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2016 AEROSPACE ITALY Aerospace - Defence - Civil Aviation - Clusters - Space Exploration Aviation - Defence - Civil Aerospace Manufacturing - Technology - Research and Development - Collaboration - Research Manufacturing - Technology

ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT The road to Space goes through Italy

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Senza titolo-1 1 27/06/2016 14:34:58 Dear Reader,

In regions across Italy can be found academics, scientists, We have begun our research in the Piedmont region in the North- designers, engineers of every hue, and manufacturers whose West of the country, whose capital, , has long been famed combined competence can not only build satellites and space as a hub for the automotive industry, consistently designing and rovers, but also transport them to space. Boeing, NASA, Airbus producing vehicles from the most performant to the most practical. and many other industry giants regularly look to Italian groups This experience of excelling in the development and production for solutions. Italian companies are also at the forefront of of cars that have consistently been popular in all world markets civil aviation on its quest for fuel efficiency and the Clean Sky has engendered the skills and competences that have allowed program, while also designing and producing a formidable range the Piedmont region to develop as Italy’s largest aeronautical of military aircraft and their associated systems. hub. Piedmont is host to around 400 companies, mostly small- to medium-sized, that together form a complete supply chain In December 1964, Italy became the third country in the world, and which are defined by their propensity for cooperation, not after the Soviet Union and the United States, to launch a satellite only with each other, but in a triple helix with institutions both into space; the Italian-made San Marco 1. In February 2012, governmental and academic. Together they represent almost half the first launch of the Italian-developed space launcher of the overall turnover of the aeronautical industry in Italy and for took place in Guiana. Today, Leonardo- can be found collaborating in projects all over the world. Finmeccanica maintains and supports its COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation, which is the most advanced and highest GBR is publishing this report on Piedmont as a pre-release of resolution full radar satellite constellation system capable of our forthcoming study of the entire Italian aerospace sector, overcoming any atmospheric conditions. The company has full which will be published in November and distributed at Aeromart service capabilities to manage satellites from their launch to Toulouse 2016, and throughout 2017 at major aerospace events, overall operations, including data transfer, image processing and including Le Bourget in Paris and Aerospace & Defence Meetings data analysis. The same company also provided the rover for the in Turin. The final book will cover the entire Italian aerospace ExoMars mission. Italian companies are currently producing industry across operations in Space, Civil Aviation, and Defense carbon composite segments as well as other components for the and Security, with particular focus on specialized capabilities in Airbus A350. key regions including , , , Piedmont and Puglia, to name a few. Italy’s aerospace industry is the third most prominent in Western after and and the seventh largest in the We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who world. With the exception of Leonardo-Finmeccanica, which have contributed to our research and hope that our readers will controls a vast share of the market, the Italian aerospace industry is enjoy its fruits. characterized by a plethora of small- to medium-sized companies, spread around the country in distinct clusters. This year, GBR is visiting each of these, and speaking with the leaders of a wide array of companies in an effort to produce the most extensive report on the industry, from space launchers to training aircraft components, in order to detail the complete characteristics and capabilities of the industry nationwide. Alice Pascoletti Harriet Bailey Catherine Howe

AP HB CH Exclusive Interviews Directory Leading industry, government and academic GBR and TPA provide a figures from Piedmont and contact directory of major Italy’s aerospace sector players that together make discuss market trends, up Piedmont’s aerospace technologies, opportunities cluster. as well as collaborative efforts in the cluster.

Editorial Analysis

Global Business Reports' journalists provide unique insights into all aspects of the aerospace value chain by working on the ground and meeting face to face with industry leaders.

Italy and Piedmont Internationalisation

8. Piedmont’s Aerospace Industry 46. Internationalisation: The road to success for 10. Interview with Leonardo-Finmeccanica Italy’s SMEs 12. Interview with (ASI) 48. Interview with Tekspan 13. Interview with Italian Civil Aviation Authority 49. Interview with Fidia 14. Interview with Regione 50. Interview with APR 15. Interview with Aerospace District of 51. Interview with Aencom Piedmont 52. Interview with Blue Engineering 16. Interview with Turin Chamber of Commerce 53. Interview with Tubiflex 17. Interview with Torino Piemonte Aerospace 54. Interview with Ing. Bertolloti (TPA) 55. Interview with Aerotech 18. United we stand: The TPA project and 56. Interview with Alfa Meccanica aerospace clusters 57. Interview with Bytest 20. Interview with Politecnico de Torino 58. Interview with Tecno Tessile Adler 21. Interview with Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia 59. Interview with Teseo (IIT) Industry Structure Space 62. Stick to the big guns of strike out on your 24. Italy’s space industry: Searching for solutions own? The choice faced by Piedmont’s SMEs 26. Interview with Leonardo-Finmeccanica 2 65. Interview with Labormet Due 27. Interview with Avio 66. Interview with Digisky 28. Interview with Altec 67. Interview with ITACAE 29 Interview with Altec 2 68. Interview with Delta-Ti Impianti Italy Aerospace 2016 - Piedmont 30. Interview with Aerosekur 69. Interview with Marc Ingegno Industry Explorations Global Business Reports 31. Interview with Argotec 70. Interview with Amet 71. Interview with Modelway This research has been conducted by 72. Interview with T.T.N. Alice Pascoletti, Harriet Bailey Innovation 73. Final Thoughts and Catherine Howe Edited by Mungo Smith 34. Innovation: Creating the sustainable aerospace 70. TPA Matrix Graphic design by Designa

sector of the future 72. Directory A Global Business Reports Publication 36. Interview with Avio Aero 75. Credits and Acknowledgments For updated industry news from our 37. Interview with UTC Aerospace Systems on-the-ground teams around the world, please visit our website at gbreports.com, 38. Interview with Mecaer Aviation Group subscribe to our newsletter by signing up 40. Interview with Prima Industrie to our VIP list through our website, or follow us on Twitter: @GBReports 42. Interview with Bisiach and Carru

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports 8˚ LIECH. Vaduz 12˚ 16˚ Bern

SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA HUNGARY

SLOVENIA Aosta Ljubljana Zagreb SERBIA

Novara CROATIA Turin Gulf of FRANCE Asti Alessandria Venice

Cuneo BOSNIA AND 44˚ HERZEGOVINA 44˚

MONACO SAN Ligurian MARINO Sea MONTENEGRO

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Campobasso

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Mediterranean Sea Catanzaro Ionian Sea

Italy Strait of International Boundary Sicily Piedmont

National Capital

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8˚ 0 50 100 Kilometers 12˚ 16˚ 0 50 100 Miles Image: Finmeccanica GBR • Industry Explorations • ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Italy & Piedmont

“Piedmont boasts a complete aerospace supply chain compared with the other Italian aerospace clusters, with a stronger segment specialization,”

- Vincenzo Ilotte, President of the Turin Chamber of Commerce EDITORIAL Global Business Reports

Italy’s Aerospace Industry Introduction to Piedmont

By Harriet Bailey

8

Italy today is known for a number of its key industries: it is home to numerous fashion empires, its cuisine is beloved the world over, and its car brands cater both to those on a budget and with cash to splash. The country also excels in a number of other, less overt, areas however; the Italian aerospace industry is currently the fourth largest in Europe and the seventh largest in the world, covering not only commercial aviation, but the defence and space sectors as well. ITALY AT A GLANCE Source: CIA World Factbook Italy’s aerospace industry is dominated by Leonardo-Finmeccanica, which has incorpo- rated the activities of companies such as AgustaWestland, and Selex ES among others, as well as being the parent of other industry giants such as Telespazio Population: 61,855,120 (July 2015 est.) and Thales Alenia Space. According to Guido Crosetto, president of the Italian Industry Land Area: 301,340 sq km Official Language: Italian Association of Aerospace, Defence and Security (AIAD), it now represents 80% of the Capital: Rome market and is one of Europe’s leading players. Chief of State: President Sergio Mattarella Unlike Puglia or Campania, which are focused on aero-structures, or Lazio, which has (since 3 February 2015) Head of Government: Prime Minister Matteo Renzi a strong space segment, or Lombardy, known for helicopters because of AgustaWest- (since 22 February 2014) land’s presence in the Varese province, the north-western region of Piedmont covers the GDP (PPP): $2.171 trillion (2015 est.) Growth Rate: 0.8% (2015 est.) entire supply chain. It is also Italy’s largest aerospace cluster, with more than 15,000 GDP per Capita: $35,700 (2015 est.) employees working for 400 different companies, accounting for more than half of the GDP Composition by Sector: 2.2% agriculture, industry’s €6.6 billion annual turnover. This is hardly surprising considering that the 23.6% industry, 74.2% services (2015 est.) Exports: $454.6 billion (2015 est.): engineering industrial area surrounding its capital, Turin, is home to a range of leading players in the products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, space and aero-structure segments. “Piedmont boasts a complete aerospace supply chain motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; compared with the other Italian aerospace clusters, with a stronger segment specializa- foodstuffs, beverages, and tobacco; minerals, nonferrous metals tion,” explained Vincenzo Ilotte, president of the Turin Chamber of Commerce. “The Imports: $389.2 billion (2015 est.): engineering presence of five prime companies - Thales Alenia Space, Avio Aero, Leonardo, UTC and products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and Avio Spa – together with a further 300 small- and medium-sized enterprises, constitute clothing; food, beverages, tobacco a substantial supplier base.”

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports EDITORIAL

The regional government in Piedmont, Re- a hunting ground for technically qualified This provided the company with a dedi- gione Piemonte, has spent the last decade personnel for the region’s businesses, the cated facility, having previously worked in actively supporting the aerospace industry university facilitates the creation of new collaboration with Politecnico di Torino, in Piedmont through two key initiatives: aerospace companies through its own In- CSHR and various local players on build- the Piedmont Aerospace District, estab- novative Enterprise Incubator (I3P), which ing up its expertise in this sector. “In the lished in 2005, and the Torino Piemonte was ranked fifth in Europe and 15th in the aeronautics industry, being able to count on Aerospace (TPA) in 2007. The former is a world by the University Business Indicator a new technology means having believed platform for R&D and collaboration activ- (UBI) Index. in and invested for years in a research and ities, while the TPA project focuses on the Demonstrating Piedmont’s commitment development process,” stated CEO Ricca- promotion of Piedmont’s 400 aerospace to the space sector, the Italian Institute of rdo Procacci at the time. “The plant is the companies to an international audience. Technology’s (IIT) Center for Space Hu- result of the commitment and passion of “We believe that to compete in a global man Robotics (CSHR) is located within our technical staff and engineers, as well market as an SME, which make up the striking distance of Politecnico di Torino, as the close working relationship we culti- large majority of our enterprises, innova- with whom it shares facilities and research- vate with universities, research centres and tion has to be at the forefront of a compa- ers, such as Paolo Fino, the director of the the industrial fabric of small- and medium- ny’s offering,” elaborated president of Re- applied science & technology department sized enterprises throughout Italy.” gione Piemonte, . “We at the university and senior scientist for The former national minister for eco- need to make the world more aware that aerospace at CSHR. He explained why nomic development, Flavio Zanonato, also Piedmont is home to an aerospace cluster CSHR is based in Turin: “This is no ac- highlighted the importance of combining that covers the entire supply chain.” cident as the Piedmont region is the head- knowledge and expertise across the public This specific focus on the aerospace- in quarters of the Italian space industry. Be- and private sector. “[The plant] has come dustry, despite Turin being known as an cause we have the big players here, SMEs about due to major spending on research, automotive hub, is unique in Italy. The working in the industry and supplying but first and foremost through the - adop various organizations in the region, from those companies will also base themselves tion of an effective model of collaboration the Chambers of Commerce to the regional here. These large corporations can lead the between private industry, universities and government, have been able to establish way in terms of areas of interest, which institutions,” he commented. “Only by 9 effective working partnerships for the ben- spur on the smaller companies, as well as combining innovation and research can we efit of the industry, rather than hampering universities and research centers such as look to the future with greater optimism it by layers of bureaucracy. “Cooperation, ourselves, to put resources into these ar- and leave the difficulties of the crisis be- between institutions, public and private eas of focus and support development,” he hind us.” players, research entities and companies, continued. One of the small, yet highly focused, is our strength. This is not currently the companies to work with Avio Aero on norm in Italy and particularly not in the additive manufacturing is APR. Initially world of R&D,” emphasised Chiamparino. Collaboration is key a typical family-owned company, which “The main difference is not in how much can count on almost a century of experi- money we dedicate to the aerospace indus- As a result of the region’s determined self- ence in Piedmontese industry, it has now try, but the methods we adopt.” promotion, motivation to be at the cutting developed a more corporate structure and Piedmont’s academic institutions are some edge of new technologies in the sector and gained new international clients, including of the best, not only in the world for re- the high levels of investment from both the Pratt & Whitney. CEO Andrea Romiti be- search activities pertaining to the aero- public sector and companies themselves, lieves strongly in the advantages of being space industry, and they work with local local company Avio Aero was acquired by a Turin-based company: “Turin is a melt- enterprises to provide an integrated solu- U.S.-based GE in 2013 for €3.3 billion. Its ing pot of technology, supported by a huge tion for foreign companies and investors. expertise in additive manufacturing, more amount of experience and history in high- “The presence of a strong academic and commonly known as 3D printing, and in precision mechanics. Together with Mon- research network – led by Politecnico di solving problems from weight reduction treal, Turin is probably one of the only two Torino – is the driving force behind this to quicker turnaround times was a decid- regions in the world capable of making a flourishing industrial centre, providing ing factor. GE cited the fact Avio Aero had complete aircraft.” companies with skilled engineers and invested approximately €400 million into Piedmont’s prowess in developing its professionals with a strong background in the aviation side of its business between industries is a good example for other R&D activities,” outlined Ilotte. 2010 and 2012 - €100 million of which regions in Italy. Pursuing an aggressive Politecnico di Torino is Italy’s oldest en- was dedicated to research and develop- strategy of internationalization, as well as gineering university and, according to the ment activities – as indicative of its com- understanding the value of finding the next Academic Ranking of World Universities mitment to the industry. technological advance, means it is well on (ARWU) in Engineering/Technology and Shortly after the purchase, Avio Aero an- the way to being the leading light in not Computer Science, came first in Italy and nounced the opening of a new €20 million just the country’s automotive industry, but eighth in Europe in 2013. As well as being additive manufacturing plant in Piedmont. its aerospace sector too. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Mauro Moretti

CEO and General Manager LEONARDO

There have been many changes to the company since you became CEO in 2014. Could you provide us with an overview of these developments and the company’s new vision? Focusing on the key capabilities of the business, we have aimed to promote cohe- sion and efficiency in our operations. The first step taken was a restructuring of the company and reorganization around the 10 aerospace, defence and security activities. Moving away from the holding structure of the business, our second step was to arrive at a new business model, with just one integrated and consolidated company, rather than a network of independent com- panies operating in different sectors. This new operating model is based around four major business sectors, organized across seven operational divisions. These divisions are now coherent and consistent in terms of technology, capabilities and customers, and each has a specific focus. They are also supported centrally at a cor- porate level, sharing processes across func- tions such as marketing, strategy, commu- nications, legal and HR. The provision of a single interface helps us to implement best practices and streamline operations. This, of course, benefits the customer and also gives us a single voice, allowing us to leverage our position as a large corpo- ration when building relationships with customers, partners and other companies. The change from Finmeccanica to Leon- ardo communicates our shift in focus and business culture. Taken from Leonardo Da Vinci, the name to us exemplifies the roots of disruptive innovation. We consider our- selves proponents of similar qualities, and the name epitomizes our new vision.

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and universities. Our approach is to iden- tify, acquire and rapidly and effectively consolidate cutting-edge technologies across the division’s businesses, and apply these to the needs and requirements of the market. We believe that a key area of focus for the aerospace and defense sector going forward will be unmanned systems, and an increase in their autonomy and perfor- mance. We are also investing further in the helicopter domain, developing the next generation civil tilt rotor, which seeks to answer growing demand for substantially higher speed, range and comfort, and ca- pable of generating an additional rotorcraft How do you balance the commercial in- of high quality and offered at an appro- market, both commercial and governmen- terest of your investors with the strate- priate price. This assists our growth and, tal. Within aeronautics, trainers are anoth- gic interests of the government? in turn, we are able to provide them with er leading product family for Leonardo, Just over 30% of Leonardo’s shares are more business. The objective, therefore, is and we aim to grow our market presence. held by the Ministry of Economy and Fi- to support sustainable growth for compa- Another focus area will be the security and nance, and 50% by institutional investors. nies across the supply chain. defense electronics sector, with key invest- There is however no conflict between the ments in the radar domain, including the interests of the Italian Government and the development of AESA (Active Electroni- interests of the institutional investors as cally Scanned Array) radars and in the four decisions are made by the corporate gov- fixed-face Multi-Functional Radar (X and ernance system in place in Leonardo and C band). We will also continue to lever- 11 aimed at creating value for shareholders. “ age our unique experience and services Additionally, as exemplified by the order acquired through the Space Alliance and for the aircraft from national and international government in- Kuwait, the Italian Government is fully stitutions to develop our space capabilities. A large company like Leonardo can supportive of our business. As a matter of fact, the contract with Kuwait was signed be a huge support to the growth of a As an Italian company looking to inter- following a specific G to G between the country’s industry if it has a balanced nationalize, what are Leonardo’s key Italian Government and the Government and healthy relationship with its objectives over the next four years? of Kuwait. suppliers. If SMEs work for just one Italy has strong capabilities across aero- customer, it is not beneficial for either space and defence. We will see a continued What is the motivation behind the cap party. and increasing presence at the leading edge on the business your suppliers can con- of innovation. Investment in R&D and in- duct with the company? novation will be key to staying ahead and The idea behind restricting the percentage providing unique solutions and products of overall output that companies may sup- that will meet customer requirements. As a ply to Leonardo at 70% – 75% is to en- player in the Italian aerospace and defence courage competition within the market. industry, we will continue to offer our ca- A large company like Leonardo can be a pabilities, investment, heritage and exper- huge support to the growth of a country’s ” tise. One of the main aims of Leonardo’s industry if it has a balanced and healthy re- new vision is to grow internationally. We lationship with its suppliers. If SMEs work want to improve our international opera- for just one customer, it is not beneficial Where are you focusing your R&D in- tions and offer a complete and integrated for either party. A fully or mostly depen- vestment, and what are your plans for service. dent supplier would have no stimulus to future growth? We will also continue to focus more nar- develop or take in new practices and the We invest a significant amount in R&D, rowly on those areas in which we could company would therefore have no oppor- approximately 11% of our revenues (more become world leaders. We plan to achieve tunity to grow or diversify their activities. than €1.4 billion in 2015), and we receive this through investments and growth, and If, on the other hand, our suppliers are a large amount of national funding. Most consolidating our presence in those areas competing in international markets, we of our projects are based on cooperation where we want to be stronger and increase know that their products and services are and collaboration with research centers our volumes. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

you tell us more about these relationships and the shared activities you conduct? Roberto Italy has always participated in EU research programs, demonstrating its leadership of some major projects. The Italian participation Battiston in Horizon 2020 has seen financial returns between 13.5% and 14%, results above the national average and above the percentage of Italian contribution to the program. The Eu- President ropean Union's role in space is expected to AGENZIA SPAZIALE ITALIANA continue to grow both in terms of programs (ASI) and financing.

ASI has also been working with NASA, for Could you explain the reasons behind the observation of the universe, ASI has placed example on modules and components for founding of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) scientific satellites into orbit, and participates the International Space Station (ISS). How in 1988 and how the organization has de- in the most prominent ESA and NASA mis- has this work developed and how does it veloped since then? sions, especially dedicated to the exploration improve the reputation of Italian manufac- From the end of the 1970s, the space sector of the solar system, the observation of stars turing and innovation around the world? became increasingly important, and partici- and galaxies and the high energy astrophys- Italy has a privileged and diverse partnership pation in international space programs began ics. Our participation in these missions has with the United States, with a strong tradi- to be viewed as a necessity. A systematic ap- allowed us to reach levels of excellence in tion of bilateral relations with NASA, and proach was required with regard to resources many fields of space research. Italy is ranked many cooperative programs, particularly in and strategy to be applied to research and par- sixth in the world for the number of scientific the scientific field. As well as the ISS- proj ticipation in international programs. The ulti- publications in the field of space, with 5.74% ect, in which Italy, among other European mate solution to the challenge of rallying our of total publications, after the United States, countries, is a privileged partner, there are national space industry came from a proposal China, Germany, France, and Great Britain. many other scientific missions led by NASA 12 by the National Research Council (CNR) to Within ESA’s scientific programs, the Italian in which ASI has participated. These include construct a new independent system to coor- space industry is a major contributor to sev- CASSINI, MARSIS, JUNO and AMS-2, to dinate Italy’s space activities and, in 1988, eral missions currently in their preparation name a few. In September 2015 we signed ASI was officially established. stages. Among these are the Solar Orbiter for an agreement authorizing NASA for the use ASI has since aided Italy’s prominence in the the study of the sun, for energy and of the COSMO-SkyMed images in exchange technological, scientific and industrial - sec dark matter research and PLATO to search for for ASI’s use of the Alaska Satellite Facility tors, both through specific national initiatives extrasolar planets. Other projects in which we to grant seven post doctorate bursaries to the and through participation in joint internation- participate include JUICE, dedicated to the United States. In addition to Italy’s elevation al programs with ESA, NASA and other space study of ’s , Ganymede, Callisto within the space sector through these joint agencies such as , JAXA and ISA. and Europa; CHEOPS, dedicated to finding scientific missions, this collaboration has sup- In 2014, Italy took another important step in exoplanetary transits; and the LISA Pathfind- ported Italy’s space industry in terms of both establishing the Cabinet for Space Coordina- er for the study of gravitational waves. Italy human capital and technological gain. tion Activities, under the Prime Minister's Of- also contributed greatly to the success of the fice. The aim of the Cabinet is to define and network of European launchers such as Ari- What are your main aims for the future of coordinate the Italian space strategy and pol- ane and, as national leaders, to the develop- ASI and its relationships with internation- icy with the participation of different minis- ment and realization of the Vega launcher. We al space organizations, as well as the role tries involved in space activities and the con- are also at the forefront of Earth observation, of Italy as a leader in the aerospace sector? tribution of representatives from all the Italian with global leadership in X-band SAR sys- Our vision can be explained through four stra- space stakeholders, such as the Italian Space tems, due to our constellation of COSMO- tegic objectives: the promotion of services Agency, industry, academia, local authorities SkyMed satellites. and applications for the new space economy, and administrations. In this framework, it is The technological capabilities and attained the development and use of infrastructure for very important to have high levels of spe- knowledge allow us to possess all the skills the new space economy, the support of scien- cialization in the various aerospace clusters necessary to independently access space, and tific and cultural progress, and the growth of across Italy. place our country among the few able to de- the country's international prestige. We plan velop and construct a space launcher. It is a to cement and further Italy’s role and posi- In what areas is ASI leading the field in very important area in which we will continue tion in the global space industry through the terms of European and global space re- to invest and conduct research. continued participation in missions and space search and activities? programs, which are important vehicles to Two thirds of ASI’s funding is focused on ASI is the third largest contributor coun- provide a platform to build an equitable and three key areas: Universe Observation, try to the and also sustainable social and economic develop- Launchers, and Earth Observation. Regarding works with the European Union. Could ment. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Could you explain the reasons behind erators, especially in helicopter operations, the founding of the Italian Civil Aviation are part of ENAC’s oversight program. The Authority (ENAC) in 1997 and how the same attention is afforded to other fields, organization has developed since then? such as maintaining the qualification level Until 1997, the aviation field was regulated of mechanics and engineers, the manage- by two main organizations: the Italian Air- ment of parts, and working procedures. craft Register (RAI), in charge of airwor- thiness matters, and the General Director- ENAC is also a representative body for ate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), in charge of the civil aviation industry in Italy. Could operations, licensing and airports. The le- you explain how ENAC fulfils this role gal status of the two organizations was dif- and the relationships it has with similar ferent, as the first was an agency and the bodies within Europe? second was part of the Ministry of Trans- The way in which ENAC performs its du- port. Methods of regulation for both orga- ties is made up of different approaches to nizations were different and there was an complement its oversight functions. We ever-present risk of grey areas and overlap. participate in frequent meetings with indus- This created big challenges for the market, try representatives to address specific -is Europe and personnel, which led to the sues based on open working relationships, Vito government’s decision to create a unique structured meetings with sector associa- aviation authority in charge of all aviation- tions covering general issues, and promo- related matters. Subsequent developments tion of proactive management of perceived Riggio have been either in terms of allocation of or existing problems. These meetings also new responsibilities, such as airspace and benchmark ENAC with other European passenger rights, or new organizational aerospace authorities. models. The number of managerial posi- President tions has been reduced by 40% following Safeguarding the environment is in- ITALIAN CIVIL AVIATION the initial merger of RAI and DGAC, in or- creasingly becoming an area of focus for AUTHORITY der to have a more efficient workflow and the aerospace industry. What role does 13 the effective management of allocated tasks ENAC play in promoting the adoption and duties. of alternative energies and implementing sustainable practices? One of ENAC’s major roles is in moni- For many years, ENAC has taking a lead- toring and enforcing air transport regu- ing role in promoting best practices in the lation. What is the regulatory environ- aviation field. It is the sole public body ment like for the aerospace industry in in Italy to have signed a protocol to safe- Italy, particularly in terms of manufac- guard the environment and implemented a “ turing and distribution? program to promote a better environmen- We participate in frequent meetings Today, all regulatory functions related to tal approach with the Prime Minister and with industry representatives to address manufacturing, maintenance, operations, the Ministry of Environment. ENAC has specific issues based on open working licensing, air navigation services and air- recently published guidelines for the pro- relationships, structured meetings with ports are exercised by the European Com- duction of energy from renewable sources, sector associations covering general mission and EASA. ENAC participates in in particular photovoltaic cells. ENAC has issues, and promotion of proactive regulation development within the Europe- also financed and made available a study management of perceived or an framework and, when rules are adopted, of best practices to be used at airports for existing problems. ENAC applies and enforces them. Today, designing sustainable infrastructures and as far as production is concerned, ENAC is systems. Finally, in the service contract mostly active in enforcing Part 21, related between ENAC and airport operators, we to aeronautical products. make available economic benefits for those airports which work on reducing their envi- ” In terms of air transport safety, what are ronmental impact. some of the key areas of focus for ENAC? Italy, along with the rest of Europe, has Looking to the future, what are your one of the best performances worldwide in main aims for ENAC as it approaches its terms of safety. Notwithstanding this, there 20th anniversary and beyond? are key areas of attention on the operations Our goals are for a better integration in the field, including maintenance. Operational European regulatory framework and im- fatigue, crew management and the effi- proved cooperation with the aviation indus- ciency and airworthiness of aircraft by op- try, in all respects. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Sergio Chiamparino

President REGIONE PIEMONTE

Could you provide us with a brief over- are currently financing, such as STEPS various regional governments in Italy view of the main activities carried out or GREAT2020? provide mutual support to one another? by Regione Piemonte in terms of the Since 2008, we created a technology plat- The main difference is not in how much aerospace sector? form, or virtual network, in which R&D money we dedicate to the aerospace in- Our first activity was to establish the Pied- projects could be imagined and developed. dustry, but the methods we adopt. Coop- mont Aerospace District in 2005, creating The main aim of this aerospace district ini- eration, between institutions, public and and launching an aerospace platform for tiative is to encourage large firms, SMEs, private players, research entities and com- R&D and, two years later, to look at the start-ups and spin-offs to work together panies, is our strength. This is not current- internationalization scenario though TPA. with each other and with research insti- ly the norm in Italy, and particularly not in We believe that to compete in a global tutes on R&D and innovation. These proj- the world of R&D. As far as the aerospace market, as an SME, which make up the ects are established according to the sug- sector is concerned, the establishment large majority of our enterprises, innova- gestions of stakeholders in the aerospace of different regional clusters, which then tion has to be at the forefront of a compa- sector. Regione Piemonte launches a call make up the Italian Aerospace Technology 14 ny’s offering. This comes alongside ensur- for proposals and then leads the selection Cluster, is a best practice we should fol- ing high quality products and cooperating process, supported by in-house agencies low. This is the reason we encourage par- with other companies to be able to offer and experts. We can then direct our poli- ticipation in, and the support of, our Aero- a diversified and complete solution to in- cy-making to be supportive of these inno- space District. ternational clients. We need to make the vations in order to address future market world more aware that Piedmont is home demand. Although regional government sup- to an aerospace cluster that covers the en- The STEPS project, promoted by Re- port for the aerospace industry is high, tire supply chain. gione Piemonte, involved Thales Alenia how much support does the sector gain Space working together with more than from the national government and how How does Regione Piemonte work with 20 SMEs, as well as all the main academic do these levels of government work to- the various organizations involved in and research institutes in the region for the gether? promoting the aerospace industry in development of new systems for both hu- While I agree there has not been so much Piedmont? man and unmanned space missions. This support from the national government in Once the strategic planning has taken was mainly focused on new concepts for the past, the recent establishment of a na- place, one of the many players involved living modules for space stations, land- tional governing unit, in which both na- may end up leading the initiative on behalf ing systems, energy storage, new materi- tional and regional levels are involved, has of the other organizations. For example, als with enhanced thermal performances, helped us all to share common objectives. the Turin Chamber of Commerce initially robot guiding applications, and so on. We were recently able to define a multire- led and financed the TPA project, but this GREAT2020 is a similar partnership un- gional program as part of the national stra- has now passed to the Regione. We al- der the coordination of GE Avio for the tegic plan for the space economy, which ways share the responsibility and planning development of a “green” aircraft engine. is supposed to be co-financed by both the for such projects and ensure our member Companies are working together on new state and regional governments, as well as companies feel supported; this is particu- combustion technologies, new turbine the private sector. Piedmont played a key larly relevant for the SMEs, which require components, lightweight and safe struc- role in drawing up this multiregional pro- greater assistance than the bigger compa- tures and innovative and sustainable man- gram, because we believe these two levels nies. ufacturing technologies. of government need to increase their coop- eration. In early 2016 we signed an agree- Regione Piemonte is also a key support- How would you compare Regione ment with Puglia and Campania, as well er of R&D projects in the region. Could Piemonte and its efforts to promote the as the Ministry of Economic Development you explain the funding process for aerospace industry to its counterparts and GE Avio; this is an example of a new these projects and highlight some you across the country, and how can the method for future collaboration. ▬

