Testing, life sciences and renewable energies

Angelantoni Industrie is one of the world’s leading producers of environmental test chambers, test equipment and benches, laboratory and biomedical equipment, and cold technology applied to industry and research. Its mission is to manufacture innovative and high quality systems going beyond customers’ expectations as far as performance, technical features, design and innovation are concerned. These results are achieved through constant improvement, respect for employee safety and environmental protection.

This year Angelantoni Industrie is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its activities. Today the group consists of eight production units located in Italy, Germany, France, India and China, with a total of over 850 employees. The company started its activity in the refrigeration sector and over the years has become renowned in three main industrial fields: testing, life sciences and renewable energies. The first of its divisions, ATT (Angelantoni Test Technology) deals with the design, sale and manufacture of test chambers, stress screening systems and space simulators. These products find applications in many industries including automotive, defence, electronics, aeronautics and aerospace.

“We manufacture environmental test chambers, space simulators (used to test satellites or satellite components), test benches and crash test systems for cars, car parts and electrodynamic shakers for electronics or mechanical parts or assemblies,” explained the company’s CEO Gianluigi Angelantoni.

The second main division is ALS, Angelantoni Life Science, involving the design, manufacture and sale of cold equipment for healthcare and biotechnology. Its products include cold and thermostatic chambers, CO2 incubators, blood banks, plasma shock freezers and clean rooms used in both the healthcare and pharma industries.

The third division, Angelantoni Clean Tech (ATC) deals with all types of investments in the field of renewable energies and energy efficient manufacturing of thermodynamic solar power plants and photovoltaic plants that can be applied to different environments such as buildings, camper vans, shelters and green houses.

“We also offer additional and more specialised services to other companies, such as sputtering systems which are capable of thin film deposition and are used in the thermodynamic and photovoltaic sectors,” explained Mr Angelantoni. “They are nanomaterials that give the surface a particular quality. In the case of solar energy, instead

of using traditional photovoltaic cells we use a special glass where semiconductor material is deposited. This procedure guarantees better results in terms of the efficiency of PV modules.”

Archimede Solar Energy is another company within the Angelantoni Group which operates in the renewable energies sector. Archimede produces, under licence from ENEA, solar receiver tubes for thermodynamic solar power plants. The tubes produced by Archimede operate at high temperatures (up to 550°C) and use molten salts. In solar power plants, the tubes are positioned in the focus of a parabolic solar mirror, which concentrates the sun’s rays while the thermal vector fluid runs inside the tubes. Thanks to a specially selected coating called CERMET and a casing kept in a vacuum, Archimede tubes ensure maximum sunlight yield (maximum absorption and minimum emission). Thermodynamic solar power plants using molten salts produce energy without either emissions or pollution, and they do not use of any toxic or dangerous materials. In particular, the vector fluid is a common fertiliser already used widely in agriculture. The technology used for the high-temperature thermodynamic solar power is modular and can be used to create large autonomous solar power plants for supplementing the thermoelectric plants currently in operation.

Recent investments

“After four years of research we invested in the solar power sector. Recently, we presented a concentrated photovoltaic module with an efficiency level of 31.7 per cent that produces more energy compared to a traditional PV panel with an average efficiency of

12 per cent. Whereas, in the test technology field we patented an environmental test chamber called ‘Flower’ that operates at -70 degrees Celsius up to +180 degrees Celsius using 50 per cent less energy compared to traditional chambers. Two patents used in the chamber make this possible. This leads to significant savings for unit plants and companies,” said Mr Angelantoni.

“In the healthcare and biotechnology fields we introduced the SMARTFREEZER – a robotic cryobank operating at -80°C and -180°C that is able to take samples of biological material, such as stem cells, following precisely the directives of the user.”

However, investments do not stop at the development of new products but also involve geographical expansion: “Last week I was in Brazil and will soon be in Russia. We are considering the idea of investing in more countries,” continued Mr Angelantoni. “However, our goal is North America where we hope to

expand the testing field.” Recent achievements in this market include the FII’s (Italian Investment Fund’s) investment in the testing field. “This fund is the most important private equity fund in Italy and some of its most prestigious banks are associates. They invested in our group through a capital increase that we are thinking of investing abroad.”

Future goals

Continuous investment in its R&D department is a key strategy for Angelantoni Industrie. “A radical innovation programme is necessary. Last year we invested 4.5 per cent of our turnover in R&D. Upgrading the product is not enough; we want to design new ones and create technological breakthroughs that will allow our group to continue as the leader in our field.” n