Gearing up for new markets TTN Veneta

GEARING UP FOR NEW MARKETS

TTN Veneta is headquartered in Nervesa della Battaglia, in the province of Treviso, and is a leading Italian company providing heat treatments on dies, cylinders, mechanical parts and all steel parts in general for several markets. Eugenia Fiusco spoke with Mr Renato Gatti, the managing director of TTN Veneta.

TTN Veneta is part of the TTN Group SpA, set up in 1978 by Mr Ernest Pirovano, and is now one of six divisions spread over the north of Italy. TTN SpA has over 35 years of history in the field of heat treatment of steel parts and has become one of the leaders in the market by focusing on the development and application of the most advanced technology. The six companies that make up the group are TTN Veneta, TTN Piemonte, CRT (surface coatings), TTC (hardening and tempering, carbonitriding and gaseous nitriding), TTN Nerviano and TTN Vittuone. CRT offers the widest product range of PVD and CVD coatings on a large scale and with certified qualities of thickness, adhesion and roughness.

The group employs around 450 people across the seven divisions. The sector dedicated to vacuum treatments represents the leading field for the group both in terms of investments in new facilities and the development of quality control measures that, thanks to a computerised system, oversee all operations and production cycles. All plants are connected via a data management system allowing the control of all production operations through PC and the record of thermal diagrams is automatically saved on the quality certificate in order to explain clearly and easily all operations performed.

Specialised heat treatment

TTN Veneta specialises in the provision of heat treatments for steel parts. “In particular,” explained Mr Gatti, “our division mostly serves the automotive sector providing different types of heat treatments on lamps, dashboards, handles and so on. We have

Toyo Tanso Europe is part of Toyo Tanso Corporation, founded in February 1941. Toyo Tanso Europe (TTE) is the Italian facility, located in Roncello (MB), close to Milan.

Toyo Tanso is the biggest producer of Isotropic graphite worldwide and is present with more than 30 location in five continents, with a total net sales of approx. €135 million. TTE Core business is dedicated to Carbon Brushes for electrical motors (Power Tools, Washing Machines, Vacuum Cleaners and so on) and represents approx. 65% of total turnover.

Toyo Tanso business are related to: 1. Production and sale of isotropic graphite and specialized carbon products for general industries and related processing. (EDM, Concast, Heat Treatment, Solar, Mechanical seals…) 2. Production and sale of composite materials made from carbon and ceramic, metal or organic materials and related processing. (Heat treatment…) 3. Production and sale of carbon electrode for fluorine electrolysis and business of surface treatment on various materials with fluorine gas.

Phone: +39.039.62784.66 | Fax: +39.039.695202 www.toyotansoeurope.com On the other side, in the last years, TTE invested a lot in order to increase its share in “Special Graphite” applications: EDM, Continuous Casting, Heat Treatment, Hot Press, Bearings, Mechanical Seals and any many more, growing more than 60% in 5 years.

Next targets are to grow in carbon brushes as well as special graphite, especially in Heat Treatment and Transportation, thanks to new materials developed in Japan and new automatic production solutions installed in Italy.

five specialised departments dealing with induction hardening, treatments for mechanical parts, surface coating, heat treatments for engine parts such as cryogenic treatments, sandblasting and, finally, ion and gaseous nitriding to harden finished parts.” The treated parts are then assembled by TTN Veneta’s clients and supplied to the major car manufacturers in Europe. Furthermore, TTN Veneta has a dedicated department for quality control and testing. “We can offer treatment for large dimension parts, thanks to the support of the other companies of TTN SpA,” said Mr Gatti. “The Nerviano division is equipped with two of the biggest furnaces in Europe; those furnaces can handle parts with dimension of up to 14 metres.”

Conquering space

The expansion into further geographical markets is part of the future plans of the company, although as Mr Gatti explained, this process is well under way. “TTN Veneta was set up in 2000 and, thanks to our growth policies, it has 80 employees and a yearly turnover of €10 million after only 14 years of activity. Unfortunately, the current economic situation is unstable and does not allow businesses to make all the investments that they would like to. We have to proceed more carefully.” Nonetheless, TTN Veneta is in the process of developing a new system to treat large dimension parts to the value of €1 million. “This new system will handle a maximum weight of around 3500 kilos. There are currently few companies offering this type of service,” said Mr Gatti. “As for new sectors, we are looking at the automotive industry.” In order to achieve this goal, TTN Veneta is investing in quality management

systems, such as the ISO/TS16949, whose aim is to improve the system and process quality to increase customer satisfaction, to identify problems and risks in production processes and the supply chain, to eliminate their causes and to examine corrective action undertaken and preventive measures for their effectiveness. The company aims to achieve the certification by the end of the year. “This is particularly important because ISO/TS16949 is the first step towards obtaining the NADCAP certification, which is fundamental for the aerospace industry.” n

WE SUPPLY EQUIPMENT, MACHINES AND PRODUCTS FOR CLEANING, PACKAGING AND HEALTH & SAFETY.

The know-how and continuous striving for product and service excellence, which have characterised our work for over twenty years, enable us to offer our customers a high level of professionalism, thus gaining their trust and becoming their partner of choice. Our main strength, making our company so efficient, is our willingness to be always ready to assist our clients.