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Technology Cluster (CTNA), which feder- complementarities and synergies in pub- ates Italy’s leading aerospace hubs and ac- lic spending, especially as far as Europe- counts for over 80% of the country’s indus- an structural funds are concerned. In the trial output, employees, leading companies following months this orientation will be and network of state universities and re- translated into concrete acts. One of the search structures. CTNA’s aim is to con- first positive results in the perspective of tribute to the definition of a national strat- cooperation between regions is represented egy for the aerospace industry, in order to by the agreement signed at the beginning exploit Italy’s industrial and scientific as- of 2016 with Avio Aero. With this agree- sets in key international development pro- ment, signed with the Ministry of Eco- grams, as for example those set up by Hori- nomic Development and the three regions zon 2020 and the European Space Agency. (Piedmont, Campania and Puglia), Avio Aero has committed to realize an invest- Why do companies choose to become ment plan of €200 million. Around €40 members of the aerospace district and million will be invested in Piedmont, with what benefits can the district offer them? the aim of developing innovative technolo- The first advantage is certainly the fact that gies for green propulsion. being part of a wider organization expands Tommaso the reach of these companies. It also links In your opinion, what is the outlook for companies based in Piedmont with other the aerospace industry to the end of the regions in Italy as well as internationally. decade? De Alessandri This has enabled SMEs to grow and de- It is generally very good, for a number velop their own relationships with OEMs, of reasons. Firstly, air transportation is a rather than working solely with the big growing area as increasing numbers of players. Formerly, those companies would people access air travel. Secondly, big President have their own exclusive suppliers, but this aerospace companies are undergoing reor- AEROSPACE DISTRICT is changing. It is now essential to promote ganizations; national airlines such as Ali- OF PIEDMONT your own name in the market rather than talia have integrated into bigger units and 15 relying on the bigger companies, which their aircraft need updating. We are there- acted as middlemen. As an example, Pratt fore expecting growth for two reasons: an & Whitney recently contracted Mepit and increase in market demand and a need for APR, both SMEs based in Piedmont, to modernisation. Could you provide us with a brief back- work on the engine for the Lockheed Mar- As far as military aircraft are concerned, ground to the organization and why it tin F35. Membership of the district also en- we are still seeing the use of fighter aircraft was established in 2005? ables SMEs to participate in research and despite the debate on whether they should The Piedmont Aerospace District was development projects. Individually, these or should not be used and they have in fact founded to coordinate the institutions, the companies would not have the capabilities become the main source of attack and de- industrial network and the research world to be involved in Europe-backed projects. fence in military operations. Radar on the engaged in the aerospace sector throughout Together, they can combine knowledge Eurofighter Typhoons – previously- be the region. More specifically, the district and be part of a more complex and com- lieved to be obsolete – has been changed, had a key role in the identification of tech- plete solution. Our committee provides the providing scope for usage beyond 2020. nological priorities for an effective use of meeting place for SMEs, larger players and We are still waiting for unmanned fighter European Structural funds. Since the Aero- research centers to unite on various region- aircraft to replace such systems and R&D space District was launched, Piedmont Re- al, national and international projects and processes are underway to make new tech- gion has invested €50 million of European provide them with the best chance of gain- nologies more reliable. structural funds which, with the addition ing funding. The third area of focus is the space and of private funding, have made over €100 technology industry. One of the great chal- million available for research and develop- There has been talk of implementing a lenges in this area will be space explora- ment. This measure has enabled Piedmont national strategy. How has this devel- tion, with missions to the and Mars. to excel in five key technological areas: oped and what can we expect the out- In this field our regional industry has a UAVs for civil applications, eco-compat- come to look like? preeminent position at both the Italian ible aero engines, space exploration tech- Since 2014, both the national Government and European level. Thales Alenia Space nologies, space debris management and and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) have is the prime contractor of the ExoMars new generation electromechanical actua- expressed a strong interest in drawing up programme, arising from an International tors. and implementing a common strategy for cooperation strategy between the Europe- The Piedmont District was one of the the identification of shared objectives and an Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian founders (with Lombardy, Lazio, Campa- investment priorities, involving all region- Space Agency (Roscosmos), with strong nia and Puglia) of the Italian Aerospace al territories. This is in order to strengthen support from ASI. ▬

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Could you provide us with a brief intro- the national aerospace industry. In 2007, the Politecnico di Torino – is the driving force duction to the Turin Chamber of Com- Turin Chamber of Commerce decided to behind this flourishing industrial centre, merce and its activities, particularly in set up a new internalization project called providing companies with skilled engineers relation to the aerospace sector in the Torino Piemonte Aerospace that has, since and professionals with a strong background region? the beginning, offered international buyers in R&D activities. The Turin Chamber of Commerce is a pub- a preferential channel to meet and develop lic institution, whose mission is to foster the business with a selection of the region’s top growth of the local economy and enhance class aerospace and defence enterprises. What is the importance of international- it through effective and targeted initiatives. The companies selected by Torino Piemon- ization and foreign trade to Turin’s aero- The Chamber plays the role of spokesman te Aerospace respond to strict parameters space sector and overall economic health, for the more than 225,000 companies based of evaluation: technical know-how, in- and how can you promote further foreign in the area. novative products and processes, quality, investment? This area has had a long tradition of man- programme development, global coverage, Many companies can be placed in more ufacturing industries that, over the years, human resources potential and team work. than one sub-sector, with civil aeronautics shaped the automotive, aerospace, ICT, en- The resulting group represents all fields of & defence and civil aeronautics & aero- vironment and energy, biotechnology, infra- production: aircraft manufacturing, compo- space being just two. Product quality, proj- structure, logistics, healthcare and nanotech- nents & mechanics, plants & machineries, ect design capabilities and flexibility are nology sectors. One of the most important systems & subsystems, special metalwork- their main competitive factors and are in- tasks is to provide information to companies ing, defence vehicles and systems, compo- dispensable requirements as members of the interested in entering foreign markets and nents of electrical systems for aircrafts and Torino Piemonte Aerospace. Almost 86% promote them all over the world. satellites, test and control equipment, engi- of the member companies invest in R&D, neering, prototyping, software creation and while 61% own national and international How does the Chamber of Commerce consultancy. quality certificates. 80% of the selection al- benefit its member companies and what Today, the project is co-financed by Regione ready exports. Particular attention should is your strategy to foster the growth of the Piedmont and the local Chamber of Com- be paid to technological innovation: at least aerospace sector in Turin? merce system, and run by Ceipiemonte. one company out of three has its own inter- Piedmont, and more specifically the area One of the main events integral to the proj- nal laboratory and it is quite common to rely 16 surrounding Turin, is an important pole in ect is the biannual Aerospace & Defence on external laboratories to carry out testing. Meeting. The first event was hosted in Tu- A third of the companies in the cluster also rin in 2008, and was attended by some 300 participate in international programmes and companies coming from Italy, Europe and projects, and collaborate with Italian and other countries strongly committed to the foreign research centres; this is first and aerospace industry, such as the USA, Rus- foremost Politecnico di Torino, which plays sia and China. a key role in both training the next genera- In 2015, the fifth Aerospace & Defence tion of engineers, and in research and test- Meeting was held; around 500 companies ing. Competitiveness in the international and 1,000 participants (suppliers, buyers markets is closely connected to quality; and professional visitors) attended, generat- most companies have the capability to meet ing more than 6,000 B2B meetings. the requirements of their partners, who have to comply with product and process certi- With regards to the city of Turin and fication standards and specific trademarks. the surrounding Piedmont region, what makes this an ideal location for aerospace Looking to the end of the decade, what companies to base themselves? can we expect for Turin’s aerospace seg- Firstly, Piedmont boasts a complete aero- ment in the future? space supply chain compared with the oth- Opportunities for aerospace SMEs exist not Vincenzo er Italian aerospace clusters, with a stron- only in increasing knowledge production ger segment specialization. Secondly, the and corporate skills development, but also Ilotte presence of five prime companies - Thales in fostering innovation as a means to sus- Alenia Space, Avio Aero, Leonardo, UTC tainability by overcoming the boundaries and Avio Spa – together with a further 300 between the scientific community and busi- small- and medium-sized enterprises, con- ness. The scientific community could be of stitute a substantial supplier base. The area increasing strategic importance to the aero- President therefore represents a unique opportunity space SME community. We can face future TURIN CHAMBER OF for foreign companies looking for both challenges by enhancing our role in making COMMERCE suppliers and partners for industrial coop- aggregation between SMEs easier and pro- eration. Finally, the presence of a strong moting joint activities between key players academic and research network – led by and the scientific community. ▬

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the development and application of new tech- How can TPA be used as a model for other nology plays a key role, both in terms of an clusters to develop and how does Piedmont improvement in design capability, as well compare to them in terms of the supply as the potential it offers for the realization chain? and design of high-tech products. Moreover, TPA manages more than 100 member com- in Piedmont there is a long history and ex- panies and the main characteristic of our tensive experience and exchange between management is that we represent the com- the aerospace and automotive sectors, with plete aerospace supply chain, based on the an evident and important cross-fertilization aggregation model. We provide groups of among them. The flexibility and high - com companies working together with a kit of petences of Piedmontese companies are re- important operational tools, including legal nowned worldwide and the tight cooperation agreements and business plans, among other of these two sectors has facilitated the indus- instruments to ensure efficient aggregation. trial development of this region and promot- Within Italy there is no similar management Diana ed technological improvement, thus serving of supply chain for SMEs: TPA is unique and as a propellant to develop highly qualified, we have gained consensus and appreciation Giorgini local supply chains with a cross-section of both from Italian as well as foreign aerospace information and applications. clusters that look to us as a model.

What makes Piedmont appealing for in- How successful have the Piemonte Agency vestors, and what is TPA’s strategy to sup- and TPA been in supporting the interna- Aerospace Manager, Piemonte Agency port the growth of the aerospace industry? tionalization process of local companies TORINO PIEMONTE We are in a strategic region for business, of- and what is the vision for TPA for the next AEROSPACE (TPA) fering a system of relationships characterized three to five years? by history, experience and innovation. We Aerospace is still a growing sector in the have a chain of suppliers and companies that world, especially in emerging markets. The are ready to conduct business with interna- key factor of TPA’s success in promoting and Piemonte Agency is the first Italian agency tional players willing to locate here and work sustaining the aerospace companies abroad 17 dedicated to internationalization and ter- collaboratively to provide strong integrated goes back to the decision made several years ritorial development. Could you please systems. The strong network of universities ago to work on the selection of its members. give us a brief background to the agency and research centers, which provide technol- This included working with companies to and its key areas of focus? ogy and knowledge as well as facilities and identify areas for developing projects based We have more than 40 years of experience, human resources for research and develop- on aggregation to face customers’ needs. which means owning a heritage concern- ment, is another element of which we can To face the increasing global challenge in the ing the deep knowledge of local companies, take advantage. The academic institutions coming years, SMEs dealing with the aero- their capacity and capabilities. We can thus often work with the companies. space sector will have to seriously consider provide a complete range of free services to In this scenario, TPA provides customized the aggregation model to supply internation- foreign companies searching for suppliers support to foreign companies that come to ally. The aggregation of five to six compa- and partners in a variety of sectors, but we Piedmont seeking innovation in a consoli- nies, with a good capacity and a high level are also a reference point for those wishing to dated supply chain. Our assistance is fo- of technology, can lead to a successful clus- locate in the area or requiring training in in- cused and completely free of charge. We ter working on integrated projects, as it is ternational trade and commercial strategies. make an assessment of a buyers’ needs and not about providing components but rather a We facilitate the matchmaking among our technical requirements and provide them complete system. In this way, the competi- companies and foreign counterparts through with top-class skills and unique manufactur- tiveness of the group of suppliers increases specific activities to ease mutual understand- ing know-how, as well as capable suppliers more than that of an individual company ing and knowledge, including workshops, that can deliver on-time high-quality parts; on its own, in terms of dimensions and re- B2B meetings, visits to companies’ facilities products at competitive prices; technologi- sources. Furthermore, large companies are in Piedmont and missions abroad. We also cally qualified and competitive supply chains trying to simplify and consolidate their sup- organize the presence of territorial SMEs at sharing commercial objectives; target clients ply chain, looking for systems suppliers and, relevant international events. and strategies; and create technical working with our aggregation work, we are trying to groups where local enterprises and foreign follow this trend to be aligned with the com- What is the strategic importance of Pied- companies work together to develop projects panies’ expectations. It goes without saying mont’s aerospace industry to the region’s aligned to the expectations of the internation- that investing in innovation is another aspect economy? al players. Over the last few years we have of growth in the aerospace sector, as new so- These numbers highlight how crucial the observed a positive trend of foreign invest- lutions and new products are strategic for the Piedmont aerospace basin is in the region’s ments and have received many expressions advancement of the industry. ▬ economy. Our aerospace sector is recognized of interest from China and Europe, as well as as one of the most important in Italy, where elsewhere in Italy.

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United we stand: the TPA project and aerospace clusters

By Harriet Bailey

Only a decade ago, Piedmont’s aerospace players looking for a more complete range SMEs were islands; although conscious of of services and solutions. “The future of 18 the major players in the industry, it was the aerospace sector will be the aggrega- common for small- and medium-sized tion of small- to medium-sized companies, companies to be unaware of the competi- as these companies cannot work alone to tor – or potential business partner - on the supply internationally,” continued Gior- next street. However, the Piemonte Agen- gini. “Aggregating five to six companies cy for Investments, Export and Tourism, with a good capacity and a high level of established in 2007 by the local chamber technology can lead to a successful cluster of commerce and backed by the regional working on an integrated project, as it is government, changed all that when it em- not about providing components but rather barked on the Torino Piemonte Aerospace a system.” (TPA) project. For Piedmont’s SMEs themselves, the op- The first Italian agency dedicated to inter- portunity presented by TPA was exactly nationalism and territorial development, what they had been looking for. ITACAe, it is a key proponent and supporter of the an engineering and software development SME network in the region. The key objec- start-up founded in 2013, may be a relative tive was to support local SMEs in expand- newcomer to the project, but is an advo- ing their business horizons in foreign mar- cate of its benefits. “Many SMEs, with a kets and to gain international customers variety of competences, feel the need for for homegrown manufacturing. “We have such an opportunity as presented by TPA a network of suppliers and companies that and therefore the decision to join is an are ready to conduct business with inter- easy one,” confirmed Federico Valente. national players and work collaboratively “As a member, it offers benefits such as to provide a strong competence and inte- opportunities to enter the market and to grated systems,” said aerospace manager learn about different technological ad- for TPA, Diana Giorgini. vancements in the industry from fellow In a region with a diverse range of compa- companies.” nies offering a wide array of capabilities According to Giorgini, the fact that TPA and expertise, TPA seeks to connect these selects specific companies for member- companies in meaningful working groups ship, identifying those that can meaning- so as to enable knowledge transfer and fully contribute to the cluster, is a key to stimulate interest in large international factor of its success. The project develops Image: Finmeccanica

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individual relationships with each com- ed to design and engineering activities in ber having joined thanks to TPA’s inter- pany and assists them with training and the overall workflow,” explained Valente. nationalisation efforts in the UK. Member advice as they grow. “The companies se- “We wanted to show our customers a pos- companies have expertise across the value lected by Torino Piemonte Aerospace re- sible workflow involving our engineering chain, from engineering and manufactur- spond to strict parameters of evaluation: phase for manufacturing the end product ing to maintenance and repair services; technical know-how, innovative products compared with what exists in the market this includes Alfa Meccanica, an engine and processes, quality, programme devel- at the moment.” component manufacturer located outside opment, global coverage, human resourc- The Aero Engine Components Cluster of Turin. “The aim of both and TPA es potential and team work. The resulting (AENCOM) is made up of 11 member is to approach big customers that need group represents all fields of production,” companies, with a combined network of complete solutions like us,” said sales explained Vincenzo Ilotte, president of Tu- 1,000 employees, including more than 120 manager Maurizio Burdese. “Because rin’s Chamber of Commerce. designers and engineers. AENCOM aims companies such as Rolls Royce are look- In order to facilitate the internationalisa- to support customers from the design stag- ing to consolidate and reduce the number tion of its member companies, TPA estab- es throughout the manufacturing process, of suppliers on their books, it makes even lished an event, which would see foreign drawing on available resources within more sense for us to combine forces.” players, interested in establishing partner- the cluster to provide a tailor-made, - TPS Aerospace Engineering, a company ships, come to its members. Just one year ible approach. “As a combined group, our focused on integrated logistics and en- after the project was founded, the first turnover and capability is similar to that gineering support, agrees that clusters Aerospace & Defence Meeting was held of a medium-sized company. To flourish are necessary to be eligible for the big- in Turin in 2008. “It was attended by some within the international aerospace market, ger contracts. The company is a member 300 companies coming from Italy, Europe it was essential to progress from our sta- of the Leading Italian Design in Aero- and other countries strongly committed to tus as a series of small companies and add space (LISA) consortium, established by the aerospace industry, such as the USA, manpower, capabilities and expertise,” Turin-based Future Design. “We have Russia and China,” continued Ilotte. “This said Andrea Romiti, current cluster presi- seen through TPA that this threshold can event is the only international business dent and CEO of member company APR. be reached when Italian companies come convention for the aerospace and defence By joining forces with other similarly together, of which LISA is an example,” industry in Italy and represents a unique sized companies, the cluster is far more said technical director Matteo Vazzola. opportunity for companies to optimize the likely to be awarded broad-scope contracts “Through LISA, we have been able to get 19 search for new suppliers and solutions.” that that would otherwise be inaccessible in contact with some of the prime aero- The 2015 iteration was the fifth meeting, to individual SMEs, while retaining the space companies such as and hosting 500 companies and 1,000 partici- advantages inherent in being a smaller we often find potential clients sitting next pants, generating more than 6,000 B2B player. “We consider ourselves to be an to us during TPA cluster meetings.” meetings. Now a bi-annual event, alternate organization with similar capabilities to LISA is focused on the provision of safe- years are hosted by the city of Toulouse, medium- to big- companies, but with the ty- and performance-enhancing aesthetics, 700 kilometers away in neighbouring accompanying competitiveness and the particularly in the interiors of VIP jets. France, at its Aeromart event. approach and flexibility of small compa- Tekspan joined the cluster to provide man- nies,” he continued. “None of the compa- ufacturing capabilities to the design and nies within AENCOM would have been engineering companies which make up the Mass effect capable of achieving what we have with- rest of the cluster: “LISA is an on-going out this integrated approach.” and interesting project that has the poten- Having established a number of working To illustrate the cluster’s new-found sta- tial to combine Italian design with Ital- groups at the start of the project, these tus, it was recently part of a winning bid, ian capability to manage small, medium have now formalized into three main clus- together with Avio Aero, for building a and high production volumes,” explained ters: AENCOM, focused on aero-engine low-pressure turbine for the Sustainable managing director Silvio Marioni. components from design to production; & Green Energy (SAGE) initiative within The key challenge for these clusters, and Altair Consortium, a group of nine com- the Clean Sky program. “AENCOM won others, will be their international promo- panies across Italy which has gained inter- the bid, and it was an excellent opportuni- tion efforts and the cultivation of their national recognition; and the LISA cluster, ty to showcase Italian companies and our image. An unfamiliar concept to many, it a group of companies related to design capacity to deliver fully integrated solu- may take time for the clusters to gain the within the sector. However, other work- tions. This also eased the responsibility of trust of international clients over individ- ing groups persist, such as the additive Avio Aero in having to handle the project, ual companies. Fabrizio Barcaro, CEO of manufacturing-focused group of which risk and contract management responsi- AENCOM member company, LMB, has ITACAe is a member: “Within the work- bilities,” said Romiti. identified this challenge: “Because the ing group in which we are active, there are Although Altair Consortium is older than cluster approach is completely different to several competences for different parts; AENCOM, having been founded in 2010, typical supplier-customer relationships, it some companies can produce parts using member companies have changed over the is important that the market understands additive manufacturing technologies and years; today, eight of the nine companies the strategy, which will mean increasing process operations. Our presence is relat- are based in Italy, with the newest mem- our visibility and profile.” ▬

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different areas, at both a regional and na- PM: We also have a very strong interna- tional level. tional program, which offers students a lot of mobility. Approximately 30% of stu- Many companies consider Politecnico di dents spend either one or two years abroad, Torino to be a major asset to the region. and will receive a double degree. One of What is your relationship with sur- our students, for example, completed a rounding companies? master’s degree with Thales Alenia Space PM: We have a mutually beneficial rela- and a second program with Avio Aero, fol- tionship with surrounding companies and lowed by a joint program between Politec- industry bodies. We collaborate extensive- nico di Torino and MIT Boston, where she ly within the fields of research, technology is currently enrolled in a post doctorate

MG transfer and training with companies such program. This is an excellent example of a as Thales Alenia Space, Avio Aero, Leon- student who has benefitted from the oppor- ardo and UTC, as well as a large network tunities facilitated by the university. of SMEs. We have an established man- agement committee, involving company What is the strength of the aerospace Marco Gilli representatives and members of the uni- industry in Italy, and how can Politec- versity, who work together to support edu- nico di Torino continue to support its & Paolo cational programs and research. growth? MG: Our students have the opportunity to MG: The aerospace industry is particularly work with prominent aerospace companies strong in Italy. Even during the global eco- Maggiore and contribute to their research projects. nomic crisis, we were still able to promote We also design programs and courses with innovation within manufacturing indus- specific companies to increase the -train tries. The field of additive manufacturing MG: Rector ing and education opportunities for stu- is one example, and there are plenty of oth- PM: Associate Professor dents. Within these collaborative relation- ers. International space projects see strong POLITECNICO DI TORINO ships, students work on real projects and support, and often leadership, from Italian 20 challenges otherwise handled by qualified companies and institutions such as ASI. In engineers within the companies. Students the National Research Plan recently ap- thereby gain practical experience and pro- proved by our Ministry of Education, the vide solutions to complex challenges with aerospace industry is acknowledged as one wider applications. This arrangement is of the important strategic fields for the de- also beneficial to the companies in- fur velopment of the country. One of the key Politecnico di Torino has a legacy that thering research capabilities, using the re- roles of the university is to attract talented dates back 150 years. Could you provide sources offered by the university. students to the region and support them in us with a brief overview of the institu- their training. tion’s key activities and recent develop- Aside from supporting their practical ments? training with industry partnerships, What are some of Politecnico di Tori- The Politecnico has 11 departments, one how else does the Politecnico support its no’s key objectives over the next three of which is the Department of Mechani- students? to five years? cal and Aerospace Engineering. Our tradi- MG: We have made an effort to create an We plan to invest more in human resourc- tion in aerospace engineering dates back interdisciplinary environment to better es, increasing our number of researchers many years, and is a field for which the train students, looking at the entire lifecy- and attracting some leading professors. institution is very well respected. We have cle of the aerospace product, from design One of our key objectives is to offer a seen increasing interest among students to to manufacture and verification. It is- im more interdisciplinary education, as well study in the wider field of manufacturing. portant for students to receive an education as more practical skills. We hope to pro- Half a century ago, we accepted around across several fields to integrate and apply vide broader skills and understanding with 1,000 students into their first year of- en this knowledge. We also offer joint courses the continuing support of well-established gineering, and we now have 5,000 engi- designed with input from key companies companies, and to strengthen our partner- neering students per year. Our aerospace such as Thales Alenia Space. More than ships. ▬ program is one of the most popular among 90% of our engineering students find a job students, and we welcome about 300 first within a year of graduation; however, the year students every year onto this course. figure is slightly higher in aerospace engi- Many of our graduates have become very neering because the field is more techno- prominent within leading companies, both logically advanced. Furthermore, within in Piedmont and throughout the country. the joint courses, almost 100% of students We also have various research operations will receive an offer of employment from with many industries and companies in that particular company.

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Alenia Aermacchi (now part of Finmeccani- of a new five-year plan. The new policy is to ca), Avio Aero (now part of General Electric) have four lines of research: advanced mate- and Altran Italy are based here. Because we rials, additive manufacturing, synthetic and have the big players here, SMEs working in systems biology, and reactors and processes. the industry and supplying those companies will also base themselves here. These large How do both regional and national gov- corporations can lead the way in terms of ernments support the aerospace industry areas of interest, which spur on the smaller in Italy and are there any areas for im- companies, as well as universities and re- provement? search centers such as ourselves, to put re- The Center is well supported by Piemonte sources into these areas of focus and support Region. In 2009 and 2012, the Region pro- development. Piemonte Region is a platform vided around €30 million in funding for for the aerospace industry, having already projects based on the needs of both Thales supplied two rounds of funding to space pro- and Avio Aero. A third round of funding, grams led by those large companies. This using money from European Union’s Ho- leads to a great environment for research and rizon program, will be awarded in summer Paolo innovation. 2016. We requested around €12 million and, with a 60% funding rate, we hope to receive Fino What are some of the key research proj- around €8 million in regional funding. This ects on which the Center is working? will consolidate the environment for additive Since 2009, we have received in the region of manufacturing. €5 million in funding both for regional aero- While we have been fairly successful with space projects and from contracts with the regional funding, we have faced difficulties large companies. This is large-scale research with national funding. Although we began focused on electron beam melting (EBM) projects with the Italian clusters in 2014, we Senior Scientist for Aerospace ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI and material used directly in EBM applica- have not received any money for these proj- tions and we therefore have various machines ects. TECNOLOGIA (IIT) that are able to support these projects. We are In terms of European funding, we recently 21 also working on small-scale research; for ex- had some problems due to our close work ample, we are supporting Altran in the pro- with Avio Aero and the fact that the U.S.- duction of small machines able to conduct based General Electric acquired the compa- additive manufacturing in space. Machines ny. Once the merger was complete and the which the Center worked on were tested in rules of engagement between the European The Italian Institute of Technology was the International Space Station in early 2016. Committee and General Electric were de- founded in 1993. What was the reason be- We are currently waiting for the components fined, we have won some funding for large hind this and how has the Institute devel- that were produced during this testing in or- projects. Avio Aero is now able to play a full oped over the last two decades? der to evaluate the mechanical and structural role as the driver of aerospace research in IIT was founded by scientific director Rober- properties of the material and to give feed- Italy. to Cincolani and now has 2,500 employees, back on the process of additive manufactur- 1,200 of whom are based at the headquarters ing in space. This is the frontier of research What is the Center’s strategy for the fu- in Genoa. Initial research was focused on into additive manufacturing and similar re- ture and where do you hope to be in two high-interest topics, such as human robot- search was conducted by NASA in late 2015. years’ time? ics, cognitive science, nano materials and We are aiming to build up our knowledge graphene. As a public/private foundation, we How has the focus of the Center changed base and capabilities to be able to produce received special funding from both the gov- from 2009 to today? the entire spectrum of additive manufactur- ernment and private companies to build up We began with three main lines: one on addi- ing technology. We will use a further €3 mil- the various centers of excellence. IIT enrols tive manufacturing and structural materials, lion in funding to buy an EBM machine and, both senior scientists and upcoming scien- one focused on energy and the final one on by 2018, we hope to have systems in place tists to bolster its research activities. In Turin sensors. In 2015, the Center was evaluated by to atomise powders and produce alloys our- we are focused on space human robotics and an external board and the results showed that selves. aerospace. the additive manufacturing line was far more Our work with Avio Aero means we are mov- important than the other two. One of the ing to a structure which, on the one hand, will Could you tell us more about IIT’s Center advantages of working in a research center be publicly funded and devoted to research of Space Human Robotics and why it is lo- rather than a university is that we can change and, on the other, will focus on transferring cated in Turin? our focus and hire the right people to lead re- our technologies to the business world. Avio This is no accident as the Piemonte region is search. The outcome of the evaluation result- Aero wants to install laboratories for the de- the headquarters of the Italian space industry. ed in a restructuring of the Center, the hiring velopment of an engine component inside the Companies such as Thales Alenia Space and of a new coordinator and the implementation Center. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations Image: Avio GBR • Industry Explorations • ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Space

“The importance of being at the forefront of technological advancement has been well understood in Piedmont and the national and regional governments have invested millions of Euros into the aerospace industry. There is great value in these investments, as they move through the supply chain and remain in the economy.”

