Shortly after our visit to our supplier Železiarne Podbrezová in Slovakia, we received an invitation to visit the facility of another long-time supplier: Acciaieria Bertoli Safau (ABS), part of the Danieli Group.
Accompanied by my father, Silvano Grivetto, the founder of I.S.A.C. and current President, and our Production Director, Fabrizio Babando, we went to their headquarters in Udine.
From ABS, we primarily purchase reversible round sections and blooming laminates up to 240mm. We have been their customers for over 30 years, and finally, we had the opportunity to see how they produce their products.
The first impression is one of grandeur, in every aspect. The entrance is large and imposing, with a particular emphasis on greenery: we are immediately welcomed into this green environment, accompanied by a vertical forest that extends throughout the office.
The facility itself leaves a positive impression with its cleanliness and orderliness: it’s uncommon to come across a clear resin floor in a rolling mill, and to top it off, it’s impeccably clean!
These initial impressions may not directly influence the quality of their products, but they reflect the identity that employees embody and inevitably transmit through their work.
Moving on to the production area, everything is majestic, starting with the iron scrap yard and the mega-magnet used to lift the scrap. The machinery is enormous, as are the electrodes of the furnace, which emit a power that can be felt through a spine-chilling noise.
What impressed me the most was the relamination plant, whose grandeur is inversely proportional to the ease with which technicians control it from their three-monitor stations.
Finally, we visited the warehouse, and the stock was also impressive. There, we saw the products that we have been purchasing for 30 years.
In particular, over the past 5 years, we have increased our purchases of carbon or low-alloy steel round bars tenfold, specifically:
- S355J2
- 42CrMo4
- 20mMnCr5
With these bars, we specifically hot print parts for earthmoving and wind energy sector.
Thanks to another one of their strengths, which is traceability, what we do is a direct consequence of this virtuous cycle. We are also able to guarantee our customers complete traceability for every production batch and the heating temperature of each individual piece. This is possible because each bar is labeled with a unique barcode, which is scanned by a laser reader at the time of retrieval. This information is then transmitted to a program that will enable perfect traceability and association with the finished product in the future.
As mentioned in reference to our recent visit to the Železiarne Podbrezová and Pipex Italia facilities in Slovakia, we believe it is important to value our business relationships and thoroughly understand our suppliers, whom we rely on to offer our customers certified high-quality products.
We would like to express our gratitude to ABS and those who welcomed us, especially Caterina Asara and Broglia Marco.
Best regards,
Giorgio Grivetto
