Film extrusion: At Macchi, developments continue apace
By Matt Defosse
Published: December 8th, 2009
Published: December 8th, 2009
During a visit this month by MPW, officials at film extrusion line manufacturer Macchi (Venegono, Italy) said they are continuing to pursue new machine developments, while also strengthening the company’s after-sales operations. Officials took special care to emphasize that the company was pursuing the goals of Alessandro Macchi, son of the company’s founder and the man most recognized as the face of the firm for more than a decade, whose death in 2008 shook the firm.
Among those goals was an expansion, recently completed, which enables the company to work on larger projects, and more of them, simultaneously, and also improved conditions for employees.
Recent machine developments have included a nine-layer blown-film line, a new turret winder for cast film, and a 3m cast-film extrusion line for stretch-film processing, noted Michele Ingegnoli, sales and marketing manager at the company. The first nine-layer blown-film line built by the company was sold recently to an Italian processor who is using it for medical and food packaging films, he added.
Other recent development are the firm’s cooperation with electronics giant Siemens for both its control systems and energy-efficient linear motors, now standard on all this company’s blown-film models, and development last year of new software and user interfaces, with these being updated as user feedback is obtained. “For a company like ours, R&D isn’t 20 people located in a lab. It’s listening to our customers and learning from and with them,” he said.
Blown-film lines account for about 80-90% of the company’s turnover, but as recent developments show, “We see potential in the cast-film market, too,” said Ingegnoli. Though not a radical change, he did say the company is reorganizing a bit “to put more into our after-sales operations.” And it is already looking ahead to next October’s K show. “We’re already planning something big for the next K,” he said, indicating it was being worked on with another company, which he would not identify. —mpweditorial@cancom.com
How trustable can be a
How trustable can be a comment by an anonymous? Especially if full of arguments such extreme to be hardly realistic and believable ("no whatsoever", "never", "countless", "the worst ever" etc etc...).
What is most likely a fake? This comment or the thousands of references and the decades of history of the company?
By the way I have no relation with Macchi, I just know it by the chance of having an old friend working there now.
As a maintenace manager at a
As a maintenace manager at a company that has the misfortune of owning a macchi line there is no after purchase assistance whatsoever. The U.S. division takes days to reply to email and calls. When they do reply they can never answer a question. I have worked in over 70 countries with countless machine manufacturers and Macchi is easily the worst customer service I have ever encountered. Not to mention the 4 year old machine has only run 1.5 years total. Has caught fire in the panels 5 times, and parts are always a minimum of a month away.
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