Thursday, May 24, 2018
SCM celebrates an edition of Xylexpo featuring big figures, international attendance, innovative technologies and highly specialised training. The Italian Group, a long-standing, reliable partner for the entire woodworking industry, with a high-impact exhibition booth of over 3,000 square metres, has been one of the main attractions at the event held at the Milan Rho Exhibition Centre from May 8 to 12.
Among the many visitors, delegations of professionals from all over the world. A strong upward trend was recorded in orders, negotiations and contacts involving about 500 customers (half of them Italian, with a majority of Russian and French international customers), for an expected turnover of at least 30 million euro. SCM confirmed once again its leading role in Italy and in Europe, not only for its widest international range of showcased industry-specific technological products, but also for its unique ability to innovate and educate, opening the way to future scenarios in woodworking.
INNOVATION LEADERS R&D has always been a key asset for SCM – absorbing 7% of its turnover each year. The three awards received at XIA – Xylexpo Innovation Awards 2018 – the highest number of awards won by any one exhibitor at this edition of the show – are evidence of this commitment. Three very different technologies were awarded prestigious prizes – confirming SCM in its role as a standard-setter for the whole industry, from joinery workshops to the largest industrial businesses.
In the “Tooling machine” category, the winner was the minimax me 35 combined edge rounder-trimmer unit – presented as a world première at Xylexpo. The award commission acknowledged, as stated in the award’s motivation, its ability to “combine edge rounding and trimming features in a single tool, allowing compact-sized machines with minimized footprint to be developed”. The applied technology makes of this edgebanding machine a must-have product for small-sized joinery businesses. For the “Finishing” section, the award went to SCM’s carving spindle unit for unique three-dimensional finishing effects on panels. “With two routing units integrated into this sanding machine – commented the awarding commission – a wide variety of embossed elements can be achieved”. Maestro Smartech also made the “podium”: among the most innovative solutions in the “Maestro Digital Systems” platform, it can supply technical assistance through remote connection and direct interaction between end users and expert technicians back at the manufacturer’s headquarters, also through smart glasses”. This solution also received enthusiastic appreciation from the public visiting SCM at the Xylexpo.
INCREASINGLY CUSTOMISED, INTEGRATED HIGH TECHNOLOGY. “Work simple. Work digital”: was the concept underlying all SCM communication at the exhibition, the leitmotif of all the technological and digital innovations that were introduced. Xylexpo visitors were very interested in the Maestro Digital Systems platform and, in particular, the innovative IoT solution of SCM Maestro connect which, in response to Industry 4.0 requirements, makes the most of the potential of the “Internet of Things” concept to create a system for collecting and analysing data from SCM machines, able to increasingly monitor and optimise production processes, offering on the one hand full control of production performance by the customer and, on the other hand, a number of micro-services such as prompt, smart maintenance and optimised spare part management.
Xylexpo visitors were also able to experience the potential of the new IoT equippable machining centres, such as Accord 42 FX, which raised considerable interest among door, window and stairs manufacturers, and Morbidelli M220, the new, exclusive furniture milling and boring machining centre.
The technologies with the best outlook in terms of business opportunities in general are the Morbidelli boring equipment, the Olimpic and Stefani edgebanding machines that on the 7th until the 9th June, in Thiene (VI) will be the focus of study days targeting industry professionals at the new SCM dedicated Technology Center for edgebanding (the largest such centre in Italy), and Gabbiani cutting machines. The latest additions to the product range were equally as successful: these included the Celaschi p40 squaring machine , the Balestrini range for solid wood machining and the new, integrated SCM range for surface treatment, which includes, in addition to finishing, pressing and sanding.
