http://192.168.1.28/index.php en j.johnson@ice.it Copyright 2013 2013-03-18T19:39:06+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/new_italian_high-speed_quad_makes_skiing_swifter_in_downtown_toronto/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/new_italian_high-speed_quad_makes_skiing_swifter_in_downtown_toronto/#When:19:39Z Skiers at the City of Toronto's Earl Bales Ski and Snowboard Centre will enjoy more time hitting the slopes, thanks to A new Italian made, high speed, 4-seat chairlift  which has been operating since the beginning of the 2012/2013  this ski and snowboard season.  The $2.3 million lift provided by Leitner Poma will drammatically improve the customer skiing and snowboardking experience at the Centre. 2013-03-18T19:39+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/made_in_italy_-_manufacturing_success_despite_economic_turmoil/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/made_in_italy_-_manufacturing_success_despite_economic_turmoil/#When:15:26Z Canadians likely think of Italy more as a romantic vacation destination and are more aware of its cultural characteristics than its many industrial qualities. Indeed, the country is beautiful and the food so magnificent, so deliziouso, yet there’s much more to appreciate than its fascinating history, ancient and elegant architecture, some of the world’s most beautiful artistic treasures and many fabulous wines. Much of the recognition Italy is getting these days has more to do with its precarious economic condition and its contribution to the potential unravelling of the euro zone, thanks to a debt that is 120% of its economy and the likelihood of remedies that will involve steep spending cuts and tax increases. Export or dieYet, despite the ongoing economic turmoil in Italy and the 17-country euro zone, Italian manufacturers are weathering the storm and enjoying growth; a victory most companies attribute to a refined mix of innovation and R&D, added value and healthy export markets. PLANT took part in a media delegation to Milan and Bologna hosted by the Italian Trade Commission (ITC) and Machines Italia in May to get an up-close look at Italian manufacturing. The delegation was also hosted by Federmachine, a governing body for more than a dozen specialized, sector-based industry associations that develop individual components of Italy’s manufacturing economy. The trip focused on all sectors of Italian manufacturing, from metal forming machinery and equipment to fluid power and plastics. Despite their differences, most companies seem to follow a similar formula. “When you have a population of 60 million, you can only go so far in a domestic market because it’s too small to support growth,” said Bart Pascoli, project coordinator at the Italian Trade Commission. He notes exports also alleviate pressure on the bottom line because downturns in local economies aren’t felt as harshly. As a percentage of GDP, Italian exports represent 29%, matching Canada’s performance. The notable difference is that Italian manufacturing’s percentage of total merchandise exports topped 82% in 2010, while Canada’s manufacturers exported 49%, according to the World Bank. Italy is also the second largest (after Germany) OEM producer in Europe. Ironically, Germany purchased more than $1.3 billion worth of Italian metal machinery and equipment, according to Federmachinne’s UCIMI – Sistemi per produrre, Italy’s association for machine tools, robotics and automation companies.   2012-10-10T15:26+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/blue_mountain_plastics_closes_the_loop/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/blue_mountain_plastics_closes_the_loop/#When:15:13Z Plain or fizzy, people like their bottled water. In Canada, its share of the beverage market almost doubled from 5% to 9.1% between 2000 and 2006. Of course, there are a lot of regular folks and vocal environmentalists who don’t care much for the bottles. They see the plastic containers as a blight on the landscape or a waste of space in landfills. The thing is, water bottles and other plastic beverage containers are recyclable and according to the Canadian Bottled Water Association. 70% of them (2010 data) are recycled and account for 0.02% of the total waste stream. Thanks to more advanced recycling technology and municipalities ramping up residential recycling initiatives, plastic bottles have been good for Ice River Springs, a bottled water producer based in Feversham, Ont. It has closed the loop, becoming the first company in North America to manufacture it’s own polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin from re-purposed plastic to produce 100% recycled bottles. Located about two and a half hours north-west of Toronto, the company has been serving up its fresh spring water from a protected source for 15 years, growing into seven bottling facilities in Canada – including two in Ontario – and the US. To lessen its environmental impact in an industry where carbon footprint has been historically high, the company has set up a closed-loop recycling and manufacturing subsidiary at a 110,000 square-foot facility in Shelburne, Ont. Called Blue Mountain Plastics, it handles more than 80% of Ontario’s Blue Bin recyclables.“Customers offered feedback on how to reduce the environmental impact of our products and make the whole operation more sustainable,” says Ryan L’Abbe, Blue Mountain’s