Always one step ahead

FRIULFORGIA SRL I PROFILE

ahead Always one step

The latest round of investment at Friulforgia Srl, the Italian forging company, expanded the scope of its marine products. Mosè Molaro, Sales Manager, outlined these new opportunities to Phil Nicholls and Daniel Barnes.

Mosè Molaro Sales Manager

Francesco Rizzani Plant Manager at Friulforgia

Friulforgia is part of the TTN Group founded by Ernesto Pirovano in 1978, providing thermochemical surface heat treatments to the Italian forging industry. TTN Group steadily expanded, serving a growing number of forges with a range of speciality treatment services. A regular expansion of equipment allowed TTN Group to handle progressively larger projects, such as deep bore drilling equipment up to 16m.

In 2008, Mr Pirovano decided it was time to become a vertically integrated production company and founded his own forging shop. This project became Friulforgia, built from scratch at a facility outside Sedegliano in the Province of Udine in the northeast of Italy, opening in February 2009. Friulforgia began with just 12 members of staff but has now grown to 70 employees carrying out a range of heat treatments, rough machining, and final machining.

Friulforgia remains part of TTN Group’s seven companies spread across three countries: Italy, Spain, and the USA. The group employs 500 people and has an overall turnover of €70 million – €20 million of which is attributed to the success of Friulforgia.

The throughput of Friulforgia guarantees a capacity of 800 tonnes per month. To sustain this growth, the company has kept a continued program of investment in both equipment and personnel. A new press in 2018 increased Friulforgia’s capacity from 25 MN to 38 MN. The machining workshop was doubled in size in 2019, with Friulforgia installing additional mills and lathes for final machining during 2020 and 2021.

The key investment for 2021 was a new multi-tasking turning machine. The latest addition allows Friulforgia to produce machined shafts up to 20m long, via turning, boring, milling and grinding.

“This major investment was specifically planned in order to provide an even more complete service to our customers in the marine industry, where propeller and intermediate shafts can be very long and challenging,” explained Friulforgia’s Sales Manager, Mosè Molaro.

Marine forging

Friulforgia’s new lathe can work in conjunction with the assorted bore drilling machines operated by TTN Group. This combination enables the group to drill and hone holes up to 20m long. Friulforgia now has the capability to deliver to clients fully machined forgings, ready to mount on ships.

Friulforgia is equipped to produce a diverse range of products in a broad range of markets including offshore, subsea and hydro power. Friulforgia also supplies clients in the marine, metallurgy, power generation and power transmission industries.

TACCHI GIACOMO E FIGLI SPA

Tacchi Giacomo e Figli SpA is a leading company in the production of lathes and large deep hole drilling machines used in the processing of propeller shafts for the naval industry, amongst other applications.

We have recently supplied and installed a drilling machine capable of machining a boring depth of up to 22m and an internal diameter of 800mm.

As for external machining, we have recently supplied and installed machines the for turning, milling and grinding of shafts with external diameters up to 2,100mm and length of 22m. In addition, for applications in other sectors of the heavy precision mechanical industry, we have supplied machines to produce workpieces with larger diameters and lengths, weighing up to 320 tons, for both lathes and drilling machines.

Our organisation, for sales, service and spare parts, covers the whole world, from Europe to North and South America, India, the Far East and Australia.

For more information, visit our website www.tacchi.it.

editorial mention

FRIULFORGIA SRL I PROFILE

“We are well-known in several different markets thanks to the diversity our product range, as we can forge any shape with our open-die presses, and we can do it with any kind of steel grade,” said Mr Molaro.

“We forge long products such as shafts, rods, pinions, pipes, as well as massive cylinders, bushings, wheels, valves, clamps, sockets and many other shapes.”

Friulforgia has been active in the marine industry since the beginning of the company. Initially, the company delivered premachined propeller and intermediate shafts to one of the major European manufacturers of marine thrusters. The customer quickly accepted supply of additional Friulforgia final machined items. This relationship steadily expanded into the provision of a range of steering and propulsion components every year.

Friulforgia has since expanded its client base to several other thruster and rudder manufacturers. Marine products include shafts, crank pin discs, hubs, flanged pipes, and other propulsion-related components for any kind of thruster. All these items are certified by third-party accredited registers directly in Friulforgia.