- Vincenzo Giorgio, CEO, Altec Italy’s space industry: searching for solutions

By Harriet Bailey

Although the majority of may be time for the 50th anniversary of the UAE’s unaware, those in the know are very proud independence in 2022. of the San Marco project. Italy was the Individual companies are also gaining third country in the world to launch and recognition for their expertise on an in- operate a satellite in orbit, heralding the ternational level. Thales Alenia Space – a start of what has now been more than half joint venture between France’s Thales and a decade of space activity in the country. Italy-based Leonardo – built 50% of the Lazio is the epicenter of these operations, residential modules and laboratories for accounting for around half of the indus- the International Space Station (ISS) at its try’s turnover, which was around €1.6 Turin location; the remainder were built billion in 2014. In the same year, exports by a Japanese company. The company has from the sector made up 70% of this turn- also taken the lead in space exploration: over, more than half of which was to other “Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor European countries and the European on the ExoMars program, arising from Space Agency (ESA). Italy is the third an international cooperation strategy be- largest contributor to ESA after France tween ESA and the Russian Space Agency and Germany. (Roscosmos), with strong support from However, as the seventh largest space ASI,” said Tommaso De Alessandri, presi- economy in the world, countries outside dent of the Piedmont Aerospace District. of the European Union (EU) are also tak- The ExoMars program aims to study the ing notice. In January 2016, Italian Space environment, atmosphere and soil on Agency (ASI) president Roberto Bat- Mars, and the first of two missions was tiston signed a framework cooperation launched in March 2016. While the UK, agreement with the United Arab Emirates France and Germany are supporting the (UAE) Space Agency. ASI will assist in project, “Italy is the key player in this the development of the country’s space ac- Mars exploration mission, responsible for tivity, as it plans to become the first Arab more than one third of the activity,” ex- country to reach Mars with a satellite, in plained Altec CEO Vincenzo Giorgio. Global Business Reports Image: Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén S.A. (GyP) EDITORIAL

Thales Alenia Space designed both the re- formances, robot guiding applications, entry and orbital modules and is develop- and so on,” outlined regional government ing the navigation and guidance systems president Sergio Chiamparino. “ for the orbital and descent modules for Working on new living module concepts the next mission in 2020. In addition, the is Aerosekur, a Rome-headquartered company is designing the next Mars rover. company with a space division located Samples will be processed and Altec, a joint venture formed by Thales near Turin’s airport. According to the di- analyzed by the rover, and the results Alenia Space and ASI, is the Italian cen- vision’s technical head, Massimo Conte, will be transmitted via the orbiting ter of excellence for engineering services current technologies based on aluminium satellite that is currently on its way to to the ISS and other space infrastructure. are too heavy and rigid and a different so- Mars as part of the first mission. From In terms of the ExoMars mission, Altec lution is necessary. “Inflatable technology here at ALTEC we will analyse the is responsible for the design, manufactur- is an area we began researching in 2005; ing and operation of the Rover Operations this covers such aspects as habitable spac- transmitted data and make it readable Control Center (ROCC). “The operation es for both in orbit – as on the to the scientists. center and scientists will be based here International Space Station (ISS) – and on [at our headquarters] in Turin,” continued planetary surfaces,” clarified Andrea Mes- - Vincenzo Giorgio, Giorgio. sidoro, R&D Project & Systems Engi- CEO, The rover will drill two meters below the neer at Aerosekur. “We are working with Altec surface. “Samples will be processed and Thales Alenia Space on flexible materials analyzed by the rover, and the results will that can be packed and therefore launched be transmitted via the orbiting satellite into space at a far lower cost, as many that is currently on its way to Mars as part more items can be sent on one journey. of the first mission. From here at ALTEC we will analyse the transmitted data and make it readable to the scientists.” Staying a step ahead ” In order to send inflatable or metallic re- to create a smaller launcher more suited to Strong support entry or descent modules into space, the this market. Although the number of big 25 industry is reliant on launchers. The Pied- satellites is still important, the number of With such a strong reputation behind it mont region has this covered in the shape small satellites weighing around 100 kg and the need to remain at the forefront of Avio. Formerly part of the aerospace for internet and communication is increas- of innovation in the segment, the space conglomerate Avio Aero, the segment ing rapidly,” continued Dumaz. industry at least appears to be supported dedicated to space was left out of GE Avi- The new solution is the Vega launcher, a by domestic funding bodies and national, ation’s purchase of the aeronautical side four-stage rocket with three solid boost- as well as regional, governments. Giorgio of the business in 2013. Avio cut its teeth ers, and Avio is the prime contractor for continued: “The importance of being at on the Ariane launcher, a heavy launch- ESA. The launcher’s maiden flight took the forefront of technological advance- er for satellite communications whose place relatively recently in 2012. How- ment has been well understood in Pied- maiden flight took place two decades ever, despite the Vega launcher being mont and the national and regional gov- ago. Although production is small, with smaller and requiring less fuel, the fact re- ernments have invested millions of Euros up to eight launches per year, it is a very mains that each module can only be used into the aerospace industry. There is great lengthy project, which has been extended once. “There are many ideas today about value in these investments, as they move by a further 20 years. “The lifespan of this whether it is possible to build a reusable through the supply chain and remain in the launcher is very long – much longer than a launcher,” said Dumaz, “and we are look- economy.” car or an airplane. We therefore still have ing into the technologies and systems re- As well as providing funding for R&D, to produce components over the course quired to do this.” Piedmont’s regional government has also of the launcher’s lifespan,” explained tur- With Avio looking into this possibility, come up with various projects to promote bomachine unit head Christophe Dumaz. Aerosekur is looking at how its inflatable collaboration in the space segment. The “When a company takes on a project of modules can be adapted for cultivating STEPS project, focused on developing this scope, we have to be certain that all crops on the surface of Mars, while Altec new systems for manned and unmanned the companies involved will have the ca- will endeavour to become a key player space missions, saw project leader Thales pability to work on it over that lifespan.” in the space tourism industry, which it Alenia Space working with not only aca- While Ariane has the capacity to launch believes will begin in earnest from 2030 demic and research institutions, but also satellites up to 15 tonnes in weight and into onwards. As regional president Chiampa- more than 20 small- and medium-sized a high earth orbit, the satellite market has rino envisages, one thing is certain: “space companies. “This was mainly focused on changed, with the majority of earth obser- exploration will remain as the sphere in new concepts for living modules for space vation satellites weighing less than 1,500 which the scientific and technological re- stations, landing systems, energy storage, kilograms (kg) and requiring a lower or- search fields will combine to address their new materials with enhanced thermal per- bit. “It was therefore decided we needed most compelling challenges.” ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Giovanni Soccodato

Executive Vice President Strategy, Markets and Business Development LEONARDO-FINMECCANICA

Your capabilities across different areas of trial and social pattern of the region. Prod- aerospace are extensive. Which of your ucts are also tested at the facility, in rooms operations are concentred in Piedmont? simulating the environmental conditions to “ Aerospace is one of the main economic which they are going to be exposed in deep Piedmont has been involved in the drivers of Piedmont, where Leonardo has space. Aeronautics sector since the early around 4,000 people, plus those working in 1900s, and Leonardo is the major our joint venture Thales Alenia Space Ita- How does Piedmont compare to the other component of the regional lia (Thales 67% - Leonardo-Finmeccanica Italian clusters in terms of capabilities? Aerospace cluster. 33%). Leonardo Aircraft division has of- Piedmont has been involved in the Aero- fices and systems laboratories in Piedmont, nautics sector since the early 1900s, and dedicated to defence systems design, air- Leonardo is the major component of the craft engineering end production integra- regional Aerospace cluster. For example 26 tion and qualification. Main activities- in Leonardo established here some of its state clude assembly and final integration of of the art facilities, including research labo- ” military, fighter and transport aircraft such ratories, clean rooms, and one of the big- as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the C-27J. gest anechoic chambers in Europe, the Sky In Cameri (near ), the Italian Air Light simulator. Force Base hosts a production site entirely Turin is also the main research and develop- dedicated to the F-35 programme. ment centre for unmanned systems technol- The centre, currently the only programme’s ogy, where Leonardo is playing a leading production site outside the U.S., is role collaborating with local institutions, equipped with a Final Assembly and Check such as the SMAT research project, which Out (FACO) line. Leonardo Aircraft Divi- aims to define, design and develop an Ad- sion is responsible, as the second source for vanced Environmental Monitoring System the programme’s production, for producing based on innovative unmanned air systems, F-35 wings (more precisely the full wings). coordinated by a ground-based control sta- The Airborne and Space Systems division tion. develops the NATO AGS (Alliance Ground In Piedmont, the Thales Alenia Space Ita- Surveillance) programme in Turin, used by lia’s facility has increased its role in or- the Alliance countries as land and maritime bital infrastructure, becoming a main con- security system and involving sensors, un- tributor to the International Space Station manned vehicles and radar and ground seg- (ISS), with more than 50% of the modules “The significant technical contribution ments. The ATOS (Airborne Tactical Ob- developed there, making the region a cen- by the Piedmont region to the servation & Surveillance) system is also tre of excellence, recognised throughout the development of the Space sector is developed in Turin, used by Coast Guards world. The facility is involved in the pro- and other Police forces in many differ- duction of the Pressurized Cargo Module highlighted by the participation of our ent operations such as search and rescue, (PCM) for Cygnus automated cargo space- Piedmont plant in the main scientific boarder control, the illegal traffic of people craft. The company is also prime contrac- international missions such as Mars and goods. tor through ESA for the IXV (Intermediate Express, Venus Express, Rosetta, The Thales Alenia Space plant in Turin, eXperimental Vehicle) and Expert experi- GOCE, Bepi Colombo, Euclid and with more than 50,000 sqm of laborato- mental suborbital re-entry vehicles and par- ExoMars” explains Donato Amoroso, ries, clean rooms and production areas, is ticipates in the new NASA’s space capsule Thales Alenia Space Italia’s CEO. a perfect model of integration in the indus- . ▬

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Christophe Dumaz

Head of Turbomachine Unit AVIO

Avio was founded in 1912 and, in 1962, majority of Avio’s Turin-based workforce Avio spends 18% of its turnover on re- the company moved into the aerospace have become part of Avio Aero. search and development. Could you tell industry. Could you tell us more about We also have two other, small locations: in us more about some of the new technolo- the company’s development and how it France we conduct euro-propulsion, while gies you are developing? has become one of Italy’s leading players is our integration site. After In Colleferro, Avio is working on filament in the space sector? production is carried out in Rome or Turin, winding. A rope of carbon is used to make At the beginning, Avio had three main divi- parts and personnel are sent to French Gui- our boosters and then an envelope which sions: aeronautic components manufactur- ana to conduct integration and launch test- generates carbon is filled with the propel- ing, space components, and maintenance. ing. lant. Another technology, of which we have The aeronautics division was acquired by developed the first prototype in Europe, is General Electric in 2013. As far as our space How has the division of Avio, following additive manufacturing. Our new compo- activity is concerned, we started developing the acquisition of Avio Aero by General nents for liquid propulsion would be made small separation boosters for the Ariane 1 Electric in 2013, affected the company? with this technology. 27 European launcher, as well as small satel- The space division remained an indepen- lite activities and, over the years, we have dent company. We went from being part of Avio is committed to sustainable opera- increased our scope in this area. We began a large company, with 5,000 people in Turin tions and protecting the environment working on small components before manu- alone, to a much smaller company and our from human impact. Could you tell us in facturing the Vega launcher itself. Its maid- competitors, such as Airbus, are much big- what ways this can be achieved? en flight took place in 2012, when we were ger. However, Avio has a flat organisational We are involved in a program called awarded a contract with ESA. We are trying structure and we rely on our capabilities. We “Greening the Propulsion”, the purpose of to expand our business as much as possible are small, flexible and can work on several which is to make propulsion as green as and become a much more global company. projects at once. This sort of flexibility is not possible by focusing on the propellant it- often possible in bigger companies. self. We are also working on using different Avio has two locations in Italy. Could you liquid propellants such as methane. tell us about what activities take place at Could you tell us about your work on the each location? Ariane space launcher program and why Having already achieved more than a Avio’s headquarters is located in Colleferro, it was necessary to create a new program? century in operations and working on just outside Rome, with around 800 employ- The Vega launcher is completely different some of the largest projects in the space ees. The core business is solid propulsion, to Ariane, which is a heavy launcher for sector, where can Avio proceed from which covers areas such as boosters and satellite communications. Vega is a small here? complete system activities surrounding the launcher for sending small satellites, pri- There are many ideas today about whether launchers. We are the prime contractor for marily for earth observation, into a com- it is possible to build a reusable launcher the small Vega launcher, a four stage rocket pletely different orbit. Small satellites can and we are looking into the technologies with three solid boosters, which is the core be anywhere up to 1,500 kilograms (kgs) and systems required to do this. I also be- of our activity. Manufacturing has also ex- in weight, meaning we do not need to use lieve Avio will continue to expand its field panded to cover associated software. This Ariane, which can launch satellites up to 10 of activities and enhance our position in the has been quite an important development times heavier. It was therefore decided we complete supply chain, in order to be better for the company. needed to create a smaller launcher more integrated from sub-components to the final In Turin, our main activity is developing suited to this market. Although the number product. We have been working on this for components for liquid propulsion and man- of big satellites is still important, the num- the last 20 years, which has brought us to a ufacturing components for space engines, ber of small satellites weighing around 100 much more stable position. ▬ which are sold to Snecma. We have kept a kgs for internet and communication is in- small nucleus of people here, although the creasing rapidly.

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

the behavior of the human body in space Mars’ cosmic radiation (due to its lack and all the challenges the astronauts may of magnetic field). These samples will be undergo as a result of physiological stress. processed and analyzed by the rover and the results will be transmitted via the or- How does ALTEC support the ISS proj- biting satellite that is currently on its way ect, and what is the relationship between to Mars as part of the first mission. From ALTEC and the other organizations in- here, at ALTEC we will analyze the trans- volved? mitted data and make it readable to the sci- Within the framework, there are many Eu- entists. ropean, and particularly Italian, partners, and we support all of the operations, main- How does the development of the Ital- tenance and logistics. There is a control ian space industry, which is the seventh Vincenzo center here in Turin that is permanently largest in the world, compare to other connected to the space station and we are jurisdictions worldwide? connected with the Johnson Space Center Italy was the third country to go to space. Giorgio in Houston. We analyze and preempt what In Italy, the industry has more or less all they need and then work to support these the capability: access to space, telecom- needs. With this experience, we also con- munications capability and Earth observa- CEO duct crew training. We provide most of the tion systems. You will find all the building ALTEC instructors for the European Astronauts blocks of space activity in Italy, both in Center (EAC) at the ESA center, and we the wider industry as well as in the SMEs, Vice President Institutional 28 teach the astronauts what they have to do which is a good mix. Very good and very Marketing and Sales and when. skilled SMEs are able to invest in specific THALES ALENIA SPACE technologies, which is impossible for the Could you tell us more about the Mars larger players, as well as having good con- project, and the nature of ALTEC’s in- nections with universities and research volvement? centers. Italy’s space footprint is, so far, What are some of the main services that Europe is approaching a Mars explora- very successful. ALTEC can provide, and could you tell tion program – ExoMars – which consists us more about some of the main pro- of two missions. The first mission was ALTEC has been around for 15 years. grams on which ALTEC works? launched in March 2016 and has a landing What can we expect for the company ALTEC has three main focus areas: explo- date of 19 October 2016. Italy is the key in the next five years and how will this ration, scientific activity and the concept player in this Mars exploration mission, align with advances in the global space of the new space economy, which is begin- responsible for more than one third of the sector? ning to become a reality. In terms of explo- activity. Within Italy, Thales Alenia Space One of our areas of focus will be the new ration, we are very much aligned with our is leading the program, being the prime space economy. Space tourism will gain a stakeholders, the Italian Space Agency and contractor. lot of attraction within the next decade – Thales Alenia Space (TAS-I). TAS-I deals The second mission is a rover, which will we should see the starting point by 2030 at with low orbit explorations and the Inter- land on Mars at a later date to search, for the very latest. At ALTEC, we are consid- national Space Station (ISS), for which the first time ever, for present or past life. ering the system that will support this ven- they have manufactured more than half of The operation center and scientists will be ture, including establishing a spaceport, the pressurized volume, while ALTEC’s based at ALTEC in Turin. Because of the the vehicles, and the future of this enter- main focus is on operation management. communication delay, we have to rely on a prise. As well as discussing this with Ital- We have all the engineering competencies somewhat autonomous system, as we can- ian partners, we recently received a con- to maintain infrastructure, analyze pos- not control the vehicle in real time. Our tract from a Far East government to study sible outcomes, and take care of logistics, solution is that the rover will move be- the possibility of creating a spaceport to- including making changes and replacing tween two points without human control, gether. Our approach is to always think equipment, as well as helping astronauts in avoiding obstacles, until it reaches the new ahead and plan for the next step. Now we their experiments in space. We also have point. We will then drill down two meters are sending a rover to Mars, but the next activities that deal with medicine and biol- below ground level to take samples to look idea is to send people to Mars, so we are ogy at the ISS. We collaborate with a team for past or present life. Anything closer investigating what that would entail in of scientists to help them better understand to the surface would have been killed by terms of air, water and food. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

RUS formed ALTEC, which included ICA- in logistics activities, such as the PMM RUS, Alenia and the Italian Space Agen- and Columbus modules, which are used cy (ASI) as shareholders. The aim was to by ESA. Our facilities have two control take over this strategically important sec- rooms, which are permanently connected tor. Despite the difficulties of those years, to NASA and ESA. a great deal of effort went into increasing We also carry out training and ALTEC’s capabilities and taking advan- biomedical experiments. Astronauts in or- tage of the regional competencies regard- bit recently underwent an experiment re- ing pressurized modules. Subsequently, the lated to neck vessels, to understand what aerospace station project was born. happens in a weightless environment. We also carry out data processing, for example Many players are involved in the fund- in the GAIA project, which involves satel- ing of ALTEC, including ASI, Thales lite tracking, and we process all the map- Alenia Space and the ICARUS Consor- ping data. tium. Could you explain more about AL- Fabio TEC’s funding model and how this has ALTEC is located in Turin. How impor- been affected by Leonardo’s ownership tant is the region of Piedmont within the of Thales Alenia Space? country’s aerospace industry? Massimo The shareholder structure has shifted The Italian aerospace industry’s turnover slightly over the years and ALTEC remains is about €6.5 billion and employs around Grimaldi a joint venture between both public and 32,000 personnel throughout Italy; Pied- private sectors. Today, ICARUS has pulled mont accounts for about €3.5 billion of out and the two shareholders, Thales (60% this turnover and 17,000 employees. These of shares) and ASI (40% of shares) have figures clearly show that Piedmont’s aero- President taken over control of ALTEC. We do not space industry is a leading sector in Italy. 29 ALTEC interact directly with Finmeccanica as Fin- Within Europe, Italy’s space economy meccanica only plays a part in the French ranks third. joint-venture with Thales. The industry is highly developed because We work as a large enterprise because we of its capabilities. We are at the center of are controlled by a very large company, engineering and science, but there is also Could you explain the reasons behind Thales Alenia, and ASI, which is a govern- a whole network supported by Politecnico the founding of ALTEC in 2001 and its ment agency. ALTEC employs 80 people, di Torino and other research centers. The development over the last decade and a and is regarded as a large firm. As a large Politecnico trains its students in specialized half, from providing support to the ISS, company, we do not receive direct fund- skills which are fundamental to aerospace ESA and NASA, to also supporting pri- ing from initiatives such as Horizon 2020, companies, and that is a key reason for AL- vate companies? or from ASI because it is now our share- TEC’s initial establishment in Turin. Our ALTEC was founded during a time of crisis holder. We do however benefit greatly from employees and colleagues are engineers for the aerospace industry, in which even Thales, as they will contract us as an engi- and physicists who come mainly from - Alenia Aermacchi experienced temporary neering and research company for impor- litecnico di Torino or Politecnico di Mila- lay-offs. It was a challenging period in tant contracts such as EXOMARS. no. There are also many SMEs in Piedmont which the Piedmont region had great fore- that are well established and have good sight and strove to take advantage of oppor- What are some of the main services AL- technical knowledge. tunities at both a national and international TEC can provide, and could you tell us level. The solution was to form a consor- more about some of the main programs What can we expect from the aerospace tium called ICARUS, obtaining commu- on which ALTEC works? sector over the next three to five years? nity funds and encouraging industry leader As a company, we began with skills and In the last four years, €50 million has been Alenia to work with Piedmont institutions expertise related to pressurized modules allocated in FESR funds, with an overall such as the Chamber of Commerce and the and logistics. This has enabled us to be- investment of €100 million. Piedmont is regional government. ICARUS is a limited come a ‘center of excellence’ at a Europe- very strong as an aerospace cluster, and we responsibility consortium, with public en- an, as well as an Italian, level for engineer- are working on many projects on drones tities owning a 51% stake, while Alenia ing and logistics services in support of the and land mapping in partnership with the holds the remainder. This consortium and ISS. Around 50% of ISS residential mod- region. I believe that our aerospace district the accompanying funding made it possible ules and laboratories were built here in Tu- expresses an excellence within the Italian to build the Multi-Functional Space Center rin by Thales Alenia Space, while the rest aerospace industry in terms of SMEs, re- (CMFS). When the center was built, ICA- were built in Japan. We are also engaged search centers and ALTEC. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Massimo Conte & Andrea Messidoro

MC: Technical Head of Space & Technology Division AM: R&D, Project & Systems Engineer MC AEROSEKUR

Could you provide us with an overview nia Space on flexible materials that can be ments support the aerospace industry in of Aerosekur’s three business lines – air- packed and can therefore be launched into Italy? borne, defence and space and technology space at a far lower cost, as many more items AM: Piedmont is one of the greatest aero- - and any recent key milestones? can be sent on one journey. space regions in Italy. Support from Regione AM: Of Aerosekur’s three divisions, airborne Piemonte has been quite high in recent years. and defence are based at the company’s head- You work with national and European re- For example, we have been part of the STEPS quarters, near Rome. These two divisions ac- search institutes. Could you tell us about II project, led by Thales Alenia Space, which count for the majority of the company’s turn- these partnerships and how they benefit has been funded by the European Commis- over as well. Space and technology, based in Aerosekur? sion and the regional government. This proj- Caselle near Turin, is the most innovative of AM: We have worked with 90 partners dur- ect has around 60 Piedmontese companies the three divisions. We focus on future prod- ing the last three years, comprising both re- developing critical technologies for space ucts for the space sector and are the main re- search institutes and other companies in the exploration. 30 search and development part of the company. sector. Research institutes are definitely key We are more innovative and creative, and are partners for our projects. Usually they are re- What is Aerosekur’s strategy for the fu- more aggressive in contacting potential cli- ally specialized and when you need a clear ture and what are some of the areas of ents. Aerosekur entered the space market at expertise in a project of technology develop- interest for the company’s space segment? the beginning of the century, capitalising on ment or new product, they are the ones you MC: Aerosekur needs to survive in this sec- our technologies and capabilities in the air- have to contact. In Italy we work with CNR, tor. In the past, the sector possessed much borne and defence markets. We looked into the National Research Center, and with sev- more economic capability than it does nowa- various areas in which flexible technologies eral departments of the top universities as Po- days; many of the traditional financing sourc- would be key, such as descent and decelera- litecnico di Torino, Milano and La Sapienza es have been stopped. Or, for example, mon- tion solutions for Mars missions. in Rome. ey was spent on a Mars preparatory program MC: Aerosekur’s main focus is safety, from study and then the program was cancelled our inflatable floating systems for helicopters What specific challenges does Aerosekur when there was no more money available. to the UAVs we are developing for moni- face in terms of being awarded contracts Our strategy now is to analyse possible mar- toring. The space avionics market is hugely by the European Space Agency? ket opportunities relative to our experience. competitive in Italy. Aerosekur, however, has MC: When trying to win an ESA-sponsored One of these is creating inflatable modules established itself in a niche market in which project, one of the main challenges is the po- for cultivating vegetables on Mars, which there are fewer competitors, as the market is litical constraints in terms of geographic re- is particularly difficult as Mars has -no at smaller. turns. Each nation contributes money to ESA mosphere or water. This is a particularly in- and the body that controls which companies teresting area because this will affect how How are Aerosekur’s flexible materials will be awarded contracts for a certain part of we grow food on earth in the future, as the relevant to the aerospace industry’s cur- an aerospace program. Although having the amount of land available today is not suffi- rent areas of focus? best technologies and the best proposal plays cient for the growing human population. AM: Inflatable technology is an area we be- a role in this decision, the economic impact Another area of interest is UAVs. We have gan researching in 2005; this covers such as- on the country also plays a significant factor. been awarded a €1.5 million contract from pects as habitable spaces for astronauts both The fact that each country is awarded con- the Ministry of Defence, although this has in orbit – as on the International Space Sta- tracts based on how much financing it con- been temporarily halted and we have been tion (ISS) – and on planetary surfaces. Cur- tributed to ESA necessarily means that the waiting for the second phase to begin for the rent technologies are based on aluminium, technical skills are sometimes overlooked for last year. At present, UAVs have pilots on the which is comparatively heavy and is un- economic reasons. ground; they need to be fully autonomous able to be made more compact and save on and capable of carrying out a complete mis- volumes. We are working with Thales Ale- How do the regional and national govern- sion independently of a human pilot. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

David Avino

Managing Director ARGOTEC

Argotec is well established in the aero- plans. We have initiated a new marketing tation for Italian companies worldwide. At space field, offering engineering exper- campaign for Earth applications of our Argotec, our work ethic and emphasis on tise as well as specialist products. Could product. quality is also greatly appreciated by our you give a brief overview of the compa- partners. As a new company working for ny since 2008? It has recently been announced that the NASA on the ISSpresso project, for exam- Argotec began by providing support and ArgoMoon nanosatellite will represent ple, we had to gain their trust, and had to training to astronauts, flight control -per Europe in the forthcoming NASA Ex- be thoroughly examined before being ap- sonnel and personnel supporting on-board ploration Mission. What are the logis- proved. The second time we worked with activities on international flights. Build- tics involved in this project, and what NASA, we experienced an entirely new ing on the strong engineering tradition in will the ArgoMoon’s role in this mission attitude, because our previous work had Turin, we set up a research laboratory for be? been very successful and we had proven thermal control activities, which, in 2016, We were selected by ESA to build a sat- ourselves as reliable and valuable partners. provided experimental data to the Interna- ellite, and NASA selected the ArgoMoon The Italian mentality is to solve issues 31 tional Space Station (ISS). In 2010, we ex- satellite for their Exploration Mission 1 as quickly and with creativity and innovation, panded our services and devoted our atten- one of 13 satellites, and the only Europe- thus we have been able to build successful tion to researching spaceflights and small an satellite, on board this trans-lunar orbit relations with our clients. This reputation satellites. We cover several areas, includ- mission. We had a very small timeframe, and perception is certainly growing glob- ing services, training, and research, with with only two years to complete a project ally. a further interest in exploiting space re- that would typically take up to five years. search for Earth applications and nanosat- The mission itself is a challenge, as it will How have you seen the Italian aerospace ellites. Around 90% of our clients are in- be the first to launch with small satellites; industry develop in the last five years ternational, including the European Space we therefore have to appropriate the same and what can we expect for Argotec in Agency (ESA), Lufthansa and even NASA systems and subsystems of a larger, full- the future? as the end client. sized satellite into a smaller structure. In the last few years, the space business has In 2011, we began our fourth key area of The future will see an increase in missions been changing rapidly due to the changes expertise and opened a new laboratory involving nanosatellites, with a similar in the U.S. market. Italian and European for space food. Our aim was to provide trajectory to mobile phones, becoming companies are based on older models and space food for astronauts in a completely increasingly compact while retaining full have not yet adapted their business mod- new way, in conjunction with nutrition- functionality and added features. Working els in the same way. Companies such as ists, dieticians and food specialists. Within on these nanosatellites is a great motivator SpaceX, however, have grown much faster three years, recognizing that there were for our young engineers, who deal directly as a result of investment from different re- similarities between space requirements with NASA, and more than compensate gions. and everyday preferences on Earth, we for any potential experience gap with their For Argotec, we aim to grow the company manufactured a series of products that are motivation and enthusiasm. in the coming years, primarily focusing on valuable across the board. Whilst there nanosatellites, systems applications and are no preservatives in our products, they As an Italian company, what is your low-earth orbits, alongside wider space have an extremely long shelf life and sup- view on the broader aerospace industry, exploration with transferrable applica- port the daily nutrition and calorie intake and how strongly is Italy perceived as a tions that are also beneficial to humans on for humans. Whilst these features are es- global competitor? Earth.▬ sential for astronauts, they also appeal to Trust is hugely important in this indus- the wider commercial consumer market. try and is usually built over time. There Many people may not have time to prepare are many Italians working for companies dishes, or may require balanced nutrition globally that have created a positive repu-

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations Image: Bisiach & Carrù GBR • Industry Explorations • ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Innovation

“In the technology field, Italy offers excellent and highly competitive minds. Continuous and ongoing investment in the improvement of production processes and R&D and an established network of relationships with leading universities, such as Politecnico di Torino, are crucial for us.”

