan to place ourselves in an increasingly European market. The company’s goal is grow employees and continue to invest».

«The other element that has allowed us to win the challenge of the relaunch – explain the two managers of Caleotto – is undoubtedly the inclusion of many young people including, in the last two years, 6 new graduates in engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan – Polo territorial of Lecco, with which we have immediately established an excellent relationship of collaboration. Obviously we do not stop, knowing that the market will soon put us in front of new challenges, for which we are already preparing».

The new system was presented during “Made in Steel”, the most important event in southern Europe dedicated to the entire steel supply chain, an event conceived by siderweb, the steel community, an event that brings together the steel supply chain to reflect on the future of the sector. The title of this eighth edition was Steel Human, Sustainability and Innovation, to try to understand how the global steel industry can reduce the environmental impact and renew its products without losing competitiveness.

Reed Exhibitions, a division of RELX, has completed its acquisition of Mack Brooks Exhibitions. Mack Brooks‘ flagship brands include EuroBLECH (sheet metal working technology); inter airport (airport infrastructure and technology); Fastener Fair (fastener and fixing technology); Chemspec (fine and speciality chemicals); RAILTEX (rail infrastructure and technology); ICE Europe (paper, film and foil converting); CCE (manufacturing and converting corrugated and cartonboard); PSE Europe (plastics) and InPrint (print technology for industrial manufacturing). The acquisition expands Reed Exhibitions‘ global portfolio by more than 30 business-to-business events in 14 countries, delivering value for stakeholders, including customers and staff. Nicola Hamann will continue as Managing Director of Mack Brooks, and the company will continue to be based in St Albans, UK. Reed Exhibitions is a leading global events organiser, with more than 500 events in 30 countries. In 2018, Reed Exhibitions brought together more than 7m event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed Exhibitions’ events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle. It is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.

Planning with foresight is a skill that distinguishes family businesses. At Poppe + Potthoff, Dr. Christian Potthoff-Sewing as principal shareholder and CFO initiated the succession years ago: For this purpose, high-potential executives were specifically brought on board and prepared in the company for the upcoming tasks. Now they take over the management of the Poppe + Potthoff Group in a team with another experienced top manager from industry.

The new Chairman of the Executive Board is Ron Blokzijl, an engineer and business economist. Following positions in leading companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria with numerous international activities, the Dutchman joined Poppe + Potthoff in 2018 with the task of further developing the group strategically with a focus on innovation and internationalization.

“I am very happy about my new task, as I am working closely with a young yet well- established management team,” explains Ron Blokzijl. “Poppe + Potthoff is in a very healthy condition. Dr. Potthoff-Sewing has carefully prepared the succession, for which I owe him my greatest respect. With this team, we are ideally positioned to seize new opportunities.”

Chief Executive Drive Technology is the business economist and industrial engineer Steffen Herter. The former management consultant and Director of Operations of a multinational mechanical engineering company was called to Poppe + Potthoff as Managing Director of the R+W Group in 2016. R+W, with production sites in Germany and Slovakia as well as numerous international sales offices, develops and produces precision and industrial drive couplings and has been part of the Poppe + Potthoff Group since 2011.

Dr.-Ing. Bengt-Henning Maas as Chief Executive Mobility leads the product segments Tubular Components (customer-specific precision steel tubes, common rails and high- pressure lines as well as specialized mechanical engineering) and Precision Compo- nents. The Doctor of Physics came to Poppe + Potthoff from steel research in 2014 and has been driving the topic of Industry 4.0, among others.

Benjamin Hud, who has been Head of Finance and Controlling at Poppe + Potthoff since 2009, is now Chief Financial Officer and in this role will also be in charge of per- sonnel development and IT for the Group. It is his responsibility to expand the syner- gies within the group with its 1,650 employees at 17 locations through joint processes and systems across all sites and to continuously develop the qualification of employ- ees and managers.

Dr. Christian Potthoff-Sewing will join Poppe + Potthoff’s advisory board. The compa- ny has been family-owned since its founding in 1928 in Werther, Westphalia. With the expertise of top executives, the business has continuously been expanded. Today, Poppe + Potthoff stands for highest precision in metal processing for the automotive industry, ship and aircraft construction, mechanical engineering and other industries and is active close to its customers in over 50 countries.

On a yearly basis, in 2018 machine tool orders remained stable versus 2017 (-0.8%)

The UCIMU index with regard to machine tool orders is stationary: in the fourth quarter of 2018, it stood at -0.2% compared with the same period of the previous year. The absolute value of the index was 161.6 (base 100 in 2010).

The overall outcome was due to the positive performance of foreign orders and to the decrease in the orders collected by the Italian manufacturers in the domestic market, which is however still dynamic.

In particular, foreign orders grew by 2.4% compared with the period October-December 2017. The absolute value of the index was 141.7.

On the domestic front, on the contrary, Italian machine tool manufacturers registered a 6.3% downturn in the collection of orders, compared with the fourth quarter of 2017. The absolute value of the index amounted to 267.4: it is the best result ever achieved (compared with the same quarter), excluding the record of the fourth quarter of 2017.

If it is clear that we are experiencing a slowdown phase, however it is important to consider the jump of Italian machine tool consumption over the last few years. Considering a representative sample of enterprises belonging to the sector (derived from the panel regarding the data collection for the index), in the fourth quarter of 2011, the average value of orders collected in the domestic market by each enterprise of the sample amounted to 1.7 million euro. In 2016, it was 2.5 million euro, whereas in 2018, it stood at 6.1 million, much more than the double compared with two years ago.

On a yearly basis, the total index is confirmed around the level of 2017 (-0.8%). Foreign orders increased by 5.2%. Domestic orders recorded an 11.5% decrease.

Massimo Carboniero, President of UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE, the Italian machine tools, robots and automation systems manufacturers’ association, commented: “The data of the fourth quarter 2018 are confirming the feeling and the expectations we already had: the year that has just ended was really positive for the Italian manufacturers, who achieved good results both in Italy and abroad”.

“With a view to the future, the positive trend of orders in the foreign markets is an encouraging indication for Italian manufacturers that have proven to be able to work well despite the rather difficult international framework. The slowdown of the automotive sector and the partial closing of some markets involved in complicated, geopolitical issues – as, for example, in the case of Russia and Iran – did not negatively interfere with the activity in foreign markets, which grew uninterruptedly for the whole year 2018”.

“Also in consideration of the expected slowdown of the domestic market, – stated Carboniero – which should however be confirmed in 2019 on similar levels as in 2018, it is necessary to establish measures that may encourage and stimulate the enterprises to work more and more with foreign users”.

Xiris Automation Inc is pleased to announce the release of an expanded version of WeldStudio™, its

software utility for controlling and displaying images from weld cameras. The latest version of WeldStudio™ includes the Picture-In-a-Picture (PIP) feature, a powerful new feature that allows for an inset window to be created in the camera image with different settings from the main camera image.

When implemented, key areas of interest within the inset window can be set up with different contrast levels than the rest of the image, optimizing the inset window for a bright weld arc while its surrounding background can be enhanced to see the darker surrounding features.

The Xiris WeldStudio™ software includes everything needed to set up, control, display and record video from Xiris XVC weld cameras. The user-friendly interface allows operators to set-up and control multiple cameras on any suitable PC running Windows 7/8/10 operating system.

Xiris Automation Inc. specializes in developing Optical Systems for Quality Control for several niche industries, providing some of the world’s most dynamic manufacturers with the ability to detect, recognize, and interpret quality defects in their manufactured goods.