Manufacturing Technology

By Marco A. Guerritore, editor in chief, Italian Fasteners Magazine

Towards the end of 2022, Mario Caracciolo, director and market manager Italy and Turkey for SIE Srl, welcomed guests to the large conference hall of the Environment Park in Turin, Italy, as the host of the annual NOF Metal Coatings Europe Conference.

For many years, SIE Srl, as the representative of NOF Metal Coatings Europe S.A in Italy, has organised a conference for customers, technicians and fastener operators in Turin.  For the 2022 event, the meeting was held at the green technological park of Turin’s Environment Park, where green spaces are harmoniously and sustainably blended with architectural structures. 

SIE considered this edition of the congress to be of particular importance, to the point of requiring the participation of the president and CEO of NOF Metal Coatings Europe S.A, Vincent Le Berre, who was accompanied by his closest collaborators. 

Opening the proceedings, Mario Caracciolo welcomed all the attendees and particularly President Le Berre and colleagues who came from France. “2023,” emphasised Caracciolo, “will be a very important year and full of changes for SIE, with the company changing its name to NOF Metal Coatings Europe Srl as of 1^st January 2023.”

Another important announcement included a change in headquarters, with the company now based in the prestigious technological Environment Park where the conference was being held.

After analysing the market situation, Caracciolo also noted that the demand for zinc flakes coatings is growing despite the gradual transition to electric vehicles. After other interesting technical analyses, he concluded his speech by mentioning the problem of finding new application processes for small screws intended for electric vehicles. 

After Caracciolo’s greeting, the President and CEO Vincent Le Berre thanked the attendees for their warm welcome and shared his gratitude for what is being done in Italy, in-line with the philosophy of the Group. 

“NOF Metal Coatings Europe,” Vincent Le Berre reiterated, “is continuously reinforcing its European organisation, with enhanced synergies with the Asian, as well as North and South American business units – from both an operational and sales force point of view.”

He added that “more actions on the market, as well as product and process developments, plus investments in different fields of activities, will take place in the near future – to further serve the business and technical development in Europe and Italy.”

After President Le Berre’s speech, the staff members who accompanied him took the floor. “Based on advanced data research on the automotive industry,” Steven Kerveillant, COO at NOF Metal Coatings Europe, noted, “we are able to closely monitor zinc flake and GEOMET^® development on the market, which have been continuously growing during the past decade. As of today, BEV development is considered as an opportunity to maintain this growth trend, especially with the recent introduction of a new generation of coating equipment, which will allow a better processing of zinc flake coatings on small diameter parts, in both silver and black colours.”

Benoit Millet, technical director at NOF Metal Coatings Europe, summarised the situation: “After several years of product development, to better respond to customer needs in term of climate change and energy savings, we have reached a significant step into the reduction of our curing temperature, which will allow us to start our first scale up phase and industrial trials – beginning in 2023.”

Last to take the floor was Isabelle Perche, quality and training centre director at NOF Metal Coatings Europe, who, in her extensive report, specified: “......that with the objective to better support existing and future GEOMET^® development activities, NOF Metal Coatings Europe has entered into a modernisation phase of its training program, with 11 years of experience in this field, and the objective to further support its network of GEOMET^® licensees and dedicate to part makers and OEM partners specific modules – in-line with their business and technical demands.”

At the end of the conference, the interesting and lively session of questions to the various speakers from the audience began. Once the conference work was over, all the participants moved to an adjacent room where a generous buffet was served, which also proved to be a further opportunity to continue the discussion, initiate new contacts, exchange ideas and impressions.

As a culmination of this interesting and stimulating day, the participants visited the new elegant and modern offices of NOF Metal Coatings Europe Srl – located in the Environment Park area. All the staff were there to welcome visitors to the new offices, including Andrea Erriu, account manager, Mariella Liuzzi, sales administration, Alessandro Asperges, logistics, Marinella Rossi, sales administration, Carlo Zevi, service engineer, and Luigi Scimè, technical service – a team of highly qualified people who guarantee the full satisfaction of customer expectations.

With the visit of the new offices, a day full of ideas ended and where there was certainly no shortage of news.