- Riccardo Procacci, CEO, Avio Aero EDITORIAL Global Business Reports

for other industries. “In the aerospace sector we are involved in the Clean Sky Innovation: research program for the testing of new high-efficiency aircraft engine concepts in our wind tunnel. Noise suppression and creating the fuel consumption are two areas of focus for sustainability in the aerospace industry, and concentrating on energy efficiency in the sector drives research and an increase sustainable aerospace in industry know-how,” said vice president of operations, Francesco Lovo. Funded by the regional government, the sector of the future research program GREAT2020 aimed to test a potential reduction in carbon diox- ide emissions using new engine technolo- gies and was carried out in collaboration By Harriet Bailey with Avio Aero and Politecnico di Torino. “The companies involved worked together on new combustion technologies, new turbine components, lightweight and safe structures and innovative and sustainable An area which receives support across re- Politecnico di Torino is the jewel in the manufacturing technologies,” said presi- gional, national and industrial lines is the crown of Piedmont’s R&D capabilities dent Chiamparino. challenge of implementing increasingly and, according to Vincenzo Ilotte, presi- Another prime player also working on new sustainable solutions within the growing dent of Turin’s Chamber of Commerce, engine technologies is UTC Aerospace air transportation market. This issue has one third of the companies in the region Systems (UTAS), formerly Turin-based been the catalyst for positive action in cre- collaborate with Italian and foreign re- Microtecnica. Supported by U.S.-based 34 ating a common strategy for investment in search centers: “It is first and foremost UTC, the company has several active innovation and, at the start of 2016, was Politecnico di Torino, which plays a key R&D programs and, as a corporation, translated into a concrete agreement be- role in both training the next generation of spent $4 billion on research into new tech- tween a number of stakeholders. “With engineers and in research and testing.” nologies in 2015. UTAS works with a va- this agreement, signed with the Ministry Furthermore, one third of companies also riety of companies in pursuit of this goal, of Economic Development and the three have their own laboratory capabilities and including sister business Pratt & Whitney. regions (Piedmont, Campania and Pug- around 85% invest in R&D. Having close “The success of the brand new Pratt & lia), Avio Aero has committed to realize an and ready access to innovation centers Whitney engine for the Airbus A320neo investment plan of €200 million. Around and working on various new technologies lies in its reduction of fuel consumption €40 million will be invested in Piedmont, means Piedmont’s aerospace SMEs have a by 16%, emissions by 50% and noise by with the aim of developing innovative strong advantage on the world stage. “By 75%,” explained Elisa Martinotti, military technologies for green propulsion,” ex- playing an active role in developing new and helicopter and Italy program director. plained Sergio Chiamparino, president of products, these companies will be more “Aircraft manufacturers need more effi- Regione Piemonte. competitive on an international level,” he cient engines that cause less pollution, so The plan is also backed by GE Aviation, continued. this becomes a key point of focus for their parent company of Avio Aero, which aims As one of the five prime companies in suppliers.” to invest heavily in R&D in the country to Italy, Avio Aero is playing a key role in make good on its investment. According to promoting new technologies. It is a found- Avio Aero, Italy is the best choice for this ing member and partner of the public- New materials type of research because it offers a low- private Clean Sky program, launched in cost manufacturing base with high-capac- 2008 by the European Commission and As a design company, Extra ity plants. “In the technology field, Italy industry leaders. Covering six platforms takes into account not only aesthetics, but offers excellent and highly competitive – fixed-wing aircraft, regional aircraft, ro- also the materials used. With weight and minds,” claimed CEO Riccardo Procacci. torcraft, engines, systems and eco-design sustainability challenges being relevant in “Continuous and ongoing investment in – its mission is to develop cutting-edge a number of markets the company serves, the improvement of production processes technologies to significantly increase the it has been able to use its existing expertise and R&D and an established network of environmental performance of air trans- in this area in the aerospace sector as well. relationships with leading universities, portation, reducing fuel consumption and “We generally promote the use of sustain- such as Politecnico di Torino, are crucial noise pollution. Pininfarina Extra, well able materials in our projects, and this is for us. These aims align with GE’s goal in known for its design partnership with Fer- something we hope to implement in the Italy: to grow the country.” rari, is also active in aerodynamic design aerospace field as well,” confirmed Lovo.

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports EDITORIAL

“As an example, materials developers are quently contracted the company for space material wastage and to better utilize the now evaluating the use of bio-derived res- projects, using the same lightweight web- machine.” ins and fibres to realise eco-sustainable bing structure for sending supplies to the APR works with Avio Aero and Politec- composite materials for aerospace applica- ISS. “After checking the compatibility nico di Torino, among others, to come up tions.” of this material with space systems, we with new materials and solutions for ad- Safety belt manufacturer Sabelt initially eventually engineered a 46 kg system, ditive manufacturing; this has the added designed and manufactured safety belts compared to the previous structure’s 101 benefit of ensuring Avio Aero is always for the automotive industry, before mov- kg – a saving of more than 50 kg,” elabo- aware of the latest technologies in the ing into the aerospace sector in 2011. rated Cagna. “Thales told us that every for market – a distinct competitive advantage. Sabelt developed a reputation for light- every 1 kg weight saving, the space project CEO Andrea Romiti is so convinced of the weight, simple to use webbing and safety would save $50,000 as they could send up capabilities within the region that he has belts and was contracted by Thales Alenia more cargo at a time.” decided to embrace collaboration within Space to develop a lighter cargo retaining As well as using standard materials, com- the additive manufacturing space, even es- system than the traditional polyester-based posites are coming into their own as both tablishing his own internal school to assist system. “This created a weight problem as a weight reduction tactic and as a method other companies with their R&D efforts in there was not enough room for the cargo of achieving sustainability goals. Additive the Piedmont region. “The Manufacturing itself. We drew on the technology from the manufacturing – also known as 3D print- Technology Academy (MTA) is the point reduced-weight webbing we had recently ing – is a new area of interest, enabling of contact between projects by students of developed for Ferrari (the company need- companies to manufacture certain parts to secondary schools and universities. It is ed a lighter harness for Formula One and, order; this is particularly useful in the re- also where we conduct open research with using a fabric called zylon), we were able pair process and leads to less part wastage. university students and our own scholars,” to decrease the total mass from 60 grams “For APR, additive manufacturing is the explained Romiti. “We partner with com- to 38 grams,” explained Diego Cagna, spe- future,” commented R&D and business in- panies that have the printer but perhaps cial applications and OE special projects novation manager Leonardo Napoli. “We lack additive manufacturing expertise and manager. are focusing on the redesign of parts rather knowledge of the market. It is important Having proven itself in the commercial than the production of parts for additive for the smallest companies to examine in- sphere, Sabelt was able to cross-fertilize manufacturing. We re-engineer and re-de- novation opportunities and to invest in re- its technology once more. Thales subse- sign technologies in an attempt to reduce search.” ▬ 35

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Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Riccardo Procacci

President & CEO AVIO AERO

After more than a century of operations Our domestic operations are essential for we remain in the early stages of the devel- in the sector, Avio Aero was acquired by Avio Aero. The company employs more opment of ALM and need to consider where General Electric (GE) in 2013. Could you than 4,000 personnel in Italy at three loca- this technology will take us in the future. provide us with a brief overview of the tions: our headquarters, company’s evolution after the purchase which is also our largest production facility; and explain the reasons behind GE’s in- at Brindisi, historically dedicated to the as- As a Piedmontese company with an inter- terest? sembly and maintenance of aircraft engines; national owner and outlook, what makes Being part of GE, Avio Aero has access to and in Pomigliano d'Arco near Naples, the region and Italy in general an attrac- an unprecedented amount of resources in re- which plays a key role in the production of tive prospect for the aerospace industry, search and development. When we approach components dedicated to the defense indus- compared with other jurisdictions world- the customer or supplier, we are no longer try. We also have a manufacturing plant and wide? a $2 billion company, as we now have the an innovative cold-flow test center in- Po In the technology field, Italy offers excellent 36 power of the $24 billion GE Aviation busi- land. Avio has always operated on a glob- and highly competitive minds. Italy is the ness behind us. This has transformed the al stage, working with key players in the best choice in terms of costs, competences way we run the company. global aviation industry. This is even more and capacity to accommodate workloads. GE Aviation’s operations are unprecedent- possible today thanks to GE’s international Recently, for example, GE and Avio Aero ed, in terms of the number of engines it is network, providing logistical synergies and invested €200 million in R&D and busi- developing or starting to develop; these in- increasingly challenging opportunities. ness growth in Italy. This investment in- clude Leap, GE9X, Passport and other proj- volves not only Piedmont, but also Puglia ects in the military and commercial arenas. Avio Aero is a key player in additive man- and Campania as the geographical areas in As part of GE, we can plug ourselves into ufacturing solutions. Could you tell us which Avio Aero counts its centers of excel- these programs better than we would have more about your work on this technology lence for tests, cases and frames and MRO as a vendor or a supplier. For example on the to make advances in this area? activities (Brindisi) and for turbomachinery GE9X, Avio Aero plays a major role in the The additive layer manufacturing (ALM) and CRO activities (Pomigliano d’Arco – engineering development of this engine and process behind our blades is our specialty Naples). Continuous and ongoing invest- in producing components, partly through the and, since our acquisition by GE Aviation, it ment in the improvement of production use of additive manufacturing. Avio Aero’s has been the focus of a steady drive by both processes and R&D, and an established net- main responsibility lies in designing and parent and subsidiary to bring ALM tech- work of relationships with leading universi- manufacturing the gearbox, as well as the nologies to commercial fruition. ties, such as Politecnico di Torino, are cru- entire low-pressure turbine module, includ- Both parties are, conveniently, far down the cial for us. These aims align with GE’s goal ing its assembly. The main reason behind development path in complementary ver- in Italy: business expansion and sustaining GE’s interest is that Avio Aero strengthens sions of ALM; while GE has been devel- Italy's growth. GE's global supply chain capabilities, as its oping a relatively low-temperature process engine production rates continue to rise to called laser sintering – attractive for giving What can we expect to see from Avio Aero meet growing customer demand. a fine surface finish direct from the printer, in 2018, after the first five years with GE? and producing fuel nozzles and high-pres- By 2020, GE aims to be one of the ten most The company has three major plants in sure blades for CFM Leap engines – Avio important players in the software market Italy as well as production sites in Poland. Aero has been working on higher-tempera- and Avio Aero, as part of the group, is at the What is the importance of your domes- ture electron beam melting (EBM), ideally forefront of supporting this change in the tic operations to your overall corporate suited to making parts out of hard metals company’s business model. In this context, strategy and how has increased interna- such as titanium. our advanced manufacturing and, more spe- tionalization changed the face of the com- While these examples of printed compo- cifically, additive manufacturing capabili- pany? nents are just the first of many still to come, ties play a key role. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Elisa Martinotti & Emilio Acmet

EM: Military and Helicopters and Italy Programs Director EA: Business Development Manager UTC AEROSPACE SYSTEMS EM EA

UTC Aerospace Systems was formed in tionally, around one third of military and As an international company based in 2012, after the merger of Goodrich and helicopter operations are carried out within Europe, could you tell us more about the . Could you provide the APS unit. Within Italy, our main custom- unique situation in Italy compared to oth- us with a brief history of the company and ers are linked to the Leonardo-Finmeccanica er jurisdictions worldwide with a strong its current structure and capabilities? Group, and we also supply other parts of the aerospace industry? EM: UTC Aerospace Systems is a business wider business; our Aerostructures business EM: Italy is definitely an SME-based econ- unit within UTC, and the product of many unit is one of our main customers, for exam- omy, which is quite unique for actuation, mergers and acquisitions. UTC itself was ple. Our clients are mostly domestic because because outside Italy, companies have been formed in 1975, following efforts to diver- of our location, but we still ship our products quicker to consolidate. Italy has also long sify the portfolio of Corpo- across the world, to clients including Bom- been a prominent player in the automotive ration. This comprised Pratt & Whitney and bardier and Airbus, for example. We also and mechanical industries, which facilitates Sikorsky and covered several areas, includ- have customers in Brazil, the United States, an easier transition between sectors - in this ing aviation. We acquired lift manufacturer Japan and South Korea. case from automotive to aerospace - than 37 OTIS in 1976 and Carrier in 1979. In 1999, EA: The Asian market is important to us. in other regions worldwide. The only dif- UTC purchased Sundstrand Corporation, Whilst Asia has greatly increased competi- ference between the supply chains for the merging the company with Hamilton Stan- tion across many sectors, the manufactur- sectors is the certification; the expertise and dard to form Hamilton Sundstrand, which ing capabilities of Asian companies within technical understanding is exactly the same. focused on aerospace. Goodrich Aerospace the aerospace industry are still insufficient Additionally, we have the advantage of the was then merged with Hamilton Sundstrand by comparison, and Europe and the United Politecnico di Torino, which fosters skilled in 2012 to form UTC Aerospace Systems States will continue to supply this market for labor with specific expertise and competen- (UTAS). UTC now has four main business some time. Manufacturers such as Mitsubi- cies. We are also seeing a great deal of col- units: OTIS; United Technology Climate, shi Aircraft Corporation and Korean Aero- laboration between the Politecnico and the Controls & Security, which involves build- space Industries have sufficient funds but industry in R&D projects. ing and industrial systems; Pratt & Whitney; currently lack expertise. and UTAS. We sold our fifth business unit, As UTAS approaches its fifth birthday in Sikorsky, in 2015. How is innovation within the aerospace 2017, what can we expect from the com- Within UTAS we have a further eight main industry linked to efforts to make air pany in the future? business units: Actuation and Propeller Sys- travel more sustainable? EM: We have several R&D programs that tems (APS), focused on primary and sec- EA: Innovation and progress are becoming we are pursuing with our customers. UTC ondary actuation; Aerostructures, primarily more rapid. This is partly due to an increas- as a whole is very focused on R&D and in- nacelle systems; Engine and Environmental ing emphasis on sustainability, with much of vested around $4 billion into these efforts Control Systems; Electric Systems; Sensors the latest innovation driven by the Clean Sky last year, partly funded by the company and and Integrated Systems; ISR and Space Sys- and Clean Sky 2 initiatives, which facilitate partly by customers. tems; Landing Systems; and Interiors. Every the acceleration of R&D through additional As part of a larger group, we share a col- unit has a president and a unique corporate funding. laborative vision for growth, which will no structure. EM: For example, the success of the brand doubt align with the consistent growth of new Pratt & Whitney engine for the Airbus commercial aircraft and rotorcraft. Military Can you explain the importance of your A320neo lies in its reduction of fuel con- applications will still be a key focus area, but national and international operations to sumption by 16%, emissions by 50% and the outlook is less certain, so we are likely to the company’s overall corporate strategy? noise by 75%. Aircraft manufacturers need see most growth within commercial areas.▬ EM: In terms of revenue, Italy represents more efficient engines that cause less pollu- about 10% of overall sales for APS, which tion, so this becomes a key point of focus for amounted to €155 million in 2015. Addi- their suppliers.

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Could you provide us with an overview of how the company Armando has evolved over the last two decades? The company was founded in 1995, from a spin-off of the Agus- Andreassi taWestland plant in , and started with the supply of mechanical parts to the company. Since then, Mecaer invested to develop its design capability in order to sell its own products to the market. Over the years, the company, experienced huge rev- Head of Division, Actuation and Landing Systems enue growth by the acquisition of plants, as well as both customer MECAER AVIATION GROUP and product diversification. We now work as centers of excellence for actuation and flight control systems (Borgomanero plant), as well as landing gears (Borgomanero and Laval) and completion and A/C services (Monteprandone, Philadelphia and Rome). This is mainly for all major OEMs in the helicopter segment. Although Mecaer is a medium-sized company, we offer products and services typical of a much larger company. We are flexible and provide competitive pricing due to having a particularly efficient supply chain. Cross selling is a key point for us, as we are able to apply our services across various fields, from flight control to interiors. We are leaders in our sector and our niche and supply our clients with the complete solution from design and production to testing, delivery and service support.

As well as Italy, Mecaer has offices in the USA and Canada. How big of a role do North 38 America and Europe play to your overall op- erations? The Italian market constitutes around 60% of our total revenue, and we are making progress “ in the international market by acquiring custom- Italy has a long tradition in the ers and consolidating our contracts and experience. Five years aeronautical field. This region has, on ago, we started customer diversification and, with the contracts the one hand, the universities and already acquired, together with our ongoing initiatives, we will research centers, and on the other, the have, in the next few years, a well-balanced portfolio. This is experience that is required. key to sustaining our future growth. Today in Italy, we carry out production and assembly mainly for local clients, but our supply chain is international. Our presence in the North American market is important to us because it gives us proximity to the end user.

” Could you elaborate on a recent case study of Mecaer’s work, from prototype to finished product? Typically, the customer issues a proposal and we tend to inte- grate with them in order to enhance communication and ascertain which products and solutions are appropriate. Customer relation- ships are very important in achieving the end goal and performing well. We have an in-house design team and our own laboratories to develop the products, and we also receive support from uni- versities and research centers. We make development phase pro- totypes in a multi- functional organization, driven by a program manager focused on engineering; then, a new program manager is appointed to lead the production phase and the specific client relationship. The requested skill is focused on manufacturing and supply chain. This dedicated client relationship continues for the lifespan of the product, which is typically 25-30 years. We repair and maintain our products too and have our own service centers. Mecaer spends around €10 million on R&D annually, while

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

20% of your employees are dedicated to innovation. Could because it allows us to share different experience and know-how. you tell us about some of the new technologies and solutions What we are finding most challenging at present are the REACH you are currently working on? regulations on chemicals. We have to be compliant with these In 2015, we developed electronic actuation solutions and we are rules regarding chemical products and authorization, and consider focused on electromechanical actuation with linear solutions. We ourselves experts in this field. Not all companies are focused on are also conducting research on some of our current contract pro- this aspect, which may work to our advantage eventually. grams in order to improve performance. Our Italian laboratory can perform tests for landing gear systems. Staying on the cutting What are the advantages of being an Italian company, but edge of innovation is advantageous for our position in the market operating globally? as we need to provide new solutions for different applications in Italy has a long tradition in the aeronautical field. This region has, order to fulfill our customer needs. Although some research stems on the one hand, the universities and research centers, and on the from our customers asking for specific solutions, we are very ad- other, the experience that is required. Piedmont also contains the ept at understanding upcoming market trends and where we need specific skills for this industry, including design, safety and docu- to address our research in order to support our clients. mentation.

You have to work to the regulatory requirements of EASA, Mecaer has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. What is your the U.S. FAA and Transport Canada. How similar are these future vision for the company by the end of the decade? regulations and are there any aspects of these regulations that We have to sustain our growth by continuing to diversify our are particularly challenging? products and customers and to increase our presence in the fixed- Normally, there are agreements between governmental authori- wing segment. Today, our main activity in this sector is the provi- ties; the FAA, for example, will request an Italian agency to con- sion of landing gear. Our interest in this segment focuses on busi- duct its audits because many of the standards are international. ness jets and regional aircraft. We already have the know-how but We guarantee compliance with all international regulations and we need to invest in equipment, our supply chain, and in human manage the differences between that and national regulations. resources. ▬ Our presence in Canada and the United States is an advantage,

39

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Gianfranco Carbonato, Luca Bianchini & Chiara Roncolini

GC: Executive Chairman LB: Business Development Manager CR: Investor Relations, Legal Affairs PRIMA INDUSTRIE

GC

Prima Industrie was founded in 1977. ed to 3D laser drilling for aerospace compo- flexible system for producing engine parts. Could you provide us with a brief overview nents. Although our 3D lasers were already in Its sensing capabilities distinguish the ma- of the company’s evolution since that time use at GKN in the United States, as well as in chine from others in the market and there are and explain the importance of the aero- other aerospace companies using laser tech- more than 400 installations worldwide. space sector to the business? nology, the Laserdyne acquisition provided us LB: Prima Industrie is comprised of two di- with specialized know-how in the aerospace You opened a new manufacturing plant visions: Prima Power, which produces ma- sector. We then proceeded to develop our 3D in China last year. We have heard from chines, and Prima Electric, which produces laser machines and focused on enabling a smaller companies about the threat from electronics and laser technology both for our higher global efficiency of engines. China in terms of providing a lower cost group and the wider market and accounts for CR: In 2008 we acquired the Finnish compa- solution to clients. Have you embraced this only 10% of the company’s consolidated turn- ny Finn-Power, which was the same size as by establishing a base in the country? 40 over. Prima started as an engineering compa- Prima Industrie at the time of acquisition. Al- GC: We have been operating in China since ny developing dedicated software solutions though our revenues dropped by 40% in 2009, the 1980s, but we began to escalate our ef- for customers. The founder, who remains following the global economic crisis, we then forts in the 1990s through local agents. Be- president and CEO, previously worked at the integrated the two companies into Prima cause of the requirement to have a local DEA Group and combined his experience of Power, the machinery division of Prima In- partner in order to enter the Chinese mar- measuring machines with lasers in order to dustrie Group. As a result of this new brand- ket, we began our presence in the country create the first 3D laser machine in the world ing, in 2015 the company saw a return to pre- through joint ventures (JV).We initially had for automotive applications. Our growth has crisis level figures in 2015, with a growth of a few machines, manufactured either in Italy been focused on lasers and sheet metal ma- around 10-15% across the business. Our goal or the United States. Later, Prima Industrie chining, and working on 3D parts, which are now is to continue investment and growth. established a commercial office in Beijing mostly prototypes for the automotive sector. called Prima Power China. Over time, our Prototyping was, and still is, a very important Who are some of your main clients in the Chinese business has grown, and the market application for our 3D laser. sector and what are some of the key solu- has evolved considerably. There have been In terms of the company’s focus on the aero- tions you can provide them with? increasing trends for mid-range products, space industry, around 5% of our global op- LB: All OEMs that deal with engine com- whereas previously, many Chinese products erations are within this sector. We are a very ponents are customers of our technology. operated in the segment of low manufactur- diversified company, so the risk of a crisis in Our partners include GE, Safran, Doncast- ing costs, low prices, but low performance. any one sector impacting our overall busi- ers, Honeywell, , Air- Since the associated costs of importing ma- ness is greatly reduced. Within 3D laser ap- bus, and many others. We manufacture two chines made them too expensive for the plications, which accounts for 20% of overall types of 3D laser machines, Rapido and Op- mid-range market, we began to explore the activity, the impact of the aerospace industry timo, which are used by many automotive possibility of manufacturing these products on our business is much clearer: it makes up and aerospace companies. The Optimo is the in China. We learned that despite our JVs around 30% of the total, with the automotive largest machine that we manufacture, and we being successful, they could not be the ba- sector accounting for the remainder. produce all the components in-house at our sis of our future growth because we lacked Turin site, from the entire cast to the fuse- autonomy of control within the 50:50 struc- Prima Industrie has made many acquisi- lage. This is quite unique, as our competitors ture. We therefore abandoned our JV partner- tions over the years. How have these con- tend to outsource numeric controls and laser ships and invested in a brand new JV where tributed to shaping and growing the busi- sources. The Laserdyne 795 is another sys- we had 70% control. In order to compete, it ness? tem developed and produced by Prima Power is essential to promote unique qualities and LB: In 2001, Prima acquired Laserdyne, a Laserdyne and is mostly dedicated to aero- selling points. The market is, however, so company that was experienced in and dedicat- space customers. It is the most accurate and large that it is not yet oversaturated, and we

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports

have benefitted from having a very well-known brand. In China, two countries are perceived to have a very strong brand - Italy is one, with the other being Germany, particularly for mechanical engineering. Japan is also strong, but its relationship with China is not as good.

Prima Industrie invests 6.5% of its turnover in R&D. Could you tell us more about your initiatives in this area and your work with universities and research institutes? LB: We have many partnerships with universities, especially Politecnico di Torino, where we also have a laboratory. One of our new projects is on additive manufacturing and is financed with European funds. We are also working on 3D printing for metals, for which the primary application is in aerospace. Al- though other players are already producing parts using additive manufacturing, our focus is to produce larger parts at a faster rate. CR: Another project of ours is the Diode Fab. Using our laser machines, we have been able to develop a fiber laser source to replace the CO2 laser. The fiber laser is a very complex tech- nology that combines diodes and optic fibers to produce a laser beam. At this stage, we are still buying diodes from suppliers, but we intend to manufacture our own diodes, ensuring we can manufacture all the key components.

The company has also established a new masters program in industrial automation with Politecnico di Torino and Co- mau. How important is it for companies and universities 41 to work together to ensure the next generation of qualified people for the industry? LB: This program allows students to divide their time between studying at Politecnico di Torino and practical work at Pri- ma, and to then move to Prima full time on completion of the course. We also cooperate with high schools in Turin, welcom- ing around 30 students every year. The most promising candi- dates are subsequently offered jobs with Prima Industrie.

You celebrate your 40th anniversary in 2017. What can we expect for Prima Industrie by this milestone and beyond? GC: Our target is to grow our top line. Our global presence is substantial, with employees across 25 countries and sales to 80 countries worldwide. We would like to further improve this reach to regions such as South-East Asia. We also aim to double our revenue in the Chinese market over the next few years. LB: Our target for 2016 is €400 million and we hope to arrive at this target before our anniversary. We are always following the needs of the market and trying to anticipate its requirements. Laser technology is not new in the aerospace industry, but we are continuously making our machines more efficient and ef- fective, and continuing to reduce our footprint. The aerospace market is quite slow compared to others, but we are beginning to see companies such as General Electric ramp up their pro- duction of engines, which is driving a high number of orders. However, the outlook and cycle are much longer, so we are now experiencing trends that were forecast three or four years ago. An introduction of new engines also brings an introduction of new technologies, and we have so far managed to anticipate these changes in order to grow with the aerospace industry. ▬

Global Business Reports INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Bruno Bisiach

CEO BISIACH & CARRÙ

Could you provide us with a brief his- riveting operations with a completely dif- to adhere in order to supply robotized tory of the development of Bisiach & ferent philosophy of work. systems to the military and defence sec- Carrù since its founding in 1955, includ- The Tauro Gantry system was initially tors? ing any key milestones along the way? used on lorries and military vehicles. This When we manufacture a part for the mili- The company was founded by my father was designed to allow the movement, as- tary, we have to be very wary of protecting and Mr. Carrù, who were two friends sembly and welding of parts in one sys- intellectual property and classified infor- working together on chemical and electri- tem, rather than in multiple stations as mation. We try to close the area where we cal experiments. We were very lucky to be was traditionally the case. Our robot can work to ensure it is as separate as possible in Turin, which was and remains one of It- perform multiple actions at once, making from external companies. Bisiach & Carrù aly’s largest manufacturing areas for cars, the system very efficient and enabling us is also licensed by the Italian government clothes, leather goods and other industries. to have a rapid turnaround time. Once we to work on parts for military purposes. We Bisiach & Carrù began to work for the had proved the system worked quickly and have the ISO 9100 and 9001 certifications, 42 car manufacturer Lancia, making simple efficiently, we had the possibility to work which is important for us and for our cus- welding equipment. We were successful in a number of sectors. Bisiach & Carrù tomers. in creating an automatic production line of then began to work on railway cars and, electro-domestic appliances such as water from here, it was not difficult to expand heaters and boilers for the world’s largest the system for use on aircraft, as they are manufacturer of heaters. This collabora- similar in terms of production volumes “ Our main focus is therefore tion continued with washing machines and and size, even if these two areas require transforming an industry which white goods, and around 99% of the white a completely different approach in terms goods manufactured in Europe used our of technology. The Tauro system adapts to carries out the majority of its work machines, including Miele, Electrolux-Za- the different kind of requirements for both manually, into an industry which nussi, and Bosch. We then moved onto car areas. These two areas are now the com- is fully automatized. The Tauro manufacturing and patented our first weld- pany’s key areas of focus. Gantry system is so accurate that ing robot called Jolly80. We now sell this Our solution is completely different from we can produce prototypes of parts; welding equipment to all car manufactur- others within the global aerospace industry this is crucial because airplanes are ing companies in Italy; this includes Ferra- because of the unique technologies used in currently manufactured to the exact ri, Lamborghini, Lancia and Autobianchi, the Tauro Gantry system. Our first aero- standards the initial prototype was among others. space contract was with Alenia in 2001 manufactured. to manufacture parts of the Boeing fleet. From your origins as a manufacturer In 2006, Boeing invited us to Seattle for of automatized systems for the automo- a conference regarding the new 787 air- tive and white goods industries, how did planes. From 100 proposals, we reached ” Bisiach & Carrù enter the aerospace the final three who were chosen to provide How do the regional and national gov- market? different aspects of the manufacturing pro- ernments support the aerospace indus- When the market became too competitive, cess. Other activity in the sector includes try in Italy and are there any areas for Bisiach & Carrù decided to move into oth- working with Airbus on the A380, manu- improvement? er sectors. We invented our own machine facturing the wings for the Eurofighter Ty- We do not feel that the Italian government and patented this invention: the Tauro sys- phoon and working with Moreggia on a is supportive of our work. We are conduct- tem. This invention is very important for commercial aircraft sub-assembly. ing niche, specialized activities that are not our company today because it gave us the serving the mass market. We also feel that, opportunity to continue with our welding Could you tell us more about the higher while the automotive industry in Italy re- expertise and enter the field of milling and standards to which you are expected ceives a lot of support from the national

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports

government, this is not true of the aero- space industry. However, the European community is supportive of our efforts to develop new technology. In addition, the regional government supports innovation and receives funding from the European Union to support these types of projects. The fact that either European or Italian legislation is able to support and finance our application for patents, of which we now have more than 200, is very benefi- cial to us.

What are some of the new technologies which Bisiach & Carrù is working on in terms of the aerospace industry? Because manufacturing aircraft is a com- plex task, 80% of production in the indus- try is still carried out by hand. Although riveting covers a broad area of activities, we are doing this in a different way so that 90% of tasks can be automatized. Our main focus is therefore transforming an in- dustry which carries out the majority of its work manually, into an industry which is fully automatized. The Tauro Gantry sys- tem is so accurate that we can produce prototypes of parts; this is crucial because airplanes are currently manufactured to the exact standards the initial prototype was manufactured. If we can persuade the large aircraft manufacturers to automatize from the very beginning, we will see a complete transformation of manufacturing in this in- dustry. This will also draw the focus of aircraft manufacturing back to Europe; at the mo- ment, we facing competition from Asia for labor costs. Once the process is au- tomatized, the region will no longer have a competitive advantage and the focus will be on reliability and quality, which we can provide. ▬

Global Business Reports Image: FIDIA GBR • Industry Explorations • ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Internationalisation of SMEs

“France has Airbus and a huge net-work of aerospace players in the Toulouse area, while Germany is the most powerful economy in Europe and therefore has the capabilities to produce large volumes. However, when it comes to niche applications, Italy demonstrates interesting capabilities.”

- Silvio Marioni, Managing Director, Tekspan EDITORIAL Global Business Reports

“France and Germany are more structured in terms of networking and thus companies Internationalisation: can reach higher capacity.” The fact that small- and medium-sized companies persist in Italy, each providing the road to success their own specific services, is increasingly becoming of little use to larger players that are slimming down their supplier portfo- lios and looking to partner with those com- for Italy’s SMEs panies that can provide a one-stop shop for all their needs. As new business develop- ment manager Davide Fusta of mechanical components manufacturer Alfa Meccanica explained: “The challenge for a company such as Alfa Meccanica is to become in- creasingly vertically integrated, because By Harriet Bailey big customers are showing interest in this from suppliers. We not only aim to provide our customers with a finished product, but also a finished system and subsystem. For this, we need additional capabilities to as- semble systems in addition to the compo- nents we already manufacture.” However, being an SME does have its own advantages, which are often lost as companies expand. Smaller companies benefit from less bureaucracy and more 46 The global air transport industry is ex- efficient models. Of the 1,900 new aircraft flexibility and can often offer their clients pected to see its fifth consecutive year of to be delivered to airlines this year, half are more tailored solutions than is found in improving profits in 2016. According to intended to bolster current fleets while the more structured markets. “Our industry is the International Air Transport Association other 50% will be more modern replace- smaller than that in other European coun- (IATA), airlines will generate $39.4 billion ments. Consulting company Teoresi, based tries, however we are flexible and quick in profits, up from $35.3 billion in 2015 – in Turin and with offices in with our work, which lends us our com- an increase of almost 12%. Total turnover and the United States, suggests airlines petitive advantage. Germany and France for the industry is forecast to reach $709 are recognising the need to implement are different economies with different his- billion, with a net profit margin of 5.6%. new technologies in order to more quickly tories; France has Airbus and a huge net- Despite being hit by the economic crisis reap the benefits. “In comparison [with work of aerospace players in the Toulouse at the end of the last decade, aeronauti- the aeronautical industry], the automotive area, while Germany is the most powerful cal companies seized the impetus to make industry is much quicker at implementing economy in Europe and therefore has the significant changes to their operations, im- new technologies, particularly when these capabilities to produce large volumes,” proving synergies and creating new value are able to cut costs and reduce time-to- commented Silvio Marioni, managing di- streams. market. These issues are now becoming rector of Turin-based technical foams sup- IATA outlined low oil prices and increased more crucial to commercial aerospace plier Tekspan. “However, when it comes passenger demand as the two key contrib- companies, as well as the military,” said to niche applications, Italy demonstrates uting factors to the airline industry’s five- Mario Brossa, CEO of the Teoresi Group. interesting capabilities.” year upswing. Although oil prices have Competition across Western Europe for plummeted by more than 50% in the space these contracts is fierce, and Italian com- Piedmont’s prowess of two years, this has only translated to panies face particular challenges in gain- a drop of just over 10% in terms of fuel ing international recognition. Larger Piedmontese companies in particular, prices, now representing 19.7% of the in- players often will not work with a com- which were often initially founded to ser- dustry’s expenses. Passenger demand con- pany until it has achieved a certain annual vice automotive companies such as Fiat tinues to rise, though the forecast rate of turnover, a pre-requisite which SMEs of- and Alfa Romeo, have been able to trans- 6.2% for 2016 is less than the 7.4% growth ten struggle to achieve. “In general, it is fer this wealth of expertise to the needs of recorded a year previously. quite difficult gaining big contracts - not the aerospace industry, in a process called Rising demand is a boon for the aeronau- because of a lack of skill, but because of a cross-fertilization. tical industry in general as it requires an lack of dimension,” explained Matteo Vaz- Bisiach & Carrù began life in 1955, mak- increase in capacity, while aging aircraft zola, technical director at technical servic- ing simple welding equipment for car are being replaced with newer, more fuel es provider TPS Aerospace Engineering. manufacturer Lancia. Work in the automo-

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports EDITORIAL

tive sector moved onto trucks and military nia, Egypt, China and the United States. vehicles, using its knowledge and experi- We have new contracts under discussion ence to create the Tauro Gantry system of with a further 10 countries.” assembly. “Bisiach & Carrù then began to This is also the operating model adopted work on railway cars and, from there, it by numerical control manufacturer Fidia, was not difficult to expand the system for which sees only 10% of its turnover stem use on aircraft, as they are similar in terms from Italian business. It has established it- of production volumes and size, even if self in various countries in Europe, North these two areas require a completely dif- and South America and China in order ferent approach in terms of technology,” to focus on the entire supply chain from explained CEO Bruno Bisiach. manufacturing to distribution and after- More than half a century after it was sales care. “Fidia has grown by creating founded, Bisiach & Carrù gained its first a network of fully owned subsidiaries all contract from the aerospace industry using over the world, although our production is technology that had initially been devel- concentrated in Italy,” said general man- oped for other industries. The aerospace ager Carlos Maidagan. “Italy has a high sector is now one of the company’s two reputation for quality and innovative solu- most important industries. Bisiach contin- tions in machinery design and production, ued: “In 2006, Boeing invited us to Seattle and our competition from outside of Italy for a conference regarding the new 787 comes mainly from Germany and Japan.” airplanes. From 100 proposals, we reached Highlighting the advances made by Italian the final three that were chosen to provide SMEs in terms of cutting-edge technol- different aspects of the manufacturing pro- ogy are APR and Mepit, two companies cess. Other activity in the sector includes based in the vicinity of Turin, which have working with Airbus on the A380, manu- recently been awarded contracts with Pratt facturing the wings for the Eurofighter & Whitney to work on the Lockheed Mar- Typhoon and working with Moreggia on a tin F35 fighter jet engine. Operated by commercial aircraft sub-assembly.” the founding family for almost 50 years, 47 Blue Engineering also began life as an component manufacturer Mepit signed a engineering company for the automotive $7 million 10 year supplier deal. “From industry, before expanding into other in- my perspective, we are seeing increasing dustries to spread its risk. Around 30% of interest from foreign companies. We are its workforce works on aerospace projects, currently in talks with potential customers though its employees are able to use their such as Bombardier and Liebherr Aero- engineering expertise in a number of fields space,” said CEO Luca Pigato. “The only to improve existing product applications. way to lead in the aerospace market is to “The company is organized such that the possess characteristics that a big company center of competence, which is 10% of the has, such as versatility, flexibility and a company, has expert knowledge in specific competitive price.” segments. Around 20% of our employees Bytest, a Piedmontese testing company, have flexible design knowledge to meet has seen dramatic growth over the last four market needs, while the remaining 70% years since it was acquired by Germany- are high-level engineers who are able to based inspection, certification and testing work on components across all sectors,” company TÜV SÜD in 2012. Although explained executive vice president Mo- Piedmont has a strong aerospace segment, hamed Eid. accounting for 40% of the company’s After less than a decade in business, Blue turnover, looking to international markets Engineering’s reputation for quality engi- is crucial in ensuring solid long-term plan- neering in the Turin region by the begin- ning for companies of all sizes. “We have ning of the century enabled it to focus already been awarded a €20 million 10 on a strategy of internationalization. “To year contract from Rolls-Royce Engines illustrate this point, in 1998, 90% of our in Italy and we are confident that this kind income came from Italian customers and of trend in aerospace investment will con- 10% came from outside the country; a de- tinue. Moreover, all of the programs in the cade later these two figures had completely sector are quite long-term, so there is no switched places,” continued Eid. “Cur- reason to expect a slow-down in business rently, we are working on some important for the next decade,” commented CEO projects in Russia, France, Turkey, Roma- Gennaro Oliva. ▬

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Silvio Marioni

Managing Director prototypes and have so far supplied nine to meet with the big players, and to work TEKSPAN – Cygnus cargo module flights to date. as a cluster so as to have greater competen- A SOGIMI GROUP COMPANY cies and capabilities available to us and our How important is the aerospace industry clients. to your overall operations and could you Tekspan is a member of the Sogimi tell us more about your customer base in Where would you say the Italian aero- Group, which was founded in 1979. this sector? space industry is particularly strong and Could you explain how Tekspan came Currently, we are aiming for aerospace to what can we expect from this sector in into being and when it entered the aero- constitute 10% of our turnover and, in two the future? space sector? years, we hope to be able to double this fig- Our industry is smaller than that in other The Sogimi Group was founded in 1951 in ure. We obtained the UNI EN 9100 certi- European countries, however we are flex- Milan as a distributor for auxiliary materi- fication three years ago and have now de- ible and quick with our work, which lends als. During the 1970s, the company began cided to dedicate one piece of machinery us our competitive advantage. The capa- to expand across all the major Italian cities, exclusively to this sector. We will be using bilities within Italy are growing every year arriving in Turin in 1979 with Tekspan. The this machine to make pieces of a very spe- with the formation of clusters and a system company has two main businesses: the first cific dimension. Tekspan started working of companies that is able to serve a market. 48 division includes plastic sheet conver- with Thales because of the company’s Germany and France are different econo- sion and distribution for indus- capabilities in converting ma- mies with different histories; France has trial applications, building terial into complex shapes; Airbus and a huge network of aerospace construction, and com- even NASA found this players in the Toulouse area, while Germa- munication; the second impressive. This led to ny is the most powerful economy in Europe division is focused on us establishing a rela- and therefore has the capabilities to produce highly technical foams tionship with compa- large volumes. However, when it comes to and expanded rubbers nies such as Piaggio niche applications, Italy demonstrates inter- used in the building, Aerospace, and our esting capabilities. packaging and indus- finished foams are also trial segments, including flying on some of Agus- Tekspan will celebrate its 40th anniver- the aerospace business. taWestland’s helicopters. sary in 2019. What is your future vision Clients usually experience for the company by this milestone? problems with vibrations and As a member of TPA, what We hope to grow within foam distribution sealing between the plastic elements are some of the benefits of mem- and distribution of plastic sheets and are of the interior and the green primary struc- bership and how are you involved with investing in our solutions in the aerospace ture of the aircraft. They also need to pres- the technical cluster LISA? business. The company aims to increase its ent a more comfortable environment inside We are the sole company within this clus- distribution capabilities both organically the fuselage; our foam is a solution as it ter that has manufacturing capabilities, as and via acquisitions. The goal for Tekspan works as a filler, improving the cabin- ex the others are involved in design and engi- is to be able to present our clients with more perience and contributing to a reduction neering. We are trying to incorporate new options, so we will work towards increasing in weight, which leads to cost savings. We technologies to increase our capabilities for our product portfolio and are investing in provide mixed compound foams to both the new projects we are undertaking. The machinery to achieve this. We are also go- the domestic and international markets, as new products that we can fabricate are the ing to add human resources and personnel well as laminated and 3D shaped foams to best available in the world market. LISA is once our turnover reaches a certain mile- make customized, finished parts for a wide an ongoing and interesting project that has stone. Currently, we have an engineering variety of applications. We began our aero- the potential to combine Italian design with department that is able to collaborate with space activities in 2009, when we began a Italian capability to manage small, medium our customers on the development of a collaboration with Thales, and this heralded and high production volumes. As far as wide range of projects in the aerospace seg- the start of heavy investment in the sector. TPA itself is concerned, it presents compa- ment, with a further 20 people available to Together, we found materials, constructed nies such as Tekspan with the opportunity augment these numbers. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Carlos Maidagan

General Manager FIDIA with our main markets How do the regional being Asia and the Unit- and national govern- ed States; Italy represents ments support the aero- the remaining 10% of our space industry in Italy and turnover. Italy has a high repu- are there any areas for im- From its founding in 1974, could you ex- tation for quality and innovative solu- provement? plain the evolution of Fidia? tions in machinery design and production, We have gained support from such institu- Fidia started its business producing numer- and our competition from outside of Italy tions over the years; however, we invest ical controls with integrated digital func- comes mainly from Germany and Japan. in innovation from our own resources. Al- tions. At that time, this was a revolution though we have seen a decrease in support in the automotive industry. By the 1980s, Could you tell us more about the vari- from the European community for publicly we were one of the most advanced numeri- ous products and services you provide to funded activities in the aerospace sector, cal control manufacturers in the word, and your aerospace clients? we have not cut any of our research pro- were specialized in complex shapes digi- In producing numerical controls (CNC), grams because of this. tizing. At the beginning of the 1990s, we we have developed suitable and specific designed and developed a new concept of software for high-speed machining and Where would you say the Italian aero- high-speed milling machines, which be- continuous five-axis milling, which are space industry is particularly strong and 49 came very appealing to the aeronautic sec- commonly used by the aerospace industry. what sort of new technologies can we ex- tor. Currently, we are one of the few ma- When we began to manufacture our own pect from this sector in the future? chine builders that fully develop numerical range of five-axis milling machines, we Traditionally, France and Germany have controls, milling heads and accessories, leveraged our existing controls and imple- had a greater reach in terms of the aero- which puts us in a better competitive posi- mented them on the machines to suit spe- space industry, and are more expansive in tion as we can provide our customers with cific aerospace needs. We have also devel- terms of geographic penetration compared a global and complex solution. In 2015, the oped a range of bi-rotating milling heads with Italy; this is in part due to Airbus be- aerospace sector represented 51% of our for each application and material, blending ing a European consortium. Italy is mak- €63 million turnover, and Fidia has 340 aluminum and titanium with carbon fiber ing an effort to ramp up its military pro- employees worldwide. and honeycomb. grams and the potential for the growth of our aerospace industry is even greater than Fidia has made a number of acquisitions Fidia has a dedicated R&D center in It- for our neighbors. In five to ten years’ time, over its history. Could you explain how aly, staffed by 50 researchers. Could you we will see vast changes in the aerospace these have affected the company and explain to us the importance of R&D to sector due to large investments in machin- whether Fidia is looking to make any Fidia and your work with various re- ery and technology. Currently, for us, the new purchases? search centers and universities? most sought-after export market is China, Fidia has grown by creating a network of For many years, we have been working as this is the country which buys the most fully owned subsidiaries all over the world; with partners and in cooperation with re- sophisticated machines. in Germany, the United States, China, search institutes on projects financed by , France, Russia and Brazil, although both the European community and the Ital- Looking ahead, what is your future vi- our production is concentrated in Italy. ian authorities. Such projects require two sion for Fidia by the end of the decade? Fidia acquired three companies in Italy: or three partners and are important for us We plan to maintain our leading role in Simav, Sitra, and Meccanica Cortini. This because our competitors are very big and China and in the United States. We have year we are also completing the construc- overpower us in terms of volumes. Fidia just moved locations, growing our subsid- tion of a new and bigger production plant, needs to stay at the cutting edge of technol- iary by 20%. This has put us in a more ad- into which we have invested more than €7 ogy to maintain its position in the market. vantageous position in terms of providing million. In China, we own 51% of a joint We design and develop numerical controls, services to local customers. Europe is al- venture with SMTCL, where we produce machines and special software, and can ways a question mark due to the continu- machines for the local market only. Around only survive with strong R&D and innova- ous political changes in the continent. ▬ 90% of our sales are completed abroad, tion.

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Andrea Romiti & Leonardo Napoli

AR: CEO LN: R&D and Business Innovation Development APR

Could you provide us with a brief histo- Systems and Avio Aero, formerly known own scholars. We seek engineers who are ry of the company, including any recent as Fiat Avio, we recently signed a con- focused less on design and more on man- major milestones? tract with Pratt & Whitney, based in Con- ufacturing and technology. We want to AR: APR was founded by my father and necticut. Our work on the Boeing 787, via help companies structure their approach me, building on his history in the aero- Leonardo, represents a good portion of our towards R&D in the Piedmont region. It space industry. I initially worked as a Italian business. is important for the smallest companies to project manager of an SME with clients LN: Our last project was focused on us- examine innovation opportunities and to including Pratt & Whitney, before I fo- ing additive manufacturing in the repair invest in research. cused on my personal dream of being an process, in order to lower the scrap rate, entrepreneur. This led to the founding of leading to a reduced wastage of parts. We Why would you say being based in Tu- APR in 1998. We entered the industry to opened another European-funded project rin, and Italy in general, is beneficial for provide aerospace and aerostructure cus- for the creation of a new material based APR? 50 tomers with functional prototypes, but the on titanium and nanoparticles centered on AR: The opportunity to merge heritage and company’s focus has expanded since then. ceramics for additive manufacturing. For experience does not exist outside of Turin, Approximately 70 people work for the APR, additive manufacturing is the future. because the city was one of the capitals of company today, and our team is comprised We work with Politecnico di Torino, which the automotive industry. The creation of of engineers, specialists and managers. We conducts lifecycle analysis of engine com- many software companies, as well as the have made the transition from a family- ponents. The benefit of research groups is aerospace industry, was concentrated here. owned business to an externally managed that we are always at the cutting edge of In general, Turin has had an industrial ap- company in order to facilitate APR’s sec- technological development and are aware proach to manufacturing. Aerospace is ond phase of growth. We serve the mar- of the latest technologies in the market. a global factory so, for a small company kets of aero-engines and aero-structures, such as APR, it is better to consolidate our creating critical rotating components, such Additive manufacturing is a major topic position here and then further expand. as centrifugal impellers, bladed disks and in aerospace and it seems Italy is leading integrally bladed rotors. We conduct pro- the way in this area. Could you tell us Looking ahead, what is your future vi- duction of sub-assembly for aero-engine more about the insights you are seeing sion for APR by the end of the decade? components, using alloys, aluminum and in this area? AR: Our aim is to consolidate our presence titanium. We also service the Boeing 787 LN: We are focusing on the redesign of with the major contracts we have now, and program as a supplier by using our com- parts rather than the production of parts for to diversify our portfolio to other global plex components from the aero-engine additive manufacturing. We re-engineer markets. We are using an open approach field for aero-structures. The power- gen and re-design technologies in an attempt in welcoming new customers and invest- eration business constituted 50% of our to reduce material wastage and to better ing in research within certain fields such business five years ago, however new utilize the machine. as additive manufacturing, in order to in- programs in aeroengine and aerostructure AR: We partner with companies that have crease our added value offerings to our shifted our focus to these lines of business. the printer but perhaps lack additive manu- customers. ▬ facturing expertise and knowledge of the Could you explain more about APR’s in- market. We created an internal school in ternational operations and tell us about one of our plants called the Manufactur- your various international clients? ing Technology Academy (MTA), which AR: Around 50% of our clients are inter- is the point of contact between projects national, coming from both Europe and by students of secondary schools and uni- North America. As well as clients such versities. It is also where we conduct open as GE Aviation, GKN Aerospace Engine research with university students and our

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fully convinced that ‘United we stand’, and we are also sure of the second half of the claim, ‘Divided we fall’. Overall, none of the com- Andrea panies within AENCOM would have been capable of achieving what we have without this integrated approach.

Romiti What is the extent of AENCOM’s capabilities, and could you pro- vide us with an example of a recent case study? We have a large range of manufacturing capabilities, from metal ma- Key Cluster Leader chining, manufacturing, welding, heat treatment, special processes, AENCOM composites and metal fabrication. We have also been approached by many other companies interested in adding their own capabilities to our organization. A few weeks after the 11 companies signed this con- tract, Avio Aero and GE Aviation included AENCOM in an interna- Could you tell us more about the background of this organization, tional bid for a low-pressure turbine for the Sustainable and Green how it came into being and the advantages to members? Engine initiative (SAGE) within the Clean Sky project, which includ- The Aero Engine Components Cluster (AENCOM) comprises 11 en- ed other European partners such as Snecma. AENCOM won the bid trepreneurs and their companies, working together collaboratively to and it was an excellent opportunity to showcase Italian companies and promote their competencies as a collective service. As a combined our capacity to deliver fully integrated solutions. This also eased the group, we have 1,000 employees at our disposal, with a turnover and responsibility of Avio Aero in having to handle the project, risk and capability compared to that of a medium-sized company. To flourish contract management responsibilities. within the international aerospace market, it was essential to progress from our status as a series of small companies, and add manpower, ca- How do you see this organization evolving over the next three pabilities and expertise. This is the key motivation behind AENCOM; to five years? instead of each company slowly growing and developing over the Our key goal is to secure more business with international custom- years, we have been able to join forces and complement each other’s ers, achieve greater visibility, and further raise our profile within the capabilities, to provide an integrated service for our customers. The global aerospace industry. We are also currently evaluating a further initiative grew out of the activities of the Torino Piemonte Aerospace five companies to complete our cluster, in order to have full capabili- project. ties in the aero-engine segment. ▬ Within the Cluster Network Agreement (CNA), we periodically elect 51 a cluster leader, and for this first period it has been my company, APR. We have the flexibility to select the necessary resources among our member companies to fit the task at hand. There is one individual point of contact for the customer, which is the cluster leader. We manage the process and integrate member company capabilities to propose a quote and oversee the process with full transparency. Although it is a challenge to foster trust within a new initiative, we have been focusing on the promotion of the capabilities of AENCOM and, by extension, seeking to demonstrate to the international market that Italy has all the heritage, expertise and capabilities to supply the wider industry.

What are the key benefits you can offer to your customers by pro- viding a fully integrated and collaborative service? We consider ourselves to be an organization with similar capabilities to medium- and large-sized companies, but with the accompanying competitiveness, approach and flexibility of small companies. These characteristics are very much appreciated by our customers. We al- ready have all of the engineering, designing and manufacturing capa- bilities necessary to provide aerospace solutions across the military sphere, civil markets and space channels, including research and sys- tem activities. The aim of AENCOM is for individual, independent units, which already work effectively within the regional market, to work together to propose a full solution to the wider industry. Although there may be an element of competition between some com- panies, the key is to recognize there is greater opportunity in working together for the same customers and providing full support, rather than competing for that project. Out of our 1,000 employees, we have more than 150 designers and engineers, as three of our member companies are involved in design. We can therefore support our customers from the design stages and throughout the manufacturing process. We are

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Please provide us with a brief overview States. We have new contracts under dis- of the company over the last two decades cussion for a further 10 countries. Of and the importance of the aerospace in- Blue’s 230 employees and collaborators, Mohamed dustry to Blue Engineering? around 40 are based abroad. With increas- ME: Blue began in 1993, with a focus on ing globalization, it is closed-minded to Eid & Danilo engineering and virtual simulations in the create boundaries for the company’s ex- automotive industry. This included any pansion. component required to create virtual simu- Lazzeri lations for automotive correction analysis In what sort of applications are your regarding noise and safety, which only products and services used and who are ME: Executive Vice President represents 2% of the value of any compo- some of Blue Engineering’s clients? DL: CEO nent. We then became a design company ME: We conduct activities within the aero- BLUE ENGINEERING before finally becoming a system integra- space and aeronautics sectors. For aero- tor company, using our expertise in engi- nautics, we are working on projects for neering to find better applications. Today, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and he- Blue works in the aerospace, automotive, licopter parts among others. The UAVs are railway, marine and ICT fields. used for controlling agricultural areas; for Around 30% of our employees work in the example, when applying agrochemicals, aerospace sector. In 1993, Turin’s automo- the UAV collects imagery of plant growth, tive industry experienced a crisis. Our mis- enabling farmers to make informed deci- sion now is to operate across several sec- sions. We also work with Alenia Aero- tors as there will never be a crisis across all space, where UAVs are used for border the areas that we are involved in at once. control and civil protection in case of fires. The company is organized such that the Within the aerospace sector, we are in- center of competence, which is 10% of the volved in all aerospace activities. One of company, has expert knowledge in specific these is Clean Sky, which is a project to ME segments. Around 20% of our employees remove space debris. We are also develop- have flexible design knowledge to meet ers for the European Space Agency, pro- 52 market needs, while the remaining 70% ducing, servicing and improving software DL are high-level engineers who are able to to monitor satellites. work on components across all sectors. What sort of challenges do SMEs in As well as your three facilities in Italy, the aerospace sector face and could you you also have operations in Jordan, elaborate on them? France and Turkey. Please tell us more ME: We always have to think about two about the importance of your interna- things: efficiency of structures in order to tional operations to your overall strat- get them into the air, and safety. If a flying egy? object is unsafe, there is no way of salvag- ME: By the turn of the millennium, Blue ing the situation, and passenger safety is of Engineering was easily able to service the the utmost importance. At Blue we have a companies in the vicinity of Turin. This special department for reliability analysis led to us strengthening other aspects of our and have been able to use the technologies business, as I knew this situation would developed for the aerospace industry in not last forever. We therefore decided to other sectors, such as automotive and rail- increase our international operations over ways, as well. the next half a decade. The Turin Chamber of Commerce helped us immensely in this Where would you like to see Blue Engi- task in terms of understanding markets and neering by its 25th anniversary in 2018? meeting the large players. To illustrate this ME: Our vision is to manage companies point, in 1998, 90% of our income came that manufacture products; this could be from Italian customers and 10% came either in Piedmont or somewhere interna- from outside the country; a decade later tionally. This will enable us to collaborate these two figures had completely switched with companies and make us a complete places. Furthermore, our internationaliza- system integrator, sharing knowledge and tion has also led to a threefold increase in production capabilities. We call this a vir- our turnover and more staff. tual factory, because if we do not want to Currently, we are working on some im- work with a company on a project, we will portant projects in Russia, France, Turkey, have the freedom to switch partners de- Romania, Egypt, China and the United pending on the task. ▬

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Could you provide us with an example case study in which Tubi- flex has used cross-fertilization of technologies in the aerospace Dario sector? We produce flexible conduits for one of Europe’s largest helicopter manufacturers. With the titanium system the client was using, it was Piola difficult to fit the piping to the body of the aircraft and fitters had to force the final connection, which occasionally resulted in breakag- es. Tubiflex came up with a solution using stainless steel which, al- General Manager though heavier than titanium, allows for the creation of easily bend- TUBIFLEX able corrugations. This is common in the automobile industry but had not made the leap to the aerospace industry, so we patented this design. Our more flexible solution not only avoids breakages but is also more compact, which decreases the overall weight, and reduces fitting time from one shift to less than two hours. By responding to Tubiflex has been around since 1951. Could you provide us with client needs we have been able to create a line of innovative new a brief overview of its evolution and when it began activities in products to supply to new customers. the aerospace industry? The company was initially active in the industrial and automotive What are your expectations for both the future of the aerospace segments due to our location in Turin. The company’s first sporadic industry and the future of Tubiflex under new ownership? dealings with the aerospace market began in the late 1970s. These In terms of the industry, the growth of Leonardo-Finmeccanica is experiences helped to forge Tubiflex’s approach to the market and positive for us because their companies are operational both in Italy our focus on quality. From 2008 onwards, the company really began and abroad, which will be advantageous for Italian suppliers such as to focus on the aerospace industry, coinciding with our EN 9100 cer- Tubiflex as it will enable us to increase our international visibility. tification and our membership of TPA. The segment now accounts At present the forecast for Tubiflex is based on pre-acquisition fig- for around 18% of our turnover, marginally behind automotive ures and therefore there are many aspects still to be defined. How- which is our largest area at 20%. Tubiflex as a whole sees an annual ever, our growth trend has been very positive; our current achieve- turnover of around €22 million, with up to 600 recurring customers ments are exceeding our expectations and we plan to expand our in 35 different countries. geographic reach. With the support of TPA and our own contacts, we will be able to reach out to new customers; being part of Interpump 53 How have you developed your expertise in the area since then will increase the pace of this process. ▬ and how has this affected your product offering? Tubiflex offers a wide array of products for the conveyance of fluid, as well as stainless steel flexible hoses and assemblies, composite hoses, bellows, expansion joints and PTFE convoluted hoses and as- semblies based on proprietary manufacturing technologies. We have been able to use our experience in a large number of applications and across all our business lines to offer our customers a range of new, innovative products. We are now a key producer of components such as drain conduits, bleed lines, ECS, fuel conveyance pipes, ventila- tion conduits and for special applications in rocket launchers.

You have just been acquired by Interpump Group. How will this affect the company going forward? Tubiflex was acquired by Interpump in early May 2016. Interpump is the undisputed leader in its market and Tubiflex will add a com- pletely different type of product to the Group’s products portfolio. We have forecasted an improvement in our revenues and synergies in general, as Interpump is engaged in many different markets.

Could you tell us more about the company’s customer base and why Tubiflex is their partner of choice? Tubiflex clients are spread all over the world. Because the aerospace market requires more made-to-measure solutions and intensive team work in its development than other industries, the main concentra- tion of our engineering efforts are devoted to clients in Italy and France. Our original four customers have increased to 13, and we expect to gain a further two clients in the near future, raising our aerospace revenues from 3.5% of overall turnover to our current 18% figure.

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Matteo Bertolotti

CEO ING. BERTOLOTTI

Could you provide us with a brief history of the development this, and our huge background of experience, clients would not of Ing. Bertolloti from its founding in 1949, including any re- choose to work with us. Thus, our history sets us apart as know- cent key milestones? how is very instrumental. We strive to create a partnership rela- The company was established by my grandfather and his siblings tionship with our clients rather than a vendor-client relationship; and shares strong links to Italy’s mechanical industry. Originally, however not all our clients are receptive to this and price often the company worked on construction, before my father refocused becomes the most important factor. activities on the industrial sector and the manufacturing of me- chanical elements for specialist machine tools and automation. We You are a member of TPA. What advantages does membership have been working in the aerospace sector for the last 15 years, bring to SMEs such as Ing. Bertolotti? specifically on the mechanical construction of avionics and elec- We joined TPA recently, although we have been working with tronics. This now constitutes our core business and accounts for Leonardo-Finmeccanica for more than 10 years. Our reasoning be- more than half of our turnover. The most important product we hind joining TPA was to maintain and extend links with local aero- manufacture is the console structure, and our products are typi- space companies in the Piedmont region and we would like to join cally made of metal sheeting, aluminum and composites. consortiums and work with other companies in the future. Aero- space is very different from other industrial sectors, and therefore 54 You also manufacture products for use in the military. Could a company that is already working within the sector must have you tell us more about the standards to which you are expected some know-how that other companies do not possess. It is impor- to adhere in order to serve this market? tant to connect with other companies in the industrial cluster to A significant portion of our business comes from military- con share knowledge. tracts, but we are not required to have specific certifications in this area because our direct clients are not military bodies. In the Your products are used in 13 different countries. How much of aeronautical space, all Leonardo suppliers are required to work a role does international business play to your overall opera- to the company’s specific standards, which are in line with those tions? of the Italian government. This certification needs to be renewed We are not well established internationally as yet. We have defi- every three years. nitely gained more exposure to international opportunities since joining TPA. Although for many years we had sufficient business What is the importance of being more of a partner than a ven- from the regional market, which kept us at full working capac- dor to your customers and how can you implement tailored ity, we now believe it is crucial to look at international markets solutions to suit customers’ individual needs? because it can help us increase our business. Currently, we have Ing. Bertolotti uses several different technologies to produce parts. occasional collaborations with international customers, and Ing. Many of these technologies are specific to machining avionics and Bertolloti is looking for customers within Europe in, not only the we have certifications for these processes and operations. Without aerospace industry, but other areas as well.

What can we expect from both the Italian aerospace industry and from Ing. Bertolloti in the coming years? The market is changing rapidly, as Leonardo has made several changes in recent years and is going to continue making waves in the market. In terms of business, aerospace is one of the more important industries in Italy and I hope this continues to be the case in the coming years. Looking to the future, I hope that Italy becomes a focal point for European aerospace. For Ing. Bertolloti, our first target is to establish an international presence. While we are not aiming to become a large player in the market, we hope to enter diverse markets in Europe in a consolidated manner. We hope to continue growing in this sector and increasing our know- how and technological skills. ▬

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Do you face any particular challenges within the Italian aerospace market and could you elaborate on these? Lorenzo The Italian market has a fundamental problem of the limited techno- logical development and therefore the high costs of production. This could be resolved by a reduction in bureaucracy, an increase in our Carrera global competitiveness, and more efficient internal cost management. In my opinion, Leonardo should better identify the capabilities of Ital- ian SMEs, which could bring about more efficiency and maintain the CEO high standards of production for which Italy is known. Nowadays, AEROTECH almost all projects are channelled through Leonardo. The company needs to be more aware of the consortiums of small business, which together are able to offer increased efficiency in terms of time and costs. This is why consortium and cluster opportunities are extremely Aerotech was founded in 2012 and has already managed to important for Italian SMEs, as it will allow us to gain some market achieve more than €1 million in revenues by 2015. What are some share and open up our own direct channels to international companies. of the main services Aerotech can provide its clients? Aerotech’s main activities involve the study, production, reverse engi- Aerotech celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2017. What is your fu- neering, management and production of titanium, steel, and aluminum ture vision for the company to the end of the decade? components, and machining of structural components up to 4500 mil- Our target is to increase the capacity of our supply chain. We would limeters for the aerospace industry. The main processes in-house are like to gain ISO 14,000 and 18,000 certifications on occupational CAD-CAM, waterjet cutting, 3-5 axis machining, surface polishing, safety and the environment, which will be beneficial for our dealings Tig and Mig welding, mechanical assembly, special gluing, riveting, with the international market. In parallel, we would also like to gain and dimensional testing with both 3D measuring arms and traditional qualifications for heat treatments and sealants, and non-destructive instruments. testing. Other services we offer include the construction of moulds for lami- Our broader vision relates to making Aerotech more attractive to new nating composite materials, sheet metal forming and vacuum equip- customers. In spring 2016, we carried out our first work on behalf of ment for trimming. The parts manufactured by Aerotech are intended CERN, which should enable us to present our production capacity and for use in both civil and military aviation, although only 20% of our market resources to the wider market. Aerotech’s aim is to reach the products are tailored for military usage, for example, in the Eurofight- end user of a product and be able to satisfy the needs of the final cus- 55 er Typhoon. A small percentage of our production is also aimed at the tomer via our work with a consortium by 2018. ▬ space sector. Aerotech focuses on the machining of structural parts, such as fuselage components made from aluminium or titanium, for Boeing, ATR and Airbus.

What sets Aerotech apart from its competitors and why do large multinationals choose to use your services? Clients choose Aerotech because of the ratings we have attained and our capability to supply both direct clients and larger players. We have the potential and the technical knowledge to develop the required product and have created a pool of certified companies that provide us with external professional support. This enables us to handle client needs from the design to the delivery of finished parts. As an SME, we are also able to be more flexible than larger suppliers and, due to the size of their operations, we also provide a much more cost-effective solution in many cases. We are able to provide a complete turnkey solution, in rapid turnaround times, with regulatory compliance for all our processes.

You are a member of Torino Piemonte Aerospace. What advan- tages does membership bring to SMEs such as Aerotech? Our first advantage is having a broader view of local companies also working in the aerospace sector and we benefit from having a more general view of the capabilities within the region. By forming work- ing clusters through TPA, we are able to present ourselves to interna- tional clients with a complete solution. Being a member of TPA needs to become more commonplace as the ability to form working clusters is a great advantage. It makes it clearer to our clients that there is the possibility to develop products with a group of enterprises and satisfy their entire list of requirements.

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Teresa Alasia, Davide Fusta & Maurizio Burdese

TA: CEO DF: New Business Development MB: Sales Manager ALFA MECCANICA TA

DF MB

Could you tell us more about how the company has evolved, What specific challenges do companies such as Alfa Mecca- particularly since 2008, when you moved to this facility and nica face when working across the aircraft, helicopter, space began to expand the business? and defense sectors? TA: Alfa Meccanica was founded in 1975 and was located near DF: We are required to align customer needs with safety and regu- the big players in the industry, growing alongside its customers latory standards. The challenge for a company such as Alfa Mec- such as GE Avio Aero and Leonardo. We began with five employ- canica is to become increasingly vertically integrated, because big ees manufacturing small components, investing in new machines customers are showing interest in this from suppliers. We not only and technologies as we could. Our first site move was in 1993 aim to provide our customers with a finished product, but also a as our high production volumes, increased number of employees finished system and subsystem, which poses an extra challenge. 56 and growing numbers of contracts meant we lacked space for op- For this, we need additional capabilities to assemble systems in erations. In 2008, as we needed to install new, larger machines to addition to the components we already manufacture. cope with growing demand, we moved to our current location. We now have almost 50 employees, 30 of whom work in production Could you tell us more about the advantages of TPA member- and the remainder in services, sales, administration and engineer- ship and your role within it? ing. Our primary goal is growth and many of our business lines MB: Our commercial strength alone is not substantial enough to are of interest to the wider European market. Although around face the big players. Being integrated in TPA opened some doors 95% of our current clients are domestic, we have started looking that we did not have access to before through various internation- at expanding our international reach. This has involved partici- al meetings and mission visits. The aim of both Altair and TPA is pating in international events, and we have joined TPA and Altair to approach big customers that need complete solutions like us. Consortium as we believe this will be beneficial to our growth. We share strong working relationships with the other companies in both Altair and the working groups within TPA and perform Alfa Meccanica’s main focus is high precision machining. to a high standard. Because companies such as Rolls Royce are Could you tell us more about the products and services you looking to consolidate and reduce the number of suppliers on their provide and how you can tailor these to individual client books, it makes even more sense for us to combine forces. needs? DF: We have four business lines and our primary role is as manu- Where do you hope to see Alfa Meccanica by 2020? facturer of mechanical components. Our core business covers en- MB: We would like to expand our plant and personnel numbers gine components and comprises 60% of our revenue; our second and integrate new equipment and machines. We are stable in the line comprises the structural parts of aircrafts, in particular wings Italian market and hope to diversify our customer base by build- and their subcomponents, and this covers up to one quarter of the ing our business abroad. In the next five years, our goal is to see business. Alfa Meccanica’s third line of business, and something more equilibrium between our four business lines: around one which we are attempting to develop further, is the niche market of third in engine components, one third in space applications and space applications. The fourth line, which brings together aspects the remainder focused on serving the international market. We of the previous three, is the design and manufacture of fixtures also hope to build our capabilities in developing systems, in addi- for aerospace products. The company would like to break out of tion to manufacturing components for the Italian and international its current specialization of high precision machining by adding markets; we have 40 years of experience in components and in value to the mechanical part. We are now investing in plants in the future would like to venture into complex parts and systems. order to meet our customers’ needs and provide parts undergoing Working in partnership with other companies is vital to this vi- non-destructive, in-house testing, in order to reduce the overall sion. ▬ time needed to manufacture and test products.

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What is the regulatory environment like for the aeronautical Oliva sphere and could you explain the process of certification? We have to follow all the standards and regulations applied by Accredia, the Italian testing and accreditation body, as well as Gennaro NADCAP, the North American accreditation body for aerospace. Bytest has recently applied to ENAC to become accredited to carry out NDT aircraft in operation, which is in addition to our CEO normal testing on new aircraft parts. We also work on an inter- BYTEST national basis for civil and military aircraft, and for this segment we also require client certification. To be eligible to work for a large multinational we need to be certified by Accredia in the first place; we then need to pass additional qualifications for the spe- Bytest has been part of TÜV SÜD since it was acquired in cific company before we can begin work on their behalf, so it is 2012. Could you tell us more about the evolution of Bytest as quite a lengthy process. a testing company in the aeronautical sphere? TÜV SÜD is a Germany-based inspection, certification and test- Looking ahead, what is your strategy for Bytest’s growth to ing company for various industries. At the start of the decade, the the end of the decade? company identified a gap in the market in the non-destructive test- Bytest is investing in new ventures. We believe that our embed- ing (NDT) space. NDT is a service usually provided to companies ded units are a key focus for the future of the company, as they in the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries, which allow us to be present where the client has a need. We have al- aligns with TÜV SÜD’s areas of expertise. Bytest was acquired ready been awarded a €20 million/10-year contract from Rolls- alongside three other companies in South Africa, North America Royce Engines in Italy and we are confident that this kind of trend and Korea, and is now TÜV SÜD’s global competence center for in aerospace investment will continue. Moreover, all of the pro- NDT in the aerospace sector. Within this, 90% of our activity is grams in the sector are quite long-term, so there is no reason to in the civil aviation segment, while the remainder is in military expect a slow-down in business for the next decade. Piedmont and defense. remains one our key areas for growth, with 40% of our aerospace We have seen an average of €12 million in sales per year since turnover coming from the region, and we have a plan to increase 2012, with a peak in 2014 of €15 million due to the strength of sales in 2016 by 15% on 2015 figures. ▬ 57 the oil and gas industry. Bytest’s senior management team has also changed during the last four years, which has enabled the company to grow. Our main competitors today are the prime man- ufacturers and their supply chain, as they cover the NDT part of the manufacturing circle themselves. This, however, risks a con- flict of interest and, to cover peaks in manufacturing, these com- panies are outsourcing this testing.

Could you tell us more about the various testing services Bytest offers and any added-value services you can provide your clients? The services that we offer can be split into destructive testing (DT) and NDT. We cover the two main areas of NDT: the infra- structure of both metals and composites, and engine parts. We carry out ultrasonic testing, radiographic testing and dye pene- trant testing, among other tests. We also have laboratory facilities in which we conduct DT, failure analysis and reverse engineering services. Furthermore, Bytest has a training department for both our employees and our clients. One of the best sales tools we pos- sess is the technical expertise demonstrated by our personnel; we focus on keeping that knowledge at a high level. Because we often test very large products for our aerospace cli- ents, we have started to establish on-site Bytest testing facilities. We call this new business model an embedded unit, as we set up our operations within a client’s manufacturing plant. This has significant advantages for both Bytest and our clients, such as im- proved turnaround times and no danger of samples breaking dur- ing transport. We are investing in these sites, which are staffed by Bytest personnel and are legal subsidiaries, rather than our main locations at and Benevento.

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Adler Group was founded in 1956. Could like to even out the total volume of business you give us a brief history of the group between these sectors. I believe our perfor- and where Tecno Tessile Adler fits into mance in aero-space is quite promising, and Nicola this? we see a lot of potential there. Although Adler Group is a €1.6 billion group mainly the pace of business is much slower than in Gullino involved in the automotive industry. The automotive, the supply chain is tradition- company was founded in 1956 by Achille ally linked to key clients. We have been Scudieri, whose family still owns the group. proactive in entering a difficult-to-access Adler Group re-cently acquired HP Pelzer market. We have secured some com-pletely Holding, one of the group’s main competi- new clients, and our progress over the last tors in the automotive sector, enabling us year and a half has been encouraging. The Managing Director to become the second largest group world- first helicopter interior we did last year, for TECNO TESSILE ADLER wide specializing in sound-proofing. Today, an Emir of a Middle-Eastern country, was the group comprises 68 plants across the very challenging as it was a completely new world and supplies nearly all the automo- experience for us. The result, however, sur- tive OEMs in Europe, Asia and the NAFTA passed our expectations. regions. Adler Group is a vertically integrated and You opened your new plant in 2013. innovative company, which possesses tech- Could you tell us more about your facili- nical leadership in the industry and the ca- ties here and the advantages of being lo- pabilities to manufacture tailor-made prod- cated in Piedmont? ucts. Tecno Tessile Adler (TTA), one of its We have two plants located here in Rivoli. subdivisions founded just four years ago, One of these focuses on galvanic treatment, mainly operates in composites and aero- which is not so common in Italy. We also nautics. In 2010, Adler Plastic merged with have a plant in Campania, where we bring Ilmas, a renowned aero-nautics company. to-gether all our composites (carbon fiber) We perform different roles on the manu- production and assembly parts, as well as 58 facturing side and act as both cli-ents and most of our interiors for helicopters. Ad- suppliers. Our supply chain is global, which ditionally, we have an independent base at is sometimes essential in ensuring a high- Agusta-Westland's plant in the Province quality product. of Varese to mount our interiors. The plant in Campania employs 600 people, and we How has Adler Group’s prominent posi- have a further 15 employees at AgustaWest- tion in the automotive sector helped to land's plant in Cascina Costa and 100 more promote the aerospace business? here in Piedmont. There are many synergies between the auto- On a group level, we partner with Italian motive and aerospace industries, and it was a Universities, including Politecnico of Turin, strategic decision to move into aeronautics. and public research institutions on several The crucial difference between automotive projects in aerospace, including recycling and aeronautics is that the former is spread fabrics and carbon fiber. As TTA, we also across the world, while the latter is concen- benefit from the group’s six R&D centers trated in certain regions with strong clusters and the large amount of investment into linked to major clients. The Italian regions R&D. TTA's new approach is to provide have a strong aerospace tradition and a tailor-made interior products for both heli- comprehensive supply chain. Last year, we copters and airplanes. It is important for a signed a contract with AgustaWestland, a client to be able to obtain all the necessary renowned helicopter design and manufac- products from a single supplier, starting turing company, to create a VIP version of from sun-proof products to seats and deco- the AW169 interior. It was a revolutionary ration. decision for a helicopter producer (Agus- taWestland) to abandon its supply chain and What are your goals for the future and numerous small suppliers, and select just how are you planning to achieve them? one company to provide the full spectrum The interiors business that we are develop- of services, starting from design. ing springs from our expertise in the auto- TTA’s 2015 €80 million revenue was split motive industry. We would like to develop between aerospace and automotive, with this business unit and reach out to new in- aero-space accounting for between €25 – ternational cli-ents, as well as maximize our 30 million of the total. Ideally, we would reach globally. ▬

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Stefano Serra

CEO TESEO

Teseo was established in 1978 and be- came a major player in EMC testing erations. This particular approach enables How have you adapted to the changing equipment. Could you provide us with a every aircraft to be tested with the same market conditions, and what sets you brief history of the company and its de- coherent platform. A key example is the apart from your competitors? velopment? services we provide to the Eurofighter Ty- From a technology perspective, we can of- Teseo was established by four engineers phoon’s combat avionics; our involvement fer our customers a flexible and complete and initially focused on key technologies included end-of-line testing, integration service, for which most of our competi- in electronics, radiofrequency and fiber rig, and aircraft grand support equipment. tors lack the capabilities. Our mechatronic optics. We entered the EMC environment Because this equipment requires preven- test bench, for example, comprises many when it was in its very early stages, and tative maintenance and calibration to de- building blocks that can be combined and were well placed to develop the technol- termine the simulation equipment’s error integrated to support specific requirements. ogy and lucky to work with some pioneers margins, we also perform calibration tests These systems apply not just to one prod- in the field. From that point on, our EMC through our accredited laboratory. We use uct, but a family of products, with every 59 instrumentation has been one of the top this facility for both the instrumentation we test bench serving roughly 15 to 20 differ- ranges of products used in EMC testing. produce and for third party equipment. ent actuators. The flexibility in the manu- Since the early 1990s, we have applied facturing line is phenomenal. Equally, this manufacturing principles to our products How have market requirements and the approach allows customers the flexibility and have become a top tier supplier in test needs of your customers developed over to build on their current capabilities. benches and test instrumentation for R&D, the last 30 years? manufacturing and ground support equip- The industry has certainly evolved, partic- 2018 will mark Teseo’s 40th anniversary. ment. In 2012, the company was acquired ularly in terms of the consolidation in the What are your plans for the future, and by Clemessy SA, part of Eiffage Group, to aeronautic business over the last 25 years. what areas do you see as most instru- add technical expertise within this sector Because of this, we have had to change mental to your strategic growth? and establish the Group’s presence in Italy. our approach to the customer. The industry The strategy is always to preempt and meet is no longer supported by substantial in- the needs of the industry, and a key chal- Teseo supplies full test benches. What vestment plans from the different defense lenge is to become increasingly capable in are the benefits of this service to your ministries, and cost is more of a challenge. serving multinational customers. Produc- customers? The off-the-shelf technology platforms and tion rates for aircraft are increasing, putting Test benches now account for more than virtual instrumentation we have developed a strain on manufacturers and their suppli- one third of our business. We have the ca- in-house give us a strong competitive ad- ers. Production of the Airbus A320neo, for pability to provide test benches that can vantage, and our innovative approach has example, is driving demand for aeronautic be used throughout the entire manufac- contributed to our selection as National component suppliers at levels similar to turing process on a single platform, from Instruments Platinum partner; we are the demand seen in the automotive industry. the R&D phase to the maintenance stage. only Italian accredited entity able to per- We have, however, invested over the last Recently, in collaboration with Clemessy, form calibration on their own instruments. six years to meet these challenges, build- we delivered an extremely advanced inte- In terms of technology, the industry is in- ing core technology platforms that today gration rig for IspanoSuiza’s ‘more electric creasingly moving away from mechanics fast track our test bench delivery and dra- aircraft’ and the challenging solid rocket and hydraulics to mechatronics. This is matically reduce risks and costs for our booster test stand (BEAP) for ESA. creating great opportunities for companies customer. Nonetheless, we will continue to We also tend to design core technology such as ours, because traditional suppliers invest in R&D, which usually ranges from platforms for the manufacturing line and of testing systems for hydraulic equipment 8-10% of our annual revenue, and innovate then migrate them into ground support don’t have the skills and capabilities to and deliver customized solutions. ▬ equipment for flawless maintenance - op adapt to new trends.

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“In terms of the industry, the growth of Leonardo-Finmeccanica is positive for us because their companies are operational both in Italy and abroad, which will be advantageous for Italian suppliers,”

- Dario Piola, General Manager, Tubiflex EDITORIAL Global Business Reports

Stick to the big guns or strike out on your own? The choice faced by Italian SMEs

By Harriet Bailey

Leonardo the leader companies. Being in a consortium should also mitigate the effects of any supplier Italian SMEs up and down the country changes as a result of Leonardo’s struc- invariably work, directly or indirectly, for tural reorganisation. “Most of the compa- Leonardo. Known as Finmeccanica until nies within Altair are already suppliers of the start of 2016, the company underwent a Leonardo-Finmeccanica; this suggests the re-branding at the same time as integrating company should see synergies in terms of 62 a host of its subsidiaries, from helicopter directly interfacing with the consortium specialist AgustaWestland to aeronautical rather than each company individually. company Alenia Aermacchi, into the new However,” explained marketing and sales entity. The ninth-largest defence contractor manager Andrea Clerici, “the company has in the world, Leonardo has divided its op- so far not chosen to do this, as it is accus- erations into seven divisions, ranging from tomed to handling its relationships with us aerostructures to defence electronics. separately.” The impact of this reorganization can be This view is shared by components man- felt across the Italian aerospace industry; ufacturer Aerotech. CEO Lorenzo Car- from the government, which owns more rera also sees opportunities to gain market than 30% of the company’s shares and is share by being part of a consortium, with the largest stakeholder, to SMEs, which the increase in total size and revenue open- may now fear for their contracts as the ing up direct channels to international company looks for synergies in its sup- companies, by-passing Leonardo. “Nowa- plier base. One such company is Prestel days, almost all projects are channelled Avio, the Italian leader in wire harnesses through Leonardo. The company needs to for the aerospace industry. “We are mainly be more aware of the consortiums of small focused on the domestic market, as almost business, which, together, are able to offer 90% of our business is with Leonardo- increased efficiency in terms of time and Finmeccanica. This is a weakness for us, costs,” said Carrera. as we are dependent on their decisions and Sheet metal manufacturer HTF is reliant sales in the market,” said CEO Stefano As- on Leonardo for around 65% of its busi- teggiano. “The new structure of Leonardo- ness, but would like to grow the 35% of its Finmeccanica is not beneficial to many turnover attributable to overseas exports. traditional domestic suppliers; its engage- However, Finmeccanica’s relationship ment of local suppliers is not increasing in with its suppliers created a certain way of line with its growth.” operating in Italy, which may now need ad- The company is working on an interna- dressing. “For many years, Leonardo has tionalisation strategy, and joined Altair been against partnerships amongst small Consortium to have access to a wider mar- and medium companies as they can man- ket of end users alongside other member age us better as separate entities. The more

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports EDITORIAL

Image: Prima Industrie we grow and create partnerships, the larger fident it will have many uses: “There is a the scope for us to make things more chal- high demand for range extender solutions, lenging for Leonardo in terms of bargain- which is a system based on combustion en- ing power,” explained sales director Patri- gines and electric motors with which cur- cio Vander Elst. “They [are now beginning rents can be generated.” to] feel uncomfortable if more than 60% of Although currently envisaged for use in our turnover comes from Leonardo, but we electric cars to provide a back-up should are dependent on them and have been for the charge run out, he also confirms this many years.” can be used as an in Nevertheless, some companies herald small aircraft. The company has already Leonardo’s re-structuring as beneficial presented the first ever parallel hybrid for, not only their business, but the growth aircraft in collaboration with other local of the entire industry. Labormet Due, a SMEs. “It functions similarly to cars such company focused on quality control of as the Toyota Prius. They are able to fly in aeronautical parts, has high hopes for the normal mode, with just the internal com- future: “I believe the reorganization of bustion engine; in pure electric mode, uti- Finmeccanica can positively contribute to lizing just the electric motor; and in boost Italy’s aeronautic sector, providing a new mode, adding the power of the electric impetus,” said CEO Riccardo Girelli. “For motor to the power of the internal com- Labormet Due, it will positively affect our bustion engine. Additionally, it is possible tools sales and the implementation of proj- to recharge the batteries during the flight ects in the area of control.” utilizing the electric motor as a generator,” With Leonardo’s re-branding and consoli- explained Morfino. dation of a number of foreign subsidiaries Working with Primavis on this hybrid solu- under one umbrella, current suppliers may tion is Digisky, an avionics equipment firm also be able to gain international exposure founded by former ASI astronaut Maurizio as suppliers to a wider audience. Hose and Cheli. The company is working on a num- tube manufacturer Tubiflex, recently - ac ber of new technologies, typically involv- 63 quired by Interpump Group, hopes to ex- ing adapting products found in military pand its aeronautical segment; at 18% of aviation to the commercial sphere. This overall revenues, it is marginally behind includes the smart glasses product, Eye- the company’s automotive segment, on 4Flight, and Digisky’s flagship technology 20%. “In terms of the industry, the growth SmartBay. “This is a gyro-stabilized inter- of Leonardo-Finmeccanica is positive for face allowing for ‘plug-and-play’ of vari- us because their companies are operational ous sensors for aerial missions on already both in Italy and abroad, which will be existing aircraft. It has three payload slots, advantageous for Italian suppliers such as allowing for different recording tools and Tubiflex as it will enable us to increase our sensors to operate at the same time, weigh- international visibility,” commented gen- ing up to 40 kilograms overall,” outlined eral manager Dario Piola. Cheli. “The system is connected to the hangar by Wi-Fi, allowing for upload and download of information between the two Finding their niche docks.” The system is currently in the certifica- Nevertheless, there are a host of SMEs in tion process and it is hoped will provide Italy which are unaffected by the internal a more readily-accessible solution to, for workings of Leonardo. These companies example, farmers looking to monitor crop typically focus on niche areas of the aero- growth. With Cheli’s background as chief space industry, whose specialized activities for the Eurofighter Typhoon, Di- do not serve the mass market. Primavis, for gisky is also creating its own light aircraft example, is working on a number of engine for personal use. “The flying characteris- solutions which are cleaner, smaller and tics of our plane are closer to those found lighter than those currently on the market. in a military trainer. It is at the top end of Working on a two-stroke principle but in performance in its class at a considerably a split-cycle configuration means pollution lower price,” he commented. “This plane levels are lower than normal. Once the trial will also enable us to conduct further test- phase is completed and industrial produc- ing of Eye4Flight, as well as some of our tion is reached, CEO Luca Morfino is con- other products and solutions.”

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Also designing his own plane is Alberto In order to test for any internal defects on Marchini, founder of small parts manufac- parts that might affect the structural in- turer Marc Ingegno in northern Piedmont. tegrity of a plane, a completely new type This stems from his own experience as a of testing has been developed. GE Avia- light aircraft enthusiast and the difficulties tion has developed the Measurement and of landing on unprepared strips in the Ital- Control Phoenix computed tomography ian near his home. Far from working (CT) system, and the only company which through bigger companies to gain access currently operates this machine in Italy is to the market, Marc Ingegno is leveraging quality control company Labormet Due. its innovative design to generate interest: “This service enables our clients to review “Although we are able to sell the product the porosity of their products and search in Italy already, either as a fully built plane for any internal defects, a task which or as a kit plane, there is a great deal of would otherwise be extremely difficult. interest from abroad,” said Marchini. “We This system costs around €600,000 and, recently presented the plane in Germany, combined with the skill needed to manipu- and are aiming to obtain the necessary cer- late the machine, it is of great benefit for tifications by the end of 2016, which will our clients for us to provide this service,” enable us to sell this product on the Euro- said CEO Riccardo Girelli. pean market.” The wealth of information that can be New planes, however, require new tech- gleaned from various modelling and con- nologies to ensure the safety of pilots and trol testing could prove useless if it were passengers. Engineering company Amet, not for the systematic approach adopted which was one of the first two companies by Modelway. The company has designed to be part of the Innovative Enterprises data-driven software solutions to try to Incubator at Politecnico di Torino, fo- make sense of virtual testing methods and cuses on niche projects in this field using allow for continuous innovation and im- virtual simulation. “At present we are fo- provement based upon the outcomes. As 64 cusing heavily on reducing the impact of CEO Mario Milanese explained, this is not bird strike on military aircraft. In the past, a very well-developed area at present, par- this was done by physical testing with live ticularly in the aerospace industry, and the birds and real aircraft – key problems be- company is working on its own proprietary ing lengthy processes and high costs,” said technology for the “Big Data”-focused technical director Paolo Cavallo. “We are world of the future. “This need for data and now conducting similar tests using virtual the capability to glean useful information simulation. We can control variables and from it is not only useful for the world of conduct a much wider range of tests with- technology, but is becoming increasingly out hindering the dynamic performance of useful from automotive and aerospace the aircraft.” perspectives,” elaborated Milanese. “For Delta-Ti is also working on simulator proj- example, increased passenger safety and ects to ensure a plane’s safety. The EPC reducing emissions are two of the drivers company works on thermo-technic solu- requiring big data usage. We believe that tions in the aerospace sector, testing the our capability to use experimental data and endurance of various plane parts. It worked gain higher-level information from it can on a conditioning system for the Sky Light be used for airplane control, monitoring Simulator, of which there are only four and management.” worldwide, to test light refraction in on- The upheaval in the Italian aerospace in- board instrumentation. Millions of bulbs dustry at present, as a result of the re-struc- are used to create a brilliant light, which turing of some of the biggest companies in also produces heat and humidity, impact- the market into one integrated corporation, ing on the testing. “Another example is the presents an opportunity for many compa- anechoic chambers,” added CEO Giorgio nies to broaden their customer base and Bignelli, “in which simulated electromag- develop new solutions and collaborations netic currents are discharged to check the that could benefit both themselves and the levels of interference the plane can with- wider industry. The resilience and inven- stand. We designed and built integrated tiveness of Italy’s aerospace companies cooling systems according to customers’ should certainly steer them through chop- global standards, which enabled the tests to py waters to a new reality. ▬ be carried out in strict thermal conditions.”

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Could you tell us about the benefits of being a member of TPA and the project you are working on with other TPA member Riccardo companies? The synergy between partners creates the opportunity to produce something of a higher quality using a more effective method. Be- Girelli cause of the CT scan service we can now provide, we have been invited to join a working group with TPA and some of its mem- ber companies. The project involves part replication using additive CEO manufacturing and therefore our services are required at every step LABORMET DUE to ensure no faults are in place in the products to be cloned.

Where would you say the Italian aerospace industry is especial- ly strong and what can we expect from this sector in the future? I believe the reorganization of Finmeccanica can positively con- tribute to Italy’s aeronautic sector, providing a new impetus. For Labormet Due, it will positively affect our sales and the implemen- tation of projects in the area of controls. On a technical level, addi- Could you provide us with a brief history of the development of tive manufacturing will provide the sector with new opportunities Labormet Due since the company’s inception in 2012? and enable project optimization, which will also boost the sector. Labormet Due is the second incarnation of a company for whom my business partner and I previously worked. This laid the ground- Looking ahead, what can we expect for Labormet Due in the work for our current activities, as it meant we had a familiarity with medium term? the market and its needs, and we continue to provide instruments We have opportunities to increase our staffing levels and, coupled and services to some of those same clients. Our customers primar- with this, another CT scan machine. The market requirement for ily include the FCA Group, Finmeccanica and Magneti Marelli, product analysis is there and we are able to fulfill this need. We and these companies require our instruments for their local plants have also begun to provide our CT scan services in , and laboratories. However, by diversifying our business into the with a plant that focuses specifically on additive manufacturing. provision of services we avoid some of the market fluctuations that We will also look to increase the number of tools and instruments come with procurement. Quality control, using computed tomog- we provide and to expand our client list. ▬ 65 raphy (CT) technology, is a new frontier for Labormet Due. The aerospace industry constitutes approximately 10% of our business, with the majority of our work focusing on the automotive industry and a few other areas. This changes on an annual basis as it depends on the demand facing different industries and the individual com- panies within them.

Why did you decide to distribute certain brands and which ones are the most popular with your customers? Our customers are aware of the market and the rules that apply. Each company has technical requirements listed on data sheets, requiring certain tools. Products are codified by these types of re- quests. Our clients will often approach us in order to avoid issues with corresponding products. We analyze samples and we are able to solve their problems. If a company is innovative, it will usually want to verify that its change in process is accurate and consistent with the physical characteristics of using our instruments.

Could you tell us more about the CT scan service you can pro- vide to clients? Our tomographic services are provided by GE Measurement and Control’s Phoenix CT system. We are the only company in Italy which provides this service, which enables our clients to review the porosity of their products and search for any internal defects, a task which would otherwise be extremely difficult. This system costs around €600,000 and, combined with the skill needed to ma- nipulate the machine, it is of greater benefit for our clients for us to provide this service. We provide interested companies with a trial run, after which they are able to see the benefits of collaborating with Labormet Due.

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ments of aviation. This can be seen in our join a program managed by a bigger com- smart glasses product, Eye4Flight; as well as pany. We try to join programs in which the Maurizio Cheli, applying expertise from different industries areas of focus align with our expertise and to the aerospace field, we are also adapting a areas of interest, and develop a small piece Paolo Pari & new technology to the needs of the industry. of the puzzle.

Digisky is also working on designing its How supportive are the regional and na- Carlo Caiaffa own light aircraft for personal use. What tional governments to small- and medi- sets it apart from other aircraft of its um-sized companies looking for funding MC: Founder kind? in the aerospace sector? PP: President and CEO MC: The flying characteristics of our plane MC: We believe there is room for improve- DIGISKY are very different and, because of the width ment. Many small companies would ben- CC: President of the cabin and the performance of the en- efit from centralised support on legal and ALWAYS ITALY gine, are closer to those found in a military accounting issues, internationalisation and trainer. It is at the top end of performance in collaboration opportunities. Increasingly, its class at a considerably lower price. We large companies are willing to work with are working on this project with my other small players because they understand there MC company, CFM, and Primavis. This plane can be a lot of inertia in their own compa- As a former astronaut and test pilot for will also enable us to conduct further testing nies; while they have the financial backing the Eurofighter Typhoon, could you ex- of Eye4Flight, as well as some of our other and international standing to bring in other plain why you entered the sports aviation products and solutions. partners, they lack both agility and ability. space with Digisky in 2007? Companies such as Digisky have the tech- MC: Digisky was borne out of a passion for What is the regulatory environment like nologies they require. light aircraft and sports aviation. It was clear for small companies such as Digisky and that there was room to bring the solutions how are you able to navigate the various What can we expect for the future of both usually applied to commercial or military organizations involved? the Italian aviation industry in general, aviation to the sports aviation arena, with the MC: It’s a heavy burden. We have therefore and Digisky in particular? 66 due differences in scale. The added advan- enlisted specialised companies to help us CC: We are at a crossroads in our growth, tages of this approach would be that certifi- with gaining certification for SmartBay and and the first milestone is to find an equity cation is not required in the sports aviation our other solutions. We still need to devel- partner. We are currently too small, in terms field, meaning there is the scope to innovate op the expertise required to handle the bu- of equity, to be considered for a large re- without the burden of bureaucracy. We have reaucracy found in this type of regulation. search project. However, one of those proj- been able to experiment with different solu- From our perspective, small companies do ects could change the shape of our company. tions before spending time and effort on cer- not have the necessary structures to support We are currently in the process of receiving tifying the right method. Furthermore, work- a regulatory environment that seems to be governmental endorsement for our solutions ing on new technologies in sports aviation aimed at larger companies with dedicated to be used as an emergency management means we can solve problems much more departments. Furthermore, although many system, for example. rapidly than in the commercial space; this is of the regulations are now at the European While the regional government’s spending the equivalent of fast prototyping in manu- rather than the Italian level, this is some- on the aerospace industry over the past de- facturing. times more efficient than Italian bureau- cade is impressive, the logic which has been cracy. used so far is that 80% of this funding must Could you tell us about some of the key go to large organisations and the remaining products and solutions you are designing Considering research and development 20% should be allocated to small companies and what makes them innovative in this is so important to Digisky, how does the such as ourselves. This creates a problem as field? company receive funding from national the Italian aerospace industry is predomi- PP: Our flagship product is SmartBay, which and international bodies? nantly made up of SMEs and therefore a se- is a gyro-stabilized interface allowing for MC: As with the regulatory framework, ap- lect few companies at the top are receiving ‘plug-and-play’ of various sensors for aer- plying for and receiving funding is both dif- the bulk of the available funding. ial missions on already existing aircraft. It ficult and burdensome, as the process is very Digisky is a unique example of a company has three payload slots, allowing for differ- bureaucratic. The main sources of funding which has created a commercial company ent recording tools and sensors to operate at are Regione Piemonte and European proj- using results from publically funded proj- the same time, weighing up to 40 kilograms ects. The biggest challenge for a small com- ects; with more funding allocated to small overall. The system is connected to the han- pany trying to gain funds from Europe is that companies, Digisky’s model could be repli- gar by Wi-Fi, allowing for upload and down- the company needs to be part of a European cated. Our feeling is that smaller companies load of information between the two docks. program, involving companies and research will achieve greater results with a minimal As well as coming up with new technolo- institutes from other countries. For us to amount of funding, while large amounts of gies, innovation also focuses on adapting manage this type of program is almost im- money pumped into the prime companies equipment from other areas to the require- possible, and therefore our only option is to generate less dramatic outcomes. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Federico Valente

CEO ITACAE

Could you provide us with a brief history of the development of group in which we are active, there are several competences for differ- ITACAe since the company’s inception three years ago? ent parts; some companies can produce parts using additive manufac- Having worked in the automotive sector for the past two decades, in turing technologies and process operations. Our presence is related to 2013 I founded ITACAe in the hope of monetizing my competences the design and engineering activities in the overall workflow. and applying my capabilities in other complementary areas, such as the aerospace industry. We began by providing CAD, CAE, Six-Sig- As a relatively new company, what are your plans for your first ma & LEAN engineering services for the analysis and optimization of five years in operation and beyond? manufacturing processes and structural performance of components, We have a business plan until 2018, which focuses on the develop- with a high focus on quality. We also work on the development of soft- ment of two business lines that are not being exploited at the moment ware, particularly in the area of additive manufacturing, and have two because they are not ready for the market. This covers smart system specific tools in development related to design. integration and software development. We are investing in software Currently, our direct clients are all based in Italy and Switzerland, al- development for innovative technologies, such as additive manufac- though we also work indirectly with some companies as sub-suppliers turing, and ITACAe is represented on the board of the Italian Associa- or contractors in other European countries. The opportunity to attend tion of Additive Manufacturing. Located in Milan, it is one of the most international fairs is important to us, as we want to expand our global important bodies for additive manufacturing and ITACAe participates footprint. Italy is an attractive country for European companies be- in promotional activities on important industry topics, such as certifi- 67 cause of our varied competences, especially here in Turin; the con- cation, material design and software. ▬ centration of the aerospace industry here is larger than anywhere else in Italy.

Could you tell us more about ITACAe’s operations and any par- ticular projects the company is working on at present? The breakdown of ITACAe is 70% automotive, 20% aerospace and 10% other sectors. In the aerospace sector, we have several direct cus- tomers in Italy, such as Aviospace. We are working on a project fi- nanced by the European Space Agency to develop special methodolo- gies to simulate the explosion of electronic devices. We also worked as a sub-supplier with Thales Alenia Space for the development of components for the ExoMars mission and the STEPS project. We also have some international customers, in collaboration with our partner EnginSoft. We are currently working with one of these companies on a project related to the development and optimization of launcher parts.

What advantages does TPA membership bring to companies such as ITACAe, and how do the company’s software offerings fit into the working groups of which ITACAe is a part? Italy is particularly well known for its SMEs, so we need to aggregate in order to form a big force and tender for credible offers from the in- ternational market. Many SMEs, with a variety of competences, feel the need for such an opportunity presented by TPA and therefore the decision to join is an easy one. As a TPA member, it offers benefits such as opportunities to enter the market and to learn about different technological advancements in the industry from fellow companies. We also wanted to show our customers a possible workflow involving our engineering phase for manufacturing the end product, compared with what exists in the market at the moment. Within the working

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like to think of Delta-Ti as tailors, creating very specific and cus- Giorgio tomised installations for the aerospace sector. Could you provide us with a case study of a particular project Bignelli you have carried out for an aerospace company? We built the Sky Light Simulator, which produces artificial sun- light in order to test light refraction in on-board flight cockpit and CEO instrumentation. To my knowledge, there are four of these in the DELTA-TI IMPIANTI world: two in the United States and Italy, and a further two owned by the Israeli Air Force and the RAF in the UK. The simulator contains an artificial sun rotating around a sphere, which is nine meters in diameter. The nose cone of the aircraft is placed inside Delta-Ti Impianti is a family owned company. Could you tell the sphere and tests are conducted. Because of the need to produce us how it has evolved over the last 90 years to become the com- a very bright light, millions of bulbs are used. These produce a pany it is today? great amount of heat and humidity, so Delta-Ti was contracted to My grandfather, a former pilot, inspired the birth of Delta-Ti back provide a conditioning system for this experimental environment. in 1925. It was my father who then established Delta-Ti in 1975, Another example is the anechoic chambers, in which simulated building on the solid background in thermo-technic engineering electromagnetic currents are discharged to check the levels of in- built by my grandfather. We are an EPC company specialized in terference the plane can withstand. We designed and built inte- the design of big cooling systems, water treatment, process plants, grated cooling systems according to customers’ global standards, air-conditioning systems, fire protection systems, and combined which enabled the tests to be carried out in strict thermal condi- cycle power plants. tions. Our clients, who are mostly large private companies and state- owned enterprises, value both our technological identity and our Around 10% of the company’s operations are for companies expertise in the sector. They identify Delta-Ti as a partner in their based outside of Italy. Could you tell us more about your inter- technological development. Delta-Ti designs and builds turnkey nationalisation strategy? technological installations and is divided into six divisions, includ- Approximately 10 years ago, Delta-Ti decided to pursue an in- 68 ing technological plants and energy and infrastructure. ternationalisation strategy. This was made possible thanks to our knowledge of foreign markets. We established a subsidiary in Could you tell us about the main areas of activity with which France, but remain open to other markets such as North America. Delta-Ti is involved, specifically those related to the aerospace Today, Delta-Ti works with various research centres worldwide, industry? including CERN in Geneva and with ITER Organisation, which In terms of aerospace, we started working in this area approxi- focuses on nuclear fusion energy. Delta-Ti produces the cooling mately twenty years ago with a U.S.-based consortium. Our ex- systems for SPIDER and MITICA experiments, and we are col- pertise in this industry is divided into two sectors: the first cov- laborating with technology partners from the United States and ers energy production, including air conditioning systems; heating Europe. and thermal energy; fire-extinguishing installations to test aircraft for fuel-recharging processes; and water and sanitary systems. The Delta-Ti offers its clients tailor-made solutions. What, in your second sector focuses on specific installations such as processes opinion, are the main reasons clients choose Delta-Ti? for turbine manufacturing, as well as all the mechanical installa- Delta-Ti is a big company but with the flexibility of a small com- tions in support of the production of mechanical parts. Our sys- pany. We can rely on efficient technology and a solid background tems also support aircraft wing production and specific extraction in a number of industries. We innovate with national and interna- systems. The specific range of our activity includes: clean rooms, tional universities and research centres and are a stable partner. anechoic chambers, and cooling and fire protection systems. We Clients also value our financial reliability.

Looking ahead, what can we expect for the company to the end of the decade? Delta-Ti is investing in international expansion. Our work with ITER Organisation and our other partners has greatly increased our network. International clients are drawn to us because of these contacts and our ability to provide engineering services for proj- ects of all sizes. We are also competitive on price and have reduced expenses compared to our larger competitors. The aerospace market is showing important growth and we plan to enter this market aggressively. We will transfer our extensive knowledge across technological sectors to become a reliable part- ner both for prime companies and their strategic suppliers. Our aim is to consolidate our reputation and gain new customers. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Alberto Marchini

Founder MARC INGEGNO

Marc Ingegno was founded in 1992. Could you tell us about new solutions to provide the required qualities. Its structure has how the company has evolved over the last two decades? the same degree of safety as a helicopter structure. Its main feature When I was building my own aircraft, I decided to produce the is the possibility to land everywhere, including on short strips and wheels and brakes myself, as they were very expensive otherwise. unprepared runways, in valleys and mountainous regions. From there, I started to produce some small parts, leading on to We recently presented the plane in Germany, and are aiming to the construction of wheels and brakes for ultralight aircraft. The obtain the necessary certifications by the end of 2016, while will company now employs 12 people, on a site of around 800 square enable us to sell this product on the European market. Although we meters. I also built a landing strip and, along with two hangars, are able to sell the product in Italy already, either as a fully built we can now facilitate aircraft maintenance and testing of our ul- plane or as a kit plane, there is a great deal of interest from abroad. tralights. I have invested in CNC machinery, such as 5-axis and CAD-CAM equipment, for the company and broadened our scope Marc Ingegno offers full traceability and serialization of its in the aeronautical field, supplying parts for helicopters. products. How important is this service and what are the ben- At the moment, our direct clients are primarily in Europe, but we efits? also sell to Australia and the United States. The company also sells The aerospace industry has a production system in place that we wheels, brake systems and landing gear to other aircraft manufac- have adopted for each product and component we use, as well turers, which themselves sell the planes overseas. We would like as for the aircraft itself. This means we have strict control of the 69 to increase our direct sales into the United States and find a local product configuration and the entire production cycle from the raw dealer. Within Europe, around 60% of our clients are Italian com- materials to the finished product. This allows us to have constant panies, while the remainder come from across Europe. high quality standards, as well as increased ease in providing spare parts or customizing specific parts for our clients. Could you tell us about the range of products you manufacture for the aerospace industry? Marc Ingegno will reach its 25th anniversary in 2017. What We build a wide range of complex machined components, accord- are your goals by this milestone? ing to customer requests. This includes for customers such as Vul- I hope to bring the Parrot plane to market, and we also plan to or- canair, for whom we have built complete actuators for the landing ganize a school for pilots. We plan to continue growing the main gear and special hydraulic valves. We have also built around 200 part of the business, which consists of landing gear, shock absorb- landing gears for Tecnam’s P2006. Aside from this, we are able ers and components for the aeronautical and aerospace industries, to develop new products such as the complete retractable landing to uphold our key business relationships, and to continue to supply gear for AgustaWestland’s Project Zero, while we have designed innovative and high quality products. ▬ and built wheels, braking systems and complete landing systems for the Alenia SKY-Y drone. We are in the process of present- ing our newly designed offerings to the aerospace industry; our products are universal and can be applied to many different types of aircraft with minimal modifications. In fact, our products are designed to be customized.

A fairly new product for Marc Ingegno is the Parrot ultralight plane. Why did you decide to move into manufacturing your own planes? I own a small Kitfox 2 plane, built from a U.S. construction kit, and use it to fly around the Italian Alps. Because it is difficult to land on an incline, I began to design a plane fit for this pur- pose. In the initial stages of the design I applied my knowledge of building components for helicopters and produced a model that is completely different to other ultralight constructions. This plane utilizes the best materials, the best manufacturing techniques and

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

which enables us to increase our visibility with sengers. At present we are focusing heavily customers in North America. on reducing the impact of bird strike on small aircraft. In the past, this was done by physical How important is the aerospace industry to testing – key problems being lengthy processes your overall operations and what proportion and high costs. We are now conducting similar of your market is based in Italy? tests using virtual simulation. When looking at AA PC VR: AMET offers products and services to the the bird impact against the canopy for example, transportation industries in general; this term we are trying to see if the pilot and co-pilot will includes the automotive, aerospace and railway survive. We can control variables and conduct a sectors. The share attributed to aerospace fluc- much wider range of tests without hindering the tuates, with the maximum being approximately dynamic performance of the aircraft.

VR 15%. It is part of our strategy to grow this share and diversify into other industries as the auto- How can the aerospace industry implement motive sector is currently the largest contribu- more sustainable operations and are we see- Andrea tor to our revenue stream. Although the largest ing a shift towards alternative materials? share of our revenue comes from Italy, it var- PC: There is a trend for using light materials, so Argondizza, ies on an annual basis. Europe, North America, we are trying to work towards the optimization Asia and South America have previously con- of metallic parts by shifting towards compos- tributed up to 35% of our turnover. Therefore, ites. We are also working on fluidodynamics Paolo Cavallo growing internationally is an important part of simulation (CFD) and structural safety with a our strategy. CAE approach. AMET is using similar tech- & Vittorio nology in the automotive sector, so there is an Could you provide us with an overview of interesting overlap between the two industries. Roccavilla the technical services you provide to your AA: CEO clients and any projects you are currently Could you tell us more about some of the re- PC: Technical Director working on? search and development projects on which VR: Sales Director AA: Around half of our revenues come from AMET is currently working? 70 AMET our virtual simulation business line, which PC: We are very active in our research and in- gives us the capability to support the design and novation activities based on our experience development of new products for performance with Politecnico di Torino. We believe our key You founded the company in 1999. Could testing, covering areas such as fuel economy, asset is to be on the cutting edge of new tech- you tell us more about the development of safety and comfort. The tests that we perform nologies and methodologies. We participate the company since its founding? are done virtually in order to decrease the num- in a number of partially funded projects at a AA: AMET is an engineering company that ber of physical tests that must be carried out regional, national and European level. Within was established in 1999 as a spin-off from the in order to provide a certain performance. In some of these initiatives, we are working on mechatronics laboratory of Politecnico di Tori- terms of aerospace, safety is unsurprisingly a space exploration projects on the Moon and on no. As well as using the skills and competences top priority. We have the capability to perform Mars that have been partially developed and we developed there, we are aiming to bring the analytical testing during the development of prototyped in Turin by both companies and company into the industrial environment to- new aircraft. research organizations. We have developed a gether with the technological applications and A second area is automatic controls for embed- network of embedded controllers of the Mars tools we have since developed. AMET’s skills ded systems, where the focus is more on the Rover demonstrator. AMET is also leveraging include mechanics, electronics, automatic con- design, development and testing of electronic its skills in modeling complex robotics systems trols, computer science, and the overall integra- controllers, including avionics and any kind of to realize test equipment to control the struc- tion of these domains. We were one of the first automatic control system on board. We are sup- tural integrity of composite parts. two companies to be a part of the Innovative plying some test benches for real-time simula- Enterprises Incubator of the university and, tion, for example in the area of space launchers. What is your future vision for AMET by during the first three years, we received assis- Our clients use our HIL testing equipment to its 20th anniversary in 2019? tance from the incubator in setting up the com- verify and validate avionics and electronic con- VR: Our aim is to continue to grow as a spe- pany, establishing a management and organiza- trollers. Our third business line is consulting, in cialized engineering company, increasing our tion structure and improving our technical and which we focus on data management for both customer scope and the markets in which we commercial skills. aircraft and vehicles. We have developed some are present. A large proportion of our revenue We have 40 full time employees, most of whom methodologies and software tools to manage comes from services, and we are trying to grow are based in our Turin office, as well as two and analyze weight performance during new the products that come from our experience other offices in Italy to support our customers in projects. and development of methodologies, which will different regions. AMET also has a subsidiary PC: AMET is very focused on niche projects also enable us to have a better balance between in Slovakia, where we share a good relationship utilizing different methodologies from other products and service provision. Our efforts are with a local technical university. We also have fields. A classic example is bird strike, which targeted to increase our revenues in markets a commercial office in Detroit, United States, is very dangerous to both the aircraft and pas- such as railway and aerospace. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports INTERVIEW

Mario Milanese & Ilario Gerlero

MM: CEO MM IG IG: Engineering Project Manager MODELWAY

You founded Modelway in 2004 as a spin- Could you tell us more about some of tional scale. This is an important door for off of the Politecnico di Torino. Could you the innovations Modelway is coming up SMEs such as Modelway to reach big play- tell us about how the company has de- with and also what we can expect to see ers with complementary capabilities that we veloped since then and any recent major in terms of new technologies in the sector do not possess. TPA tries as far as possible milestones? in future? to match the innovative technologies of the MM: I founded Modelway to transfer to MM: Within flight control and engine con- small players with larger players in the in- the industrial world the innovative meth- trol, for example, standards are becoming dustry and, from our perspective, this has ods of modeling, virtual sensing and con- more stringent for improving performance been successful so far. In particular, thanks trol developed by my research group at and reducing emissions. Such requirements to an overseas mission organized by TPA, Politecnico over a period of 20 years. We are gaining importance and are the catalyst we are now negotiating two important new have made several successful applications for increasing research and development ac- contracts. 71 in the automotive, aerospace and biomedi- tivity within the aerospace industry. We are cal industries. Our focus is on the modeling able to show, using our applications, that we Having recently celebrated a decade in and control of complex systems because, in have been able to develop technology with operation, what is your vision for Model- these areas, there is a need for continuous better proven results than standard methods way in the next five years? improvement in performance, safety and by reducing the time needed to design the IG: Our goal is to grow significantly outside quality control. We have also been working control. This is a key advancement because of Italy. The future holds opportunities for on patent applications for our proprietary the time required for designing a new ap- Modelway, and we hope to offer more than software and technology in order to be able plication to adhere to new regulations is an engineering services by providing products to face challenging problems in these indus- increasing problem. with embedded solutions for control. Thus, tries. Because we are located in Turin, the IG: Modelway has designed and developed we hope to provide more than just software hub of Italy’s automotive industry, our main software able to control an electromechani- to our clients. We are planning to develop area of application up to now has been the cal system for actuation in the automotive a chip for on-board computers that are able automotive sector. Our key idea was to solve space which we are now applying to the to implement innovative solutions in an ef- complex problems in this field and, having aerospace sector. We have developed self- ficient and simple manner. This will allow carried out more than a decade of work, we tuning control (STC®) technology, a trade- us to grow significantly and enhance our op- hope we have managed to achieve this goal. mark owned by Modelway. This technology portunities to work with large companies. allows rapid control development for elec- MM: We are also seeing a huge movement How do you provide tailored solutions tromechanical actuators from experimental in IT and data-driven solutions – so-called to your clients’ needs and why do clients data. So, if a customer approaches us with “Big Data”. This need for data and the capa- choose Modelway as their partner? a prototype, we can acquire data from ex- bility to glean useful information from it is IG: We try to offer solutions to challenging perimental tests and, 10 weeks later, we can not only useful for the world of technology, problems that our competitors cannot. Dur- develop a control to be tested. but is becoming increasingly useful from ing our experience with Politecnico di To- automotive and aerospace perspectives. For rino, we adopted a systematic approach for You are a member of Torino Piemonte example, increased passenger safety and re- modeling and control. This is a data-driven Aerospace. What advantages does mem- ducing emissions are two of the drivers re- approach for the development of virtual bership of this organization bring to quiring big data usage. We believe that our sensing and control solutions that is current- Modelway? capability to use experimental data and gain ly not well developed in the aerospace field. MM: We have been a TPA member com- higher-level information from it can be used Nevertheless, we are sensing a growing in- pany for four years. They help small com- for airplane control, monitoring and man- terest from Italian aerospace companies as panies through the promotion of our work agement. ▬ well as large multinationals. through various initiatives on an interna-

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations INTERVIEW Global Business Reports

Marco Pirovano & Andrea Magistrelli

MP: Technology Director AM: Head of Technical Division T.T.N.

T.T.N. was established almost 40 years is borne from the energy and automotive strong corporate strategy. Where are ago. Could you give us a brief back- fields. Although it is only a small focus you focusing your R&D efforts? ground of the company and its key de- area for the global group, at about 3% to MP: We are focusing on expanding our velopments? 5% of business, it is nonetheless important capabilities to provide a more integrated MP: The company was established in 1978 to us, especially in terms of elevating our- solution to our customers, and a more flex- with a focus on heat treatment processes. selves on a global platform. ible service. We are moving in the direction Since then, we have continuously im- of jumping straight to the final customer – proved and increased the capacity of our You operate primarily in the automotive Rolls Royce, Snecma, and so on. We hope nitriding plants, which at the time of their field. What are the key differences in to supply full components, such as turbine construction were the largest in Europe in requirements for your customers in the shafts, to the end customer, starting with 72 terms of overall size. Nitriding is a treat- aerospace and automotive sectors? the raw material and taking care of the pro- ment that seeks to minimize wearing and MP: The key differences are not between cess all the way through to certification. corrosion. Over time, we diversified into the two systems, but the capacity of the The possibility to offer a complete part of- other heat treatment processes, primarily company to produce the parts internally fers us a competitive edge and a unique carburizing, until we were able to offer the and cater to the different certification -re advantage. In terms of heat treatment pro- market a full range of heat treatment pro- quirements. For aerospace customers, cesses, NADCAP provides an additional cesses. Our capabilities now extend across T.T.N. has a facility that is approved by advantage that sets us apart from our com- surface and core heat treatment. NADCAP. We also have another com- petitors. Our expertise is very broad and We have also invested in the geographic pany in Veneto that is ISO TS-approved, spans across different fields and can be ap- expansion of the business, in order to place the equivalent standard from the automo- plied to aerospace. ourselves closer to the customer, which is tive industry. The automotive business is important in our business. Of our six plants, much more characterized by extensive pa- What are some of the company’s key ob- five are in Italy and one is in Spain. Four perwork, but NADCAP is more severe in jectives over the next three to five years? of the six mainly serve the same purpose, terms of process. The audit takes place on MP: One of our priorities is to provide ser- and two are becoming more vertically in- the job from beginning to end, so you have vices directly to the end customer. Current- tegrated, in order to offer the customer the to treat the process with extreme care. ly, large players such as aircraft manufac- most complete solution. Our Frioli plant, AM: Aerospace deals with larger parts, but turers are conducting heat treatment within for example, forges parts and, starting with a smaller number of them. In automotive, their own facilities, partly because they the raw material in the steel mill, molds it however, you have a very large number of believe the treatment is too sensitive to into a finished product. Our other activity is components within each order, so they are outsource. However, the mood is changing, the machine shop. very focused on traceability, and you have creating opportunity for the company, and to be sure to avoid mixing and losing in- also the challenge of meeting this potential Your processes are applicable across formation about the parts. In terms of aero- demand. As the final treatment, occurring many sectors. How important are aero- space, we are dealing with fewer compo- just before installation, it is the final -fin space customers to your business? nents. Because each component is costly, gerprint on the component, and therefore AM: Heat treatment is important for any you have to be more careful with how you has to be perfect. For this, we have to be metallic part, so we work for energy, au- treat it, particularly in terms of the type of closer to these customers, to be prepared tomotive, mechanical, heavy engineering, instrumentation and quality standards used. for when their strategy changes. We also and aerospace and defense customers. In need to build the customer’s confidence, terms of the specifications and precision of It must be important to remain at the which takes time, and this will be a priority the plants required, aerospace and defense forefront of innovation and maintain a for us. ▬

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports FINAL THOUGHTS

“The future will see an increase in missions involving nanosat- “The domestic market is the most relevant for the aerospace sector, ellites, with a similar trajectory to mobile phones, becoming in- and we see involvement from both the large players and the state. creasingly compact while retaining full functionality and added The sector is undergoing a reorganisation to be able to compete on features. Working on these nanosatellites is a great motivator for the international stage; we have seen this most recently with the our young engineers, who deal directly with NASA, and more than various companies under the Finmeccanica umbrella forming one compensate for any potential experience gap with their motivation single company: Leonardo. We can expect to see more evidence of and enthusiasm.” this trend in the coming years.”

- David Avino, - Mario Brossa, Managing Director, CEO, Argotec Teoresi Group

“Italy, along with the rest of Europe, has one of the best perfor- “Production rates for aircraft are increasing. Production of the Air- mances worldwide in terms of safety. Notwithstanding this there bus A320neo, for example, is driving demand for aeronautic com- are key areas of attention on the operations field, including main- ponent suppliers at levels similar to demand seen in the automo- tenance. The same attention is afforded to other fields, such as tive industry. In terms of technology, the industry is increasingly maintaining the qualification level of mechanics and engineers, moving away from mechanics and hydraulics to mechatronics.” the management of parts, and working procedures.”

- Stefano Serra, - Vito Riggio, CEO, President, Teseo Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) 73

“In China, two countries are perceived to have a very strong brand “The aerospace market is ruled by a complex set of regulations - Italy is one, with the other being Germany, particularly for me- that covers everything from design to operational requirements. chanical engineering. There have been increasing trends for mid- The next aim of the European Aviation Safety Agency is to de- range products, where previously many Chinese products operated velop common certification specifications, along with the United in the segment of low manufacturing costs, low prices, but low States and other countries, and ultimately advance this into global performance.” safety standards.”

- Gianfranco Carbonato, - Matteo Vazzola, Executive Chairman, Technical Director, Prima Industrie TPS Aerospace Engineering

“Piedmont and Lombardy are the two main regions for aerospace “Generally, research programs involve improving the quality of in Italy, growing around Thales Alenia Space in Turin and Agus- current projects by using virtual and computer simulations. New taWestland in Vergiate. These major companies have given these materials and new technology can facilitate this process and add regions an opportunity to grow in the aerospace market. The Ital- value in terms of new methods for testing. The cross-correlation ian government provides a lot of support to the southern regions of between the different fields makes it possible for us to apply ca- Italy, giving them a chance to grow quickly using government sup- pabilities across the sectors. Aerospace suppliers tend to work port and funds. The northern parts of Italy have more traditional more cohesively and collaboratively than in the automotive sec- companies that were started earlier and have a slower growth rate, tor, therefore, it is easier to work with other companies towards a yet are more robust and resilient as a result.” common goal.”

-Guglielmo Pisapia, - Piero Carcerano, CEO, CEO, S.I.ME Future Design

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations lectrical panels lectrical/electronic components lectrical power systems and equipment ngines systems and equipmen t lectrical panels lectrical/electronic components lectrical power systems and equipment ngines systems and equipmen t nterior equipment furnishing s nterior equipment furnishing s Research and Development Quality approval s Customer approvals Adhesives and coating s Air system and equipment Aircraft structure s Armaments and related equipmen t Autoflight systems and equipment Avionics Communications systems and equipment Composites Control systems and equipment Design and analysis E E E E Fuel and fuel systems Ground systems and equipment Hydraulic systems and equipment I Landing gear systems and equipment Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Navigation systems and equipment Processes and forming Propellers and rotor s Raw material supplies Safety and rescue systems equipment Services Space systems and equipment Standard parts Testing and certification Machinery, Tools. Test Equipment Training Transparencie s Miscellaneous Research and Development Quality approval s Customer approvals Adhesives and coating s Air system and equipment Aircraft structure s Armaments and related equipmen t Autoflight systems and equipment Avionics Communications systems and equipment Composites Control systems and equipment Design and analysis E E E E Fuel and fuel systems Ground systems and equipment Hydraulic systems and equipment I Landing gear systems and equipment Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Navigation systems and equipment Processes and forming Propellers and rotor s Raw material supplies Safety and rescue systems equipment Services Space systems and equipment Standard parts Testing and certification Machinery, Tools. Test Equipment Training Transparencie s Miscellaneous

3D NEW TECHNOLOGIES www.3d-nt.com a aaaa LUGLI AMEDEO OFF. MECC. DI PRECISIONE www.meccanicalugli.com aa aa aaa aaa a A.L.A. www.alalogistic.com aaaaaa aaaaaa aa aaaa a MANCIN www.mancinsrl.it aa aaa aa a A.T.L.A. www.atla.eu a a a MARC-INGEGNO DI MARCHINI ALBERTO & C. www.marc-ingegno.it aa aaaa aaa A.T.O.M www.atomsrl.it a aaaaa a aaaa MATRIX MECHATRONICS www.matrixto.it aaa a a a a AA MODELLERIA www.aamodelleria.com aa a aaMEC www.mecsrl.net aa ADV MECH www.advmech.it a aaaa aa MECAER AVIATION GROUP www.mecaer.com aaaaa aaaaaaaa aa aaaa AERO SEKUR www.aerosekur.it aaaaaaaaaaa aa aaaaaa MECCANICA BPR www.meccanicabpr.it aa aaaaaaaaaa AEROTECH ww.aerotechsrl.com aa a aa a a MEPIT www.mepit.com aaa aa AERROBOTIX www.aerrobotix.com a aa a METROLOGIA www.metrologiaspa.com a aaa a AIZOON COSULTING www.aizoongroup.it a aaaaa aa aa aaa aaa a MITO SRL www.mitosrl.com a a aaaaaaaaaa ALFA MECCANICA www.alfameccanicasrl.it aaa aaaaaaa MIZAR www.mizarcn.it aa a a ALLINOX COMPONENTS www.allinoxcomponents.it a a a a MODELWAY www.modelway.it a ALTAIR CONSORTIUM www.altairconsortium.com a a a a aaaaaaa aaaaa a a a aa aaaaaa a MOLLE INDUSTRIALI CONTE www.molleindustrialiconte.it aaaa a AMET www.amet.it a aaaaa aa MORELLO www.morellospa.com aaa aa APR www.apr.it a aa aa NIMBUS www.nimbus.aero a aaa a ARES www.ares-srl.com aa aaaaaaa NU.TE.CO. www.nuteco.it a aa aa ASTI AIRCRAFT SERVICES www.astiair.com aa a a aa OLIVERO www.oliveroimpianti.it a aa AVIOSPACE www.aviospace.com a a aa a OMA AIR AVIATION FURNITURE www.omaair.it aa aaa AVIOTEC www.aviotec.it aaaaPININFARINA EXTRA www.pininfarina.com a aa B.E. DESIGN www.be-engineering.it a aaaaa PLYFORM COMPOSITES www.plyform.it aaa aa aa a BART www.bartbrocce.it aaaaaaaaa PRATI www.pratiaero.com aaa aa aa a BISIACH & CARRU www.bisiachcarru.it aaa a aa aaaaa a PRESTEL AVIO www.prestelavio.it aa aaaaaa aa BLUE ENGINEERING www.blue-group.it a a aaaaa aaaa aa aaaaaa a PRIMA ELECTRO www.primaelectro.com a aa a BYLOGIX www.bylogix.it a a aa a a PRIMA INDUSTRIE www.primaindustrie.com a a a a a BYTEST www.bytest.it a aa aaa aaaaaaaaaa PRIMAVIS www.primavis.eu a aa a CAB ELECTRA www.cabelectrasrl.com aaa aaaaaa PROGEM www.progem.eu aa aaaa aaa CAPETTI ELETTRONICA www.capetti.it a aa aaaa aaaa a RENISHAW www.renishaw.it a aaaaa CARBONTEAM www.carbonteam.it a aa aaa RESINFLEX www.resinflex.com a COMAU www.comau.com aa aaaa RISATTI INSTRUMENTS www.risatti.it a a a COMUTENSILI www.comutensili.it aaa a a ROSFER www.rosfer.it aaa aaaa CRIOTEC IMPIANTI www.criotec.com aaa aaaa ROTOMORS www.rotomors.com a aaaa aa DELTA-TI IMPIANTI www.delta-ti.com aa aaaa aaS.P.I. www.spi-tech.it aa aa aaaa aaa DIGISKY www.digisky.it aa aa aa aa S.R.S. ENGINEERING DESIGN www.srsed.it a aaaa aaa DOFWARE www.sofware.com aa aa aaaa aa aaaa aaa SABELT www.sabelt.com aaa aaaaa EICAS AUTOMAZIONE www.eicas.it a aaaa SESIA FUCINE www.sesiafucine.it aa aa aaa ELLENA www.ellenaspa.com aaa aa aa aa aa SFC COMPOSITI www.sfccompositi.it aa aa a aaaa EMAGINE www.emagine.it aa a SHOW.IT www.show.it a aa EMMECI DI PORPORINO ROSANNA E LAURA www.emmecisnc.com aa a a SISTEMI AVANZATI ELETTRONICI (SISAV) www.rugged.sisav.it aaaaaa aaaaa a ERRE TI www.erreticompositi.com aa aa aaa SOCIETÀ INDUSTRIA MECCANICA S.I.ME. www.simeccanica.it aa aa aa aa aaaa a EURIX www.eurixgroupc.com a aa aa aaa SOFT-IN www.soft-in.com a aaaaa aaa EUROFORK www.eurofork.it a a SYNAREA CONSULTANTS www.synarea.com a aa aaaa FERMEC www.fermec.biz a a T.T.N. www.ttnspa.it a aa a FIDIA www.fidia.it aaa a TECNO PROGRAM SERVICE www.tps-srl.net aaa aa aaaaaa aa aa FRESAL www.fresal.com a a aa TECNOSTEEL www.tecnosteel.com FUTURE DESIGN www.carcerano.it aa aa a a a a www.gattasrl.com GATTA a aaTEKSPAN www.tekspan.it aaaa aa aa HTF www.htf-aero.com a aa aa aaaaaaa TEORESI www.teoresigroup.com a a a aa aaaa aaa a I.DE.A INSTITUTE www.ideainstitute.it aa aaaaaa a aaaaa a TESEO www.teseo.net a a aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaa ILLOGIC www.illogic.us aa www.torino-design.com IMEX.A www.imexa.it a aa aaaaaaaaa TORINO DESIGN aa aaaaaaaaaa ING. BERTOLOTTI & C. www.ing-bertolotti.com aa aaaaaa TPS AEROSPACE ENGINEERING www.tps-aerospace.it aaa a aaa aaaaa aaa aa aaaa aaa INGERSOL ENGINEERS BUSINESS SOLUTIONS www.iebs.it aa TTA - TECNO TESSILE ADLER www.adlergroup.it aaa aa a a ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA (IIT) www.iit.it aa aa aaa TUBIFLEX www.tubiflex.com aaa aa aaaa aaa ITACAE www.itacae.com a aa aaa TURIN TECH www.turintech.it ITALPROGETTI www.italprogetti-trino.it a a a a aa aa www.kitegroup.eu KITE GROUP a aaaaa aa aa aaaa VASTALLA www.vastalla.com a aa aa a ITALIA DESIGN TORINO www.carcerano.it aa aa a WPWEB www.wpweb.com a a aa L.M.B. www.lmbsrl.it a aaaaaa FIVE INTERNATIONAL LEADING PLAYERS COMBINE THEIR FORCES WITH THE PROJECT LABORMET DUE www.labormetdue.it aa aa aaa a www.leonardocompany.com LANGENSEE www.langensee,it aa aa aaaa aaLEONARDO - AIRCRAFT DIVISION a a a aa aa aa aaaa aaaa aaaa LASERGATE www.laasergate.it aaaa LEONARDO - DEFENCE SYSTEM DIVISION www.leonardocompany.com a aa a aaaa a LAZZERO TECNOLOGIE www.lazzero.com a aaaa AVIO AERO www.avioaero.com a a a a a a a a a a LCA BALLAURI www.lcaballauri.com aaa a a aa aa aaa aaa AVIO SPA www.avio.com www.logikasas.com aaa aa a aa LOGIKA a a a UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION www.utc.com LMA www.lmasrl.com aaa aa aaaaa aa a a a a aa a a a a a

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports lectrical panels lectrical/electronic components lectrical power systems and equipment ngines systems and equipmen t lectrical panels lectrical/electronic components lectrical power systems and equipment ngines systems and equipmen t nterior equipment furnishing s nterior equipment furnishing s Research and Development Quality approval s Customer approvals Adhesives and coating s Air system and equipment Aircraft structure s Armaments and related equipmen t Autoflight systems and equipment Avionics Communications systems and equipment Composites Control systems and equipment Design and analysis E E E E Fuel and fuel systems Ground systems and equipment Hydraulic systems and equipment I Landing gear systems and equipment Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Navigation systems and equipment Processes and forming Propellers and rotor s Raw material supplies Safety and rescue systems equipment Services Space systems and equipment Standard parts Testing and certification Machinery, Tools. Test Equipment Training Transparencie s Miscellaneous Research and Development Quality approval s Customer approvals Adhesives and coating s Air system and equipment Aircraft structure s Armaments and related equipmen t Autoflight systems and equipment Avionics Communications systems and equipment Composites Control systems and equipment Design and analysis E E E E Fuel and fuel systems Ground systems and equipment Hydraulic systems and equipment I Landing gear systems and equipment Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Navigation systems and equipment Processes and forming Propellers and rotor s Raw material supplies Safety and rescue systems equipment Services Space systems and equipment Standard parts Testing and certification Machinery, Tools. Test Equipment Training Transparencie s Miscellaneous

3D NEW TECHNOLOGIES www.3d-nt.com a aaaa LUGLI AMEDEO OFF. MECC. DI PRECISIONE www.meccanicalugli.com aa aa aaa aaa a A.L.A. www.alalogistic.com aaaaaa aaaaaa aa aaaa a MANCIN www.mancinsrl.it aa aaa aa a A.T.L.A. www.atla.eu a a a MARC-INGEGNO DI MARCHINI ALBERTO & C. www.marc-ingegno.it aa aaaa aaa A.T.O.M www.atomsrl.it a aaaaa a aaaa MATRIX MECHATRONICS www.matrixto.it aaa a a a a AA MODELLERIA www.aamodelleria.com aa a aaMEC www.mecsrl.net aa ADV MECH www.advmech.it a aaaa aa MECAER AVIATION GROUP www.mecaer.com aaaaa aaaaaaaa aa aaaa AERO SEKUR www.aerosekur.it aaaaaaaaaaa aa aaaaaa MECCANICA BPR www.meccanicabpr.it aa aaaaaaaaaa AEROTECH ww.aerotechsrl.com aa a aa a a MEPIT www.mepit.com aaa aa AERROBOTIX www.aerrobotix.com a aa a METROLOGIA www.metrologiaspa.com a aaa a AIZOON COSULTING www.aizoongroup.it a aaaaa aa aa aaa aaa a MITO SRL www.mitosrl.com a a aaaaaaaaaa ALFA MECCANICA www.alfameccanicasrl.it aaa aaaaaaa MIZAR www.mizarcn.it aa a a ALLINOX COMPONENTS www.allinoxcomponents.it a a a a MODELWAY www.modelway.it a ALTAIR CONSORTIUM www.altairconsortium.com a a a a aaaaaaa aaaaa a a a aa aaaaaa a MOLLE INDUSTRIALI CONTE www.molleindustrialiconte.it aaaa a AMET www.amet.it a aaaaa aa MORELLO www.morellospa.com aaa aa APR www.apr.it a aa aa NIMBUS www.nimbus.aero a aaa a ARES www.ares-srl.com aa aaaaaaa NU.TE.CO. www.nuteco.it a aa aa ASTI AIRCRAFT SERVICES www.astiair.com aa a a aa OLIVERO www.oliveroimpianti.it a aa AVIOSPACE www.aviospace.com a a aa a OMA AIR AVIATION FURNITURE www.omaair.it aa aaa AVIOTEC www.aviotec.it aaaaPININFARINA EXTRA www.pininfarina.com a aa B.E. DESIGN www.be-engineering.it a aaaaa PLYFORM COMPOSITES www.plyform.it aaa aa aa a BART www.bartbrocce.it aaaaaaaaa PRATI www.pratiaero.com aaa aa aa a BISIACH & CARRU www.bisiachcarru.it aaa a aa aaaaa a PRESTEL AVIO www.prestelavio.it aa aaaaaa aa BLUE ENGINEERING www.blue-group.it a a aaaaa aaaa aa aaaaaa a PRIMA ELECTRO www.primaelectro.com a aa a BYLOGIX www.bylogix.it a a aa a a PRIMA INDUSTRIE www.primaindustrie.com a a a a a BYTEST www.bytest.it a aa aaa aaaaaaaaaa PRIMAVIS www.primavis.eu a aa a CAB ELECTRA www.cabelectrasrl.com aaa aaaaaa PROGEM www.progem.eu aa aaaa aaa CAPETTI ELETTRONICA www.capetti.it a aa aaaa aaaa a RENISHAW www.renishaw.it a aaaaa CARBONTEAM www.carbonteam.it a aa aaa RESINFLEX www.resinflex.com a COMAU www.comau.com aa aaaa RISATTI INSTRUMENTS www.risatti.it a a a COMUTENSILI www.comutensili.it aaa a a ROSFER www.rosfer.it aaa aaaa CRIOTEC IMPIANTI www.criotec.com aaa aaaa ROTOMORS www.rotomors.com a aaaa aa DELTA-TI IMPIANTI www.delta-ti.com aa aaaa aaS.P.I. www.spi-tech.it aa aa aaaa aaa DIGISKY www.digisky.it aa aa aa aa S.R.S. ENGINEERING DESIGN www.srsed.it a aaaa aaa DOFWARE www.sofware.com aa aa aaaa aa aaaa aaa SABELT www.sabelt.com aaa aaaaa EICAS AUTOMAZIONE www.eicas.it a aaaa SESIA FUCINE www.sesiafucine.it aa aa aaa ELLENA www.ellenaspa.com aaa aa aa aa aa SFC COMPOSITI www.sfccompositi.it aa aa a aaaa EMAGINE www.emagine.it aa a SHOW.IT www.show.it a aa EMMECI DI PORPORINO ROSANNA E LAURA www.emmecisnc.com aa a a SISTEMI AVANZATI ELETTRONICI (SISAV) www.rugged.sisav.it aaaaaa aaaaa a ERRE TI www.erreticompositi.com aa aa aaa SOCIETÀ INDUSTRIA MECCANICA S.I.ME. www.simeccanica.it aa aa aa aa aaaa a EURIX www.eurixgroupc.com a aa aa aaa SOFT-IN www.soft-in.com a aaaaa aaa EUROFORK www.eurofork.it a a SYNAREA CONSULTANTS www.synarea.com a aa aaaa FERMEC www.fermec.biz a a T.T.N. www.ttnspa.it a aa a FIDIA www.fidia.it aaa a TECNO PROGRAM SERVICE www.tps-srl.net aaa aa aaaaaa aa aa FRESAL www.fresal.com a a aa TECNOSTEEL www.tecnosteel.com FUTURE DESIGN www.carcerano.it aa aa a a a a www.gattasrl.com GATTA a aaTEKSPAN www.tekspan.it aaaa aa aa HTF www.htf-aero.com a aa aa aaaaaaa TEORESI www.teoresigroup.com a a a aa aaaa aaa a I.DE.A INSTITUTE www.ideainstitute.it aa aaaaaa a aaaaa a TESEO www.teseo.net a a aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaa ILLOGIC www.illogic.us aa www.torino-design.com IMEX.A www.imexa.it a aa aaaaaaaaa TORINO DESIGN aa aaaaaaaaaa ING. BERTOLOTTI & C. www.ing-bertolotti.com aa aaaaaa TPS AEROSPACE ENGINEERING www.tps-aerospace.it aaa a aaa aaaaa aaa aa aaaa aaa INGERSOL ENGINEERS BUSINESS SOLUTIONS www.iebs.it aa TTA - TECNO TESSILE ADLER www.adlergroup.it aaa aa a a ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA (IIT) www.iit.it aa aa aaa TUBIFLEX www.tubiflex.com aaa aa aaaa aaa ITACAE www.itacae.com a aa aaa TURIN TECH www.turintech.it ITALPROGETTI www.italprogetti-trino.it a a a a aa aa www.kitegroup.eu KITE GROUP a aaaaa aa aa aaaa VASTALLA www.vastalla.com a aa aa a ITALIA DESIGN TORINO www.carcerano.it aa aa a WPWEB www.wpweb.com a a aa L.M.B. www.lmbsrl.it a aaaaaa FIVE INTERNATIONAL LEADING PLAYERS COMBINE THEIR FORCES WITH THE PROJECT LABORMET DUE www.labormetdue.it aa aa aaa a www.leonardocompany.com LANGENSEE www.langensee,it aa aa aaaa aaLEONARDO - AIRCRAFT DIVISION a a a aa aa aa aaaa aaaa aaaa LASERGATE www.laasergate.it aaaa LEONARDO - DEFENCE SYSTEM DIVISION www.leonardocompany.com a aa a aaaa a LAZZERO TECNOLOGIE www.lazzero.com a aaaa AVIO AERO www.avioaero.com a a a a a a a a a a LCA BALLAURI www.lcaballauri.com aaa a a aa aa aaa aaa AVIO SPA www.avio.com www.logikasas.com aaa aa a aa LOGIKA a a a UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION www.utc.com LMA www.lmasrl.com aaa aa aaaaa aa a a a a aa a a a a a

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations DIRECTORY Global Business Reports

AENCOM AVIO Via R. Incerti, 10, TO Via Latina, snc, 00034 Colleferro, Roma +39 0121 377515 +390697285111 http://www.aencom.it http://avio.com/

AERO SEKUR SpA Avio Aero Via Bianco Di 16. , Torino, 10072 Via I Maggio, 99, 10040 Rivalta di Torino +39 01119887714 Tel. +39 011 0082111 www.aero-sekur.com https://www.avioaero.com/

Aerotech Srl Aviotec Corso Novara, 29 - (TO) C.so Vigevano, 46 - 10155 Torino +39 011 19662900 +39 011.043.70.91 www.aerotechsrl.com www.aviotec.it

Bisiach & Carrù S.p.A. Corso Piemonte, 36 - 10078 Venaria Reale (TO) Alfa Meccanica S.r.l. +39 011 407 5111 12048 (CN) Via G. Agnelli 3 www.bisiachcarru.it +39 0172 53199 www.alfameccanicasrl.it

Altair Consortium Head Office: Corso Indipendenzia, BLUE Group Engineering & Design 7 – I-15033 Casale Monferrato AL Via Albenga 98 - 10098 – Rivoli (TO) +39 0142 453958 +39 011 9504211 76 www.altairconsortium.com www.blue-group.it

ALTEC Bytest Corso , 79, 10146 Torino, Italy Gennaro Oliva, Via 8 10010 (TO) +39 011 743 0301 +39 011 037221 www.altecspace.it http://www.tuv.it/it-en/about-tuev-sued/ subsidiaries/bytest-laboratories AMET Srl Via 60, 10144 Torino Centro Estero per l’Internazionalizzazione s.c.p.a. +39 011900 7807 (Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export and Tourism ) www.amet.it Corso Regio Parco 27 -10152 Torino +39 011 6700511 www.centroestero.org APR s.r.l. Via R. Incerti 10, Z.I. "La Porporata” - 10064 Pinerolo - Torino Comutensili SpA +39 0121 377515 Via R. Bernardo, 6 - 10092 Borgaretto (TO) www.apr.it +39 011 3589123 www.comutensili.com ARGOTEC Via Cervino, 52, 10155 Torino Delta-Ti Impianti Spa +39 011 765 0567 Via Albenga, 92, Rivoli TO www.argotec.it/ +39 011 959 1663 www.delta-ti.it/ ASI Via del Politecnico snc DigiSky 00133 Rome, Italy Corso , 65 – 10128 Torino (TO) +39 06 85671 http://www.digisky.it/ http://www.asi.it

This list contains those companies interviewed during the course of research for this publication and as such represents only a limited selection of the companies operating in the aerospace industry of Piemonte. It should not be considered a comprehensive guide. GBR holds an exclusive and extensive database for Piemonte and the wider region. For further information on database access packages, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 7812 4511.

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports DIRECTORY COMPANY INDEX

EICAS Automazione S.p.A. ISTITUTO ITALIANO TECNOLOGIA (IIT) Via Vincenzo Vela 27 - 10128 Torino Corso Trento, 21, 10129 Torino +39 011 5623798 +39 0110904705 www.eicas.it www.shr.iit.it

Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile (ENAC) ITACAe S.r.l (Italian Civil Aviation Authority) Technical Office: Corso , 223 -10133, Torino Viale Castro Pretorio, 118 - 00185 - Roma +39 011 6612126 +39 06 445961 www.itacae.com www.enac.gov.it

ESA Esrin LABORMET DUE Via Galileo Galilei 00044 Frascati (RM) Italy Corso , 402 - 10137 Torino +39 06 94180 +39 011 740905 http://www.esa.int/ESA Leonardo-Finmeccanica Federazione Aziende Italiane per l'Aerospazio, Piazza Monte Grappa 4 - 00195 Rome la Difesa e la Sicurezza (AIAD) +39 06324731 (Italian Industries Federation for Aerospace, Defence & Security) www.leonardocompany.com Via Nazionale, 54 - 00184 Roma +39 06 4880247 LMA S.R.L. www.aiad.it Operations office: Via Vercelli, 6 - 10044 (TO) +39 0119672053 FIDIA S.p.A. www.lmasrl.com C.so Lombardia, 11 - 10099 TO +39 011 222 71 11 LMB www.fidia.it Via Asti 6 10044 Pianezza - Torino +39 011 967 25 57 77 www.lmbsrl.it

Finpiemonte S.p.A. MARC INGEGNO Galleria San Federico, 54 - 10121 Torino Reg. Pomarolo - 13019 - VARALLO (VC) +39 011 5717711 +39-0163-53060 www.finpiemonte.it www.marc-ingegno.it

FUTURE DESIGN S.R.L. Mecaer Aviation Group 20, Via Delle Industrie - 33070 Polcenigo (PN) Via Arona, 46, 28021 Borgomanero NO, Italy +39 0434 749674 +39 0322 8371 www.mecaer.com HTF Srl Aerospace Production 10156, Str. del Francese, 153, Area Produttiva Rostia TO Mepit S.r.l. +390112765910 Via Grazia Deledda, 4 10036 TO www.htf-aero.com +39 011 898 22 40 www.mepit.com ING. BERTOLOTTI & C. Corso Cuneo, 47 - 10078 Venaria Reale (TO) Modelway Srl +39 011 4240788 Via Livorno 60 - 10144 Torino www.ing-bertolotti.com +39 0112258261 www.modelway.it

Ingersol Engineers Business Solutions Pininfarina Extra Via Marsala, 1 - 25122, (BS) Via Nazionale, 30 - 10020 (TO) +39 030 890 1579 +39 011 9438111 www.iebs.it www.pininfarina.it

This list contains those companies interviewed during the course of research for this publication and as such represents only a limited selection of the companies operating in the aerospace industry of Piemonte. It should not be considered a comprehensive guide. GBR holds an exclusive and extensive database for Piemonte and the wider region. For further information on database access packages, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 7812 4511.

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations DIRECTORY Global Business Reports

Plyform Composites Srl TESEO S.p.A. Via Mirabella, Provincia di Novara, Italy Corso A. Fleming 27 10040 (TO) +39 0321 950111 +39 011 9941935 www.plyform.it en.teseo.clemessy.com

Politecnico di Torino Tecno Tessile Adler S.r.l. (Polytechnic ) Via Bruno Buozzi, 6 10098 Rivoli (TO) Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino +39 011 9559711 +39 011 090 6111 www.tta-adler.it www.polito.it Tekspan S.p.A Prestel Avio S.r.l. Strada Alberassa 75, 10026 (TO) Loc. Batasiolo 85/A, 12064 La Morra CN +39 011 5503166 +39 0173 500302 http://www.tekspan.it/ www.prestelavio.it Thales Alenia Space PRIMA INDUSTRIE S.p.A. Via Saccomuro, 24, Roma RM Via Antonelli 32 +39 06 41511 10093 (To) https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/homepage/italy +39 011 41031 www.primaindustrie.com Torino Chamber of Commerce Via San Francesco da Paola 24 - 10123 - Torino Primavis S.r.l. +39 011 571 6363 Via E. de Sonnaz 19 10121 Torino www.to.camcom.it www.primavis.eu/ Torino Piemonte Aerospace (TPA) Progem S.r.l. Corso Regio Parco 27 - 10152 Torino Via Monteu Roero 12/16 - 10022 (TO) +39 011 67006.98 78 +39 011.971496 www.torinopiemonteaerospace.com www.progem.eu TPS Aerospace Engineering Regione Piemonte Via Olanda, 5 21013 – Gallarate (VA) Piazza Castello, 165 Torino +39 0331 797 010 +39 011 4321111 www.tps-aerospace.it http://www.regione.piemonte.it TTN Sabelt S.p.a. Via 1° Maggio, 30, 20014 Nerviano MI Via Guido Rossa, 8/10/12 - 10024 - Moncalieri (TO) +39 0331 463711 +39 011 6477911 http://www.ttnspa.it/USA/ttnspa.php www.sabelt.com TUBIFLEX S.p.A Sapienza University of Roma Operations office: Strada Torino, 25/27 – 10043 Orbassano (To) Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185 Roma +39 011 9033201 +39 06 49911 www.tubiflex.com http://www.uniroma1.it

Societa Industria Meccanica S.I.Me. Srl Via Arona, 83, Borgomanero NO, UTC Aerospace Actuation Systems +39 0322 81625 Piazza Arturo Graf, 147, 10126 Torino, www.simeccanica.it +39 011 69321 utcaerospacesystems.com Teoresi S.p.A Via Perugia, 24, 10152 Torino 3D New Technologies srl +39 011 240.80.00 C.so Re Umberto 54, 10128 Torino www.teoresigroup.com +39 3351439753

This list contains those companies interviewed during the course of research for this publication and as such represents only a limited selection of the companies operating in the aerospace industry of Piemonte. It should not be considered a comprehensive guide. GBR holds an exclusive and extensive database for Piemonte and the wider region. For further information on database access packages, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 7812 4511.

Industry Explorations ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Global Business Reports Global Business Reports ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

EDITORIAL AND MANAGEMENT TEAM

Senior Project Director: Alice Pascoletti ([email protected]) Journalist: Harriet Bailey ([email protected]) Journalist: Catherine Howe ([email protected])

Regional Director, EMEA: Katya Koryakovtseva ([email protected])

Executive Editor: Mungo Smith ([email protected]) Graphic Design: Designa ([email protected])

For updated industry news from our on-the-ground teams around the world, please visit our website at gbreports.com, subscribe to our newsletter by signing up to our VIP list through our website, or follow us on Twitter: @GBReports.

Additional copies of this book can be ordered via [email protected]

THANK YOU

We would like to express special gratitude to Giulia Marcon from Regione Piemonte, Giovanni Pischedda from Turin Chamber of Commerce, and the Torino Piemonte Aerospace team, especially to Diana Giorgini, Stefania Andresciani, Erika Manis, and Daniela Cicoli for their continuous support throughout the research.

We would also like to sincerely thank all the governmental bodies, associations and companies that took time to share their insights in the market as well as their experience and knowledge.

Maurizio Madiai from AIAD http://www.aiad.it

Andrea Zanini from ASI http://www.asi.it

Marcello Onofri from Sapienza University of Roma http://www.uniroma1.it

Fabio Grimaldi from Altec https://www.altecspace.it

Maurizio Cheli from Digisky http://www.mauriziocheli.com

Donatella Farina from Finmeccanica http://www.leonardocompany.com

Global Business Reports ITALY AEROSPACE 2016 - PIEDMONT Industry Explorations