Cable chains for dynamic applications
“Even if you are not aware of it, you encounter cable chains on a daily basis, because they are employed in a very wide variety of applications,” as Alessandro Saccani – Commercial Marketing Director of Brevetti Stendalto SpA, and Paolo Lovati, Marketing & Key Account Manager, explain to Barbara Rossi.
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revetti Stendalto SpA was established by Giovanni Mauri in 1968. As well as setting up the company, Mr Mauri had the idea for the company’s flagship product: nylon cable chains. Although new versions and applications of nylon cable chains have been developed over the years, these are still the company’s core products and, furthermore, have become prevalent on the market, overtaking the previously leading steel cable chains. Headquartered in Monza, near Milan, the Italian company manufactures all its products in Italy, with a turnover of €20 million a year. In addition to this, it has commercial and service subsidiaries in France, Germany, the US and China, which generate their own turnovers. The flagship products are nylon cable chains, steel cable chains (for applications where nylon cannot be employed) and project solutions (in which the company starts working with its customers at the design phase, developing ad-hoc components with dimensions and other specifications tailored to clients’ needs). However, the Brevetti Stendalto range also includes robot chains, flexible cables, total chains and flexible sheathes. Brevetti Stendalto SpA distributes the Reiku flexible sheathes in both Italy and France. “We offer products with four different levels of customisation. The first level comprises catalogue products. The second level features products with minor customisation. For instance, we may be asked to produce a cable chain in a different colour or with pins of a different colour. Usually 46 Industry Europe
our cable chains are black and the pins yellow, but obviously we can modify this. The next level is that of customised solutions, either in terms of total chain solutions – in other words solutions which feature standard components, but with ad-hoc assembly to fulfil individual clients’ needs – or solutions with standard components, but bespoke accessories especially developed for the client. At the fourth and highest level of customisation we offer our ‘project’ solutions, for which we start working with the client from scratch, i.e. from the design phase. These solutions do not contain standard products. Their components are totally customised, for instance at a dimensional level.”
New and recent products Products developed in recent years include the new nylon chains ‘H’ series specifically designed for the most challenging applications. Its self-supporting capacity is remarkably higher than that of any other Brevetti nylon chain. Then there are the cable chains with rolling system for long-travel distance applications over one hundred metres: the 60R1 and 80R1 series. They have better friction-reducing features. We are also currently developing a third level of customisation product, which will feature multi-layer rotary solutions able to perform up to 1800 degree rotations.” The company has two facilities in Italy: Monza and Mesero (the latter is between Milan and Turin). Mesero is where nylon cable
