In Ozzano
dell’Emilia, a company focused on designing, manufacturing and installing
sustainable suction and filtering systems. A turnover of €11 million with a
foreign share of 35% and around one hundred employees. For FARE Insieme, Giampaolo Colletti interviews Claudio
Paravidino, founder of Imas Aeromeccanica
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Someone might
think he has travelled in a special time machine that transported him into the
future. Because what he foresaw almost fifty years ago is more than current
today. After all, good entrepreneurship is also measured by the intuition of
grasping the weak signals of an evolving market. Claudio Paravidino, founder of
Imas Aeromeccanica, had the right intuition when he decided to deal with air
suction, filtering and purifying systems. Of course now there are advanced
systems and skills that have evolved technologically, but the initial idea -
the one he staked the money he had struggled to set aside on - was that one:
designing, manufacturing and installing innovative suction and filtering
systems in a time of tumultuous growth. He did it before others did and by
working better than others. Because this is the only way to become market
leaders, especially when it comes to filtering systems such as purifiers and
de-dusters for the industrial suction of air. The company now boasts a turnover
of €11 million with a foreign share of 35% and around one hundred employees.
Waste that becomes energy. Imas deals
with the study and design of everything that currently concerns industry
4.0. “Over the decades,
we innovated our management systems and experienced constant technological
revolutions. We used to design in 2D, while now we do so in 3D with a system
that works automatically on production machines. Then there are the new hi-tech
platforms: we developed innovative products and purifying plants with enhanced
filtering characteristics. Already twenty years ago, our systems were so
advanced that not only did they comply with the norms at the time, but their
emissions were already well below what was required. The sectors we work in are
those linked with the mechanical, carpentry, foundry, varnishing and
woodworking industry. For the mechanical industry, pollutants are dust or oil
mist and we have a different purifying method for each one. Research concerns
these fields, considering they are all “made-to-measure”, explains Paravidino.
As for the woodworking industry, in addition to the suction and purification of
dust, we also deal with the energy recovery of production waste: - swarf and
sawdust are aspirated and stored and are used during the winter period as
biomass to heat the same environments that produce them. This process is part
of the green revolution thanks specifically to biomass systems. “Instead of
disposing of waste, it is recovered in a different performing way,” stresses
Paravidino.
The initial phase and future challenges. After all, the time
machine mentioned above is actually made up of the capability of reading
between the lines as regards industrial needs. Because, as highlighted by
Paravidino, there is a constant need for increasingly better suction and,
mostly, filtering systems. But let's proceed in an orderly fashion. The life of
this entrepreneur, born in Piedmont yet Emilian by adoption, contains many more
lives: the move to Genoa, then to Savona. At sixteen, he began working as a
steel fixer as he joined iron bars. Then, just before turning eighteen, he
moved to Abruzzo to become a crane operator for the construction industry and
working as a welder during his break periods. When he was twenty, he tried his
hand at being a food trade agent in Bologna, selling snacks and breadsticks. “Everything
started when I stopped doing this job: there was no work in the summer as the
city was deserted and shops closed. So I started working with a craftsman who
made metal sheet ducts to suck out air from factories. They were selling a
calender and a folding machine, which used to be entirely manual at the time,
and I decided to buy them. I remember I loaded them onto the truck I used to
sell breadsticks and took them to my garage,” reminisces Paravidino. Yes, the
garage. We find it in this entrepreneurial story too. Fifteen square metres
that held everything. Also the will to make it. The company’s headquarters are
located in Ozzano dell’Emilia, a town of less than fifteen thousand people a
few km from Bologna. This is where experimentation and innovation take place.
The latest innovative frontier is linked to suction and purification using
high-efficiency and low-maintenance filtering systems. In this way, Imas
Aeromeccanica supplies purifying systems for mechanical businesses that emit
vapours and oil mists into the work environment during their production cycle.
All this happens thanks to a special purifier equipped with a pre-treatment
chamber and a filtering system featuring coalescence candles. An automatic
compressed air system enables the machines to function continuously through
24-hour shifts. Ingenuity and technology to tackle the challenges of the
industries of tomorrow. Imas Aeromeccanica increases safety in work
environments and diminishes the industrial environmental impact.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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