 THE BEGINNING
Adelio Lattuada was set up in 1978 when Mr. Adelio Lattuada was involved in maintenance service of machinery for the glass sector, which makes this year the company’s 30th anniversary. The idea of setting up his own company to make machinery had already begun to form in his mind at that time and, after speaking to clients, he realized that there was a real need for specific machinery. In fact, a that time, there were no machines to process corners, and when he was asked to make a machine to carry out this work he decided to try. Another fact that convinced Lattuada was that there was the trend to process in large series – up to 1,000 pieces. The need for this kind of machine was so great that in the design stage – the Delta, as the machine was called – had already been sold. This first production series created two machi nes – more or less the same but one with more grinding wheels than the other. And with these machines, Lattuada understood, thanks to his mechanical background, that corner grinding machines were specific machines but that could not be limited to just “corners”. Production and development, therefore, did not stop there and Lattuada began to develop his own straight-line edgers, a more universal machine.
SPEAKING TO ADELIO LATTUADA
At that time,” said Mr. Adelio Lattuada, “straight-line edgers did not have many wheels. In fact, there were machines with six wheels and those with two peripheral wheels. In my opinion, there was no machine to “fill the gap”. And this is where I came in, and I created the only machine with five wheels - the first AL 5. The machine was also intermediate as far as price is concerned, but was closer to the six-wheel machines if we speak about technology, performance and production capacity.”.
Why five wheels?
Because in my opinion, there was the six wheel machine which was, at that time, a large machine, or a two peripheral wheel machine which was small and there was nothing in between. Our machine had three polishing wheels compared to the two wheel s of competitors, but the price of our machine was similar to competitors’ machines. This was an important advantage for clients. And to differentiate these machines from others they had a different name: AL 8 Special, for example, and AL 7 Special. Now, of course, the names of our machines have been unified to make things simple, but one of the main characteristic has remained the same, and that is their robustness. In fact, we have recently substituted one that we presented at the Vitrum fair in 1989, which had worked well for 20 years!”
Standard but flexible production
During these first years we had to try to standardize our production but also to be flexible with regards to the requests of our clients. We therefore started with straight-line edgers – creating three large lines. First the small- to mediumsized (the AL series), then the TL, which was first created in 1986-87, and which, at that time, was considered a large machine. The next important machine was the TLR in 1999, created to handle large glass sheets when glass started to be used on a large scale for architectural purposes. It was the only machine at that time to be able to handle the large glass sizes that were being used. The next step was that of about three years ago with the creation of the TLS, due to the fact that the weight and thicknesses (up to 100 millimetres) of the glass sheets were continuously increasing.” (Two examples of the TLS were being assembled at Adelio Lattuada’s premises when Glass-Technology International was there, equipped with six-metre ‘arms’).
Bevellers
We now have to go back again to 1989, when bevellers were highly requested. Also for these machines, Adelio Lattuada applied the same theory as with his other machines, since the market only had two types of bevellers: small or large. Adelio Lattuada, therefore, created the Gamma 8 beveller, which had four bevelling wheels, then the arissing wheel, and had three felt wheels just like the larger machines. “The machine was slower than big machines but a lot more agile also because it processed up to 20/25° with.jpg) the same quality as the larger machines. We then expanded the range and we now have a series of bevellers which have always maintained good sales levels.
CONTINUOUS EXPANSION
Expansion has also been carried out and is still ongoing as far as company premises are concerned. The company moved its own technical office to the first floor so that it was also possible to have some new offices and entrance to the company. This brings the total area of the company to 4,000 square metres. Plans are now to create a bigger commercial office, and a further acquisition of a factory building for more offices and representative areas.
SALES AND PRODUCTION
.jpg) We have seen good years and periods in recent times, such as 2005-2006, but now, due to the exchange rate of the Euro and Dollar, machinery manufacturers have had to modify their business strategy a little. Areas that do business in Dollar, such as the Middle East, for example, have undergone considerable changes. Adelio Lattuada does not concentrate much on the ‘Dollar’ areas and we have not seen a lot of difference in sales, while Russia is maintaining its position, with some sales but not on a regular basis. We have also sold in countries such as the United States, but these are not our main markets. Brazil was an important market for us in the 90s, while at present the main markets are in northern Europe. Spain is the country where we began to enter the international market and where we have always had a considerable market share. At present we are seeing good results from Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and England, especially for special machines. We are, in fact, concentrating a lot on these special ma.jpg) chines for large glass sizes and this, for Adelio Lattuada is the market where it can be first in supplying the machines and where new buildings use glass in incredible quantities. The north, however, is where double-glazing is used the most and where production of special glass is ahead of the rest of Europe.
DEVELOPMENTS
At present, we are concentrating on bilateral machines, which will become just like the rest of our machinery with their own family and series. Our bilateral machines will have to become a line, which requires a certain amount of effort, because each client has his own details to be inserted into the line. We have been able to develop four lines of machines for straight line edging, we have most parts and also the foundation/base of the machine that are standard. When our clients ask for a personalized machine, we know that the changes in .jpg) the machine can reach up to 20 per cent, while the remaining part – 80 per cent – remains standard. We have also standardized the connection if we need to install a rack with an arm, which can be up to five or six metres, as per clients’ needs, compared to the standard size of three to four metres, there is no difference. We are now working on integrating some other parts to be able to install parts of the TL on the TLR. This means that if we install a part of the TLR, which is a high quality machine, on the TL, there is not such a big difference in price.” Also for reconditioned machinery, Adelio Lattuada can substitute most parts, even on machines that have been up and running for even 10 years, without difficulty or problems in use for operators, giving the reconditioned machine a further lease of life. This is also convenient for Adelio Lattuada as it means that there is no need for a large warehouse of spare parts.
How many machines do you build a year and what can you tell us about turnover for 2007/08?
Lattuada makes, on average, about 100 machines a year, but we do not concentrate on numbers but on quality, which requires more time. And this, logically, leads us to the fact that the company is also looking to hire more personnel to work on the new special machines it is making. At the moment there are two of these machines being built: two 13-wheel variable angle machines with six-metre arms. As far as turnover is concened, it has always increased by 20 per cent year by year, and after a short period when we saw 7-8 per cent, we have gone back to our usual 20 per cent annual increase.
PRODUCTION ON SHOW
The company had some of its machines on show at glasstec. As with all Adelio Lattuada’s production, all new machines are mainly characterized by technological flexibility, ease of use and limited maintenance. The functional planning and manufacturing standards used avoid long and expensive machine stops.
Reprinted from Glass Technology International no.6/2008
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