Always engaged in the research and implementation of innovative solutions for industrial production, Atra is a company that designs and manufactures systems for the precision dosing of mono and bi-component resins, in the atmosphere and in vacuum. Over the course of over thirty years of activity, it has created machines, special applications and systems in several industrial sectors: from household appliances to electronics, from electromechanical to ophthalmic to automotive, operating in Italy and abroad. "As our company grew, we added new services such as assistance in the design of production processes, preliminary tests and sampling, research on the acoustic performance of products and the integration of technologies related to Industry 4.0." explains the CEO, Luca Lenardi, at the helm of the company together with his father, the president Vladimiro Lenardi.
When and with what principles was the company born?
Vladimiro Lenardi: "Atra was born in 1989. Initially we were engaged in particular in the production of organic lenses and in the related design of special machines. Over the time, we have expanded our field of action by approaching the resin coating of transformers, capacitors and other applications, especially in the automotive sector. Quality has always been a central element of our work. It was natural for us to continue to process resins, in every field, with the same level of precision we were used to for lenses. I am thinking, for example, of degassing, cleaning in all production steps, polymerization, all of which are necessary in the processing of lenses. We have kept them in our subsequent processes and this attention proved to be a key element in our collaboration with our partner Scheugenpflug, a German company world leader in the field of precision resin systems. We are the Italian exclusive importers. It is a partnership that has continued for almost twenty years now".
What are the main services offered by Atra?
Luca Lenardi: "Our field of specialization is resin dosing technologies. Later, we developed corollary processes, such as plasma treatment, polymerization ovens and automation. Today we work with our customers to define optimal processes according to Industry 4.0 standards. Our work team is made up of mechanical, electronic and software engineers, in order to be completely flexible with respect to customer requests. In this sense, we offer a complete package of services: from support during the product design phase to the choice of resin and application technologies, through the implementation of tests and the production of samples, up to the delivery of the final system. We take care of the customization of Scheugenpflug products and their exclusive distribution in Italy and in foreign markets such as Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia".
How does the company manage to guarantee customized solutions based on customer needs?
Vladimiro Lenardi: "When we interface with a customer we always try to provide improvement advice to his projecy. These are suggestions that allow you to insert a special kind of processing in order to solve a specific problem, and perhaps to improve the overall outcome of the process. It is a continuous growth lived together with customers, making their needs our own and developing together the entire production process. Coming from the world of industrialization and mechanical design, it has always been natural for me to have this global vision. When designing a machine, it is normal for me to think about what will happen upstream and downstream. This overall attention to the process has always been very welcome by our customers, that's why we have maintained ten-year collaborations with many of them. There is a continuous exchange of information, a real partnership on their projects, which we make our own until the final result. Furthermore, we can supply the production of small batches on behalf of third parties. This means that even if the purchase of the machine is postponed, for any reason, or times are extended due to customer needs, we can still provide an initial part of the production. We absorb the start-up phase, when volumes are small or the procedures are still being refined. This is an advantage that the customer greatly appreciates".
Box: Industry 4.0 is already a reality.
Since 2015, we have started developing our first software for the integration of machines in Industry 4.0. We are able to give the customer an integrated solution, an entire island for managing the resin process. All our systems are already connected in the cloud to a central server that manages communication, OTA (over-the-air) software updates, data collection and management of maintenance and technical support activities.