A STEADY, STRONG GROWING TREND FOR THE GROUP
This successful edition of Xylexpo is for SCM the crowning achievement of an outstanding year- characterised by impressive figures mentioned at the press meeting that attracted scores of journalists from all over the world. After an introduction by the Managing Director Andrea Aureli, who emphasised the exceptionally positive trend shown by the SCM Group, with a stronger, more widespread presence in the woodworking industry across all 5 continents, the Director of SCM, Luigi De Vito, presented an up-to-date SCM business overview – from the steadily increasing turnover figure, now close to 700 million euro, to the 3600 persons employed in Italian and international production facilities. De Vito also mentioned successful case histories such as, among others, the support given by SCM to the opening of the largest door manufacturing plant in Central Asia, BinketGroup in Uzbekistan, and the major investments made in recent months to support Italian-made products in over 40 thousand square metres’ production areas: from the new Superfici factory, in Monza (the presence reference brand for finishing), created to strengthen and expand the surface treatment dedicated product range, to a new manufacturing area in Zogno, near Bergamo, created to further develop the production of special CMS machines, the go-to Group designs for the processing of other materials (composites, plastics, stone, glass and metals).
At the SCM press meeting, the head of the Italian branch Luca Bergantini also mentioned that Italy has now once again become an important, strategic market for SCM world-wide. “Europe – said Bergantini – today makes up for half of our turnover and Italy is the top market in this continent”.
ADVANCED TRAINING. Bergantini also mentioned the Group’s continuous, significant commitment to training, now consolidated by dozens of training initiatives both in Italy and abroad. In the last few years alone, SCM has supported the upgrading of 11 vocational training centres, 4 of which in the past two years.
Among these, the new Federlegno Arredo school in Lentate sul Seveso attended by over 300 students, which starting from September will host the training centre courses, thus becoming the most important training organisation for the industry nation-wide. The school, staffed by around a hundred teachers, is built according to eco-sustainability criteria: energetically, it is self-sufficient thanks to its wooden structure, with a 40 kWatt photovoltaic system and natural lighting, ideal for learning, thanks to the Velux technology used. It is equipped with a wide range of SCM technologies – from traditional machines to CNC machining centres, 3D printers and laser cutters all the way to digital IoT solutions. There are two professional training courses, one for woodworkers and another for wood construction experts. The three Higher Education Technical courses include wood furniture with specialisations in marketing and internationalisation, contract management and product and process innovation.
A delegation of representatives and teachers from the Federlegno Arredo educational centre came to visit SCM’s exhibition booth and, browsing through the latest innovations, were particularly interested in the innovative remote assistance and maintenance system with augmented reality smart glasses Master smartech (among the SCM products awarded an XIA 2018 prize): applied wearable technology that feels like having an SCM technician always at your side.
Other schools also visited SCM during the Xylexpo days. To name just a few, Isis Fermo Solari di Tolmezzo, at the forefront of wood construction training in Italy, to which SCM has supplied several highly innovative machining centres, and Istituto San Carlo of Turin, whose students and teachers particularly appreciated the digital platform Maestro Digital Systems making work increasingly easier for woodworking industry operators.
“We are very happy with this 26th edition of Xylexpo: it was an opportunity for us to once again confirm our global leadership and, at the same time, to strengthen our partnerships in Italy and Europe”, commented Luigi De Vito, SCM Division Director . “With the three XIA – Xylexpo Innovation prizes that we were awarded, we proved that our manufacturing technology has not only set an acknowledged standard of excellence world-wide, but is also a primary innovation benchmark throughout the wood product supply chain. We are certain that our networking efforts at the show will further expand our market, which has continued to show double-digit growth figures also in the first few months of 2018″. This 50th anniversary edition of Xylexpo was important for SCM – continued De Vito – also because it was a chance for us to show hundreds of partners from all over the world around our new, exclusive headquarters of Superfici in Villasanta (Monza), with its Technology Center designed to apply SCM business strategies to strengthen the whole surface treatment sector”. De Vito concluded.
An example, among many, of how the Group continues to respond to the needs of a market that is increasingly focussing on the quality of end products throughout the various machining phases.
Tags: 000 square metres, 2018 edition, 3, big figures, celebration, entire woodworking industry, high impact exhibition group, innovative technologies and highly specialised training, international attendance, Italian Group, long-standing, May 8 to 12, reliable partner, SCM, Xylexpo
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