Simplified procurement

Mr Molaro acknowledged that competition within the forging industry is tough, especially in Italy. However, Friulforgia benefits from being part of the wider TTN Group as it can work with metallurgists and machining specialists within the organisation. The client benefits from this simplified procurement structure where a single point of contact provides access to so many specialised processes.

“There is no other company in Italy that can provide such a wide range of services altogether, and by investing in our 20 metre-long multitasking lathe, Friulforgia is now ahead in the marine competition.”

Friulforgia enjoys a close relationship with suppliers too.

“We buy hundreds of ingots to be forged every year,” Mr Molaro said, “And there are no compromises on quality.” The company buys many varieties of steel – from carbon to stainless steel, including tool steels, Duplex, and super Duplex – choosing suppliers very carefully, following strict qualification and monitoring procedures. Most ingots are bought from Italian mills, but Friulforgia also sources from mills in Austria and Germany.

Friulforgia carefully matches the ingot to the product, as each supplier performs better on some steel grades than others. By knowing its suppliers so well, Friulforgia selects the best solution to maximise the final performance of its products to the benefit of its customers.

“In the past decade,” Mr Molaro explained, “We have witnessed a strong tendency of centralisation in the scope of components procurement, as our customers prefer to buy comprehensive solutions from the manufacturers instead of dividing the orders between different suppliers, where each performs a different activity.”

Friulforgia is perfectly positioned to capitalise on this trend. A continual program of investment in final machining and testing equipment maintains Friulforgia’s strategy of vertical integration.

Green investment

Francesco Rizzani, Plant Manager at Friulforgia, outlined the importance of sustainability at the company. The company has ISO 14001 certification and strictly monitors its impact on the environment.

“We plan on achieving yearly improvements in energy consumption and waste

production,” Mr Rizzani said. “We are now evaluating the implementation of a photovoltaic installation on our roofs to cover more than 30% of our electricity needs.

“Our commitment to respect nature, environment and safety is sustained by major investments to contain furnace emissions and to have scrap material properly disposed of. We believe any business activity should promote the health of the local community; this is possible only if you respect who and what is around you.”

Addressing the wider industry, Mr Molaro considered the challenges facing Friulforgia: “With the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine obstructing the supply of primary elements for steel production, we can consider ourselves lucky as our Italian suppliers of ingots managed to absorb the blow and keep working, allowing us to produce continuously with no setbacks.”

The biggest challenge facing Friulforgia is competing with the Asian market where manufacturing costs are lower. Some customers transferred into Asia, shifting their procurement to local suppliers. However, the outlook for Friulforgia remains buoyant due to its diverse market portfolio. The ongoing investment strategy means “a constant development and improvement of our customer base,” asserted Mr Molaro.

Onwards to trade shows

During the pandemic, the company explored innovative ways to connect with customers. “We found alternative solutions to promote our activities,” Mr Molaro revealed. “This included renewing our website and creating a virtual tour of our production premises. These choices were successful and greatly appreciated by both new clients and well-established customers.”

Moving forward, Mr Molaro is enthusiastic for the return of trade shows.

“This year we will finally be able to attend at least three separate shows: OTC in Houston as ForgeTTN; Euroguss in Nuremberg as TTN Group; and SMM in Hamburg as Friulforgia. In each of these shows we will have our own booth and we are very optimistic about the outcome, as we think that after two years of restrictions the attendance will be very rewarding.”

This positive outlook also applies to the future of Friulforgia.

“The verticalisation of our activities has always been one of our priorities,” Mr Molaro said. “We will maintain this trend in the future, with further investments in final machining and the other activities directly related to it.”

The next planned investments at Friulforgia are related to the heat treatment capacity which will be doubled by 2023. The current growth in renewable energy will offer Friulforgia new opportunities within hydropower generation, offshore platforms and associated marine industries.

Friulforgia’s business model maintains complete control of the manufacturing process.

To this end, Mr Molaro concluded: “We believe the best way to serve our customers is to provide them with the most complete solutions possible in order to simplify their procurement activity, and to do it with no need of sub-suppliers.” n