Insight

A commitment to quality, modularity, excellence, reliability, customer centricity, continuous improvement, and innovation, are the core values that have been defining SACMA Group since 1939. The past two years have also seen a period of investment for the Group – with an expansion of its product offering, across all of its brands, to meet customers’ needs.

SACMA Group encompasses five interconnected production sites; 300 employees worldwide; five international branches with local aftersales staff in the USA, China, Taiwan, Germany and Brazil; as well as 24 agencies. With over 85 years of history, SACMA guarantees 24/7 on-site and remote service with 11 technical service centres providing excellence for its customers.

At its Italian plants in Limbiate, Vimercate and Castelenuovo Scrivia, through an insourced and modular production system, the factories manufacture mechanical parts with the highest standards for precision and raw material quality – due to the large majority of forging, casting and raw materials coming from Italy to respect the sustainability charter. Each workpiece is then assembled in-house and becomes part of either a SACMA multi-station forming machine; an Ingramatic flat die thread roller; an HS ASPE tapping machine; or moved by Tecno Lift products to customers’ workshops.

Active worldwide in western Europe, eastern Europe, the Americas and Asia, SACMA Group has invested heavily over the past few years to be closer to the customers buying its equipment. SACMA Group explains: “Sales are currently prevalent in America and India, where many new important projects are requiring new machineries. European countries are now in restructuration due to the inflation rate and the low level automotive market, but this could change quickly if politicians released the restrictions for the sales of thermic engines, unlocking the declining automotive market. SACMA Group has registered a large amount of purchase orders for the next 18 months, with some assembly lines sold out up to 2027 – something that has never happened before. This is a demonstration of how SACMA Group is spreading its technologies around the world and reaching new and emerging customers.”

In order to further meet customers’ needs, SACMA Group is investing heavily in the machines it offers. As combined machines now represent more than 50% of SACMA Group sales, the brand has introduced the new SP18 and SP28 combined header machines. These machines enable customers to produce fasteners and screws for the automotive, construction, electric/electronic and white good industries – starting from the wire. SACMA states that this is the best solution for high productivity requirements; consolidation of production methods; floor space utilisation; and workflow in the fastener manufacturing process – by having the forming, chamfering and thread rolling all in one machine.

The machine is also equipped with the latest technologies available on the market, such as direct drive motors and software to facilitate the operators in making changeover quickly, easily and safely. Since this technology is extremely profitable in terms of layout and sustainability, some customers requested a combined six die header, resulting in the SP39 combined header machine with a six die forming station, pointing station and threading station. 

As well as this, the KSP12 – a one die two blow combined machine with the threading operation integrated into the machine – is now supplied all over the world, enabling customers to reduce the layout of any kind of multiple machine lines. SACMA Group has recently dedicated one extra assembly line to the KSP12 in order to satisfy customer demand.

With the focus of strong standardisation of fasteners in the automotive market, Ingramatic is also investing in its product offering with the new Rotative Rolling ‘RR’ standalone machine. The ‘RR’ is a combined thread rolling machine with a modular solution consisting of the installation of a rotative rolling station just before the flat dies threading station to run the complex parts in one shot. The ‘RR’ machine will be available in three different sizes and can be sold as a station or standalone. Ingramatic is also further looking to the future with the commitment to double its building space by 2025 to increase its capacity to assemble more threaders.

As well as these future building plans, Tecno Lift is also investing in infrastructure with the extension of its plant to create more room to build ancillaries equipment to move fasteners. The plant now has two buildings with the first dedicated to laser cutting, bending, and welding, and the second housing the assembly line with vibrating hoppers, conveyors, elevators and bean tilting units.

As a further symbol of Italian excellence, HS ASPE, a brand for dedicated CNC machines for secondary operations after forming and threading, has introduced the T10-VT – a brand new tapping machine with a vertical architecture to run parts from M3 to M10, with four spindles at the maximum production speed of 200ppm. The machine has been designed to improve customers’ workshop layouts by reducing space and improving ergonomics. 

Sustainable machinery for the fastener industry

SACMA Group is now focusing on the sustainability of the fastener production process by introducing options to its machines to help customers exchange consumption and CO₂ emissions, with different levels of process data digitisation made available. 

These include an ‘Industry 4.0 Advanced’ level consisting of a Siemens^® IOT server in the electrical cabinet for the remote reading of code and commenting of the part in production, with the possibility of writing the quantity of pieces to be produced in the two pre-sets. Technical documentation such as electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic plans and operator manuals are also integrated into the machine and are available through QR code on a tablet or smartphone. 

In addition, the ‘Industry 5.0 SC Energy’ level equips the machine with a device monitoring the consumption of power and compressed air, in order to identify the opportunities to improve the energy efficiency, with economical, environmental and operative benefits. The figures are also available directly from the device itself or for download. Other functions include tracking of air pressure, temperature, humidity, as well as a shut-off valve to eliminate air consumption during machine stops.

To conclude its period of investment, and in order to provide customers a full service to exceed their needs, SACMA is focusing further on sustainability with the increase of its photovoltaic solar panels for its five factories, with more than 2,270kW, as well as a new generation of compressors and heaters to reduce its CO₂ footprint. In addition, SACMA Group has invested in new systems to guarantee the safety of its employees working in the manufacturing and assembly division with new factory layouts, new safety guards and new modular platforms.