Insight

By Marco A. Guerritore, editor in chief, Italian Fasteners Magazine

Succession affects nearly every job and often leaves a subtle feeling of melancholy and regret. And so, after more than four years of successful collaboration, Engineer Sante Costa left his position of technical consultant at UPIVEB of his own accord.

Mr Costa’s résumé is very impressive, filled with interesting assignments and fruitful experiences. After graduating in engineering, he worked as a mechanical engineer at IVECO – Fiat Group for nine years, gaining experience in the field of production and functional testing of vehicles in the plants of Turin, Bolzano and Brescia. He was then invited to join the Fontana Group, where he worked for twenty-seven years, dealing mainly with problems relating to quality. His pride is the creation of the ‘Central Quality Coordination Department’ in Fontana.

Costa’s work at UPIVEB involved providing associates with opinions and advice on how to address and manage quality issues with regard to external processes (in general, as well as at suppliers and with customers) and internal processes (e.g optimisation of procedures relating to the quality management system). He has represented UPIVEB as president of the Italian Standards subcommittee and as a European technical expert, as convenor in international ISO Working Groups and technical expert in all the ISO/TC2 subcommittees.

One becomes two
Two experts have been called to replace Mr Costa as technical consultant of standardisation activities at UPIVEB: Engineer Antonio Ripamonti, president of UNI/CT031/SC04 ‘Fasteners’ and technical expert in SC04 (GL04 and GL05) technical bodies, as well as Engineer Luca Panzeri, coordinator of UNI/CT031/SC04/GL02 (washers and non-threaded fasteners) and convenor of ISO/TC2/ WG13 (washers and non-threaded fasteners).

After graduating in mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan, Antonio Ripamonti started a stimulating experience at CNR, which allowed him to deepen his knowledge of design methods through the finite element approach. He then joined the Agrati Group initially as internal equipment manager at the Veduggio production site, before moving to the technical department as research and development manager, where he mainly performed tasks aimed at the application of advanced numerical calculation systems (FEA) to the fastener industry. At the same time, he also began working in the field of fastener standardisation at a national and international level, regularly attending ISO, CEN and UNI meetings. He currently works at the Agrati Tech Centre.

After graduating in mechanical engineering, with a specialisation in metallurgy, in 1991, Luca Panzeri joined the family company Panzeri SpA of Bulciago – an Italian manufacturer of washers – as quality assurance manager, a position he held for the next twelve years. He became head of the technical department in 2003 and purchasing manager seven years later. He has been managing director of Panzeri since 2016. Mr Panzeri has always been very active in cooperating with national and international standardisation bodies with regard to washers.

The president, presidential committee, and members of UPIVEB, extended their sincere thanks to Mr Costa for all the work he had done over the years, and also wish Mr Ripamonti and Mr Panzeri all the very best in their new positions.