The company specialising in nano-materials was set up in Sant’Antonio di
Casalgrande in the Reggio Emilia province. Today, Nanoprom, which is also a
benefit company, boasts a turnover of €2 million, 20% of which made abroad. The
Financial Times featured it as the leading Italian chemical company and among
the first six fastest-growing in Europe. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti
interviewed Gian Luca Falleti, owner of Nanoprom
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Persevering
and making it, because nothing is impossible. You just need to believe in it.
This is what happened in the story we are about to tell you. But let’s start
from the places, which are what makes people. We are not talking about hi-tech
metropolitan areas and futuristic scenarios. The future often nestles in
unthinkable places and also resides in that excellent Italian province that
generates talent and ideas. And so the future, which is currently mostly made
up of innovation that cares for the environment, starts from a small Emilian
town. We are in Sant’Antonio di Casalgrande, a town of 20 thousand inhabitants
south-east of Reggio Emilia, on the left bank of the Secchia river. The
territory used to be mainly agricultural but is not dedicated to an industry
that boasts amazing success stories. Here there is a starter-upper who remained
orphaned at a young age and only completed middle school but who decided to
challenge the giants and build products and services based on
nano-technologies. We are talking about Gian Luca Falleti, 47, born in
Sassuolo. Persevering and making it, as we mentioned earlier. When he was 21,
i.e. in 2002, he developed the idea in his garage, which he turned into an
actual research centre. A small chemist who decided to roll up his sleeves. But
his life included another ten. A former lorry driver, a pizza-delivery man, a
carwash employee and an insurance agent. Then, when he was the representative
of a chemical company, he fell in love with the sector. “I fell in love with
this world linked with chemical products thanks to extraordinary people”, stresses
Falleti, the head of Nanoprom which now employs 14 people. The story also
features that Aeronautical technical institute in Forlì he never attended
because of an accident, even though he acquired the knowledge from engineers
and chemists and turned them into something valuable. So Falleti studied the
secrets of nano-materials, with the help of the experts. “That is
how I managed to make unique products”, he stresses. The turning point came ten
years ago in 2013. A car company asked him to protect some aluminium components
for the roof of a convertible and he did so. Then the same company saw one of
their raw magnesium rims for their Formula car corroded by water and he solved
the problem with his team. “At the time, the paint on a Formula 1 car weighed two
kilos, but we brought that down to 700 grams in 2015”, stresses Falleti, who now
supplies five racing teams in total.
Company profile That is how his
creature was born. Everything began with the first rented warehouse and grew
exponentially. Nanoprom develops technologically-advanced and light-weight
solutions for the treatment and protection of all surfaces. It became a global
leader for liquid glass patents and technologies. The company works in the
nautical and aeronautical sectors and for that Formula 1 enterprise that has
become an identity brand in the Emilia Valley. It works with submarines and
satellites, and it should also start working with helicopters soon. So far,
simulations are being carried out so far, but it won't stop there. Nanoprom
boasts a turnover of €2 million, 20% of which made abroad. The Financial Times
featured it as the leading Italian chemical company and among the first six
fastest-growing in Europe. Here in San't Antonino di Casalgrande there are
systems to make graphene sheets, others to deposit nanomaterials in a vacuum,
two mixing laboratories, hi-tech equipment worth millions of euros and even the
largest optical digital microscope in the world, built by a Japanese company.
Falleti was the man who built this company that cares for the environment brick
upon brick. “We
generate our own water because it is taken from conditioners thanks to special
silos. So waste drops to 2% and all materials are completely recycled. We also
do not use plastic and electrification uses up 50% less Co2 than other
companies”, says Falleti. Nanoprom has been recognised as a benefit company and has
undertaken to finance wells and photovoltaic systems in Africa and to develop
an anti-bacterial spray.
The strength of nanomaterials Nanoprom is
among the first businesses in Italy to believe in the research and commercial
application of nanomaterials. “I make unique products such as, for example, liquid
glass. Cold vitrification has also the advantage of being neutral for the
environment and non toxic for man. After all, paint is the leading source of
microplastics in the ocean and 58% of microplastics in the sea comes from
paint. Our coatings do not feature plastic or rubber”, concludes Falleti, who
currently boasts 12 patents, 8 of which have been approved. The latest Nanoprom
patent reduces plastic packaging and rethinks the cardboard covering the
pallets used for ceramics. Then there are new
challenges taking shape: so Nalucoat was born, a start-up that eliminated the
use of tri- and hexavalent chrome for all interior design elements. But this is yet another extraordinary story.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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