Insight

Welcome to the 2024 Janus Perspective, a unique feature that includes a wide cross section of global fastener business leaders. Named after the Roman God 'Janus' – who had the ability to look to the future and to the past, and was often depicted with having two faces – this feature brings together thought leaders from every facet of the industry, from around the world, to give us their retrospective on 2023, as well as prospects and challenges for 2024.

Valeriano Rampezzotti, owner and president

SACMA Group closed 2023 with a record in terms of sales and number of machines supplied to the worldwide fastener market. This was mainly due to the reshoring strategy operating within certain markets since the Covid-19 pandemic period, as well as the increasing demand for machines to supply more fasteners to the automotive market – supported by the increasing production of EV cars. 

During 2023 we also saw a lower demand for machines from the construction market, due to a decrease in this sector as a result of the impact of higher interest rates. However, heavy construction is still demanding more ‘big size’ machines for structural bolts production in order to support the large scale public works decided by different countries around the world. The aerospace market also demonstrated a dynamic trend allowing us to supply more Ingramatic and SACMA warm forming machines, as well as HS ASPE drilling/tapping machines to run parts with special materials, such as titanium, Waspaloy, A286 and Inconel. 

The electrics and general industry fields have been very active with a lot of requests for smaller machine sizes. Another aspect is the tendency of our customers to invest in our combined machines – providing the best solution for high-productivity requirements, consolidation of production methods, floor space usage, and workflow in a fastener manufacturing environment, by having a multi-operation ‘all in one’ machine. This also makes the production of our customers much more sustainable, which is today a strategical necessity. 

Unique manufacturing

We are a unique manufacturer able to provide all these solutions – with SACMA also providing the combined headers with heading, pointing and threading stations; Ingramatic providing the combined threaders with washer assembly, rotative threading and flat dies threading stations; as well as HS ASPE providing combined secondary operation machines with drilling, chamfering and tapping stations ‘all in one’. For all the above reasons, the portfolio of SACMA Group is pretty busy until mid-2025 and we are confident for the future in keeping this strength.

To support our growth, our strategy to implement our service around the world has also been a key factor to support our customers – especially in China and India where we have provided many machines to new customers in 2023 and where training is essential for a successful investment. We know that we are well positioned to support our customers, but we are determined to provide even more as we know our clients are facing a lack of competence in their field – due to their senior experienced employees, who possess the know-how, retiring from the sector. That is why we are also actively working on an Artificial Intelligence program to help technicians, operators and maintenance people to ‘speak’ directly with their machines, as well as receive instruction from the HMI to guide the engineers on how to act and fix any possible problems. Of course, an operative program will be included to teach the operators directly on board and to guide them when setting up the machine. This AI program is in addition and is actually in its first stage, where our R&D is defining all the topics that will be covered. We are expecting the first AI program to be ready by the end of 2024.

2023 was also an important year for us as we went live with our new SAP software, which was successfully implemented in our sales, purchasing and financial departments. We are already seeing many advantages in working with the SAP program – allowing us to manage and connect the headquarters with the factories and branches worldwide. That is why are already working on Phase Two, which consists of the technical office, manufacturing, assembling and logistic departments. 

This step forward is a condition to get our group well monitored for at least the next 20 years and it will support our growth steadily, with an optimal governance that is a key factor to challenge the macroeconomic events and the fluctuation of the markets.

New parameters mean new attitude

We are recognising that suppliers of machinery are now evaluated for their approach towards sustainable. For that, we are proud to announce that we launched a ‘Sustainability Evaluation’ during 2023 to show to our customers how our organisation is performing in terms of Kilometer zero (Km0) and CO₂ footprint. In fact, we have created an ecosystem with five interconnected production factories – with the manufacturing and the assembly departments of all of them fully integrated on-site. 

For decades, instead of outsourcing components, we have strived with our manufacturing plants to run all the mechanical components needed to make our machines. Even regarding the raw material, we are very careful to purchase it from Italy to respect the ‘Km0’ and get the highest quality to the level of the ‘SACMA DNA’, which is today the worldwide benchmark. 

Excited for 2024

2024 is starting with a great achievement thanks to the new additional building of Tecno Lift. Since joining the group, Tecno Lift sales have grown by 15% to 20% every year and the addition of this new building will allow the company to increase the number of units made to move fasteners. The layout of the company will also change, as there will now be one building for manufacturing (laser cutting, bending, welding) and one building for assembly and testing. 

The Tecno Lift division will also continue to provide ancillary equipment to load and unload parts for SACMA Group operating machines and existing equipment. Beside conveyors, the product line of Tecno Lift includes lotifiers, bin tilting units, automatic loaders and vibrating hoppers.

For 2024 we will also continue to invest. We have already confirmed the final installation of a brand new Mazak FMS with four machines and 85 tables – together with a large automatic vertical warehouse for the tool room at the SACMA Plant in Vimercate. This investment will provide a better manufacturing approach with the highest precision and more capacity. To add to this, in our biggest facility where we already have more than 40,000m² covered, we have launched an important construction program with brand new offices for the service department and the electrical/software division. Furthermore, for the manufacturing division, we will make a new addition of 4,500m² to welcome additional CNC machines in the future.

Our Ingramatic division has also made an important investment in creating a new electrical and software dedicated space – including brand new automatic vertical warehouses for components and wires, as well as high-tech desks to make the best working ergonomic conditions for our engineers  and for the onboard electrical machine installation, according to the state of heart electrical procedures. It is important also to confirm that the Ingramatic division is also waiting for the final authorisation to proceed with the extension to double the layout of the company and to continue its growth.

A range of new products will also be revealed in 2024, including the HS ASPE T10-VT – a brand new taping machine with a vertical architecture to run parts from M3 to M10 – with four spindles at the maximum production speed. The machine has been designed to improve the layout in reducing the needed space and improving the ergonomics. The other products from SACMA and Ingramatic will be divulged during the wire^® Düsseldorf show in 2024.

We are excited to join wire^® 2024 at the Düsseldorf Messe in Germany, which is always well organised and attracts so many visitors. As usual, SACMA Group will host all the specialists coming from the forming industry in our brand new booth – spreading our Winning Technologies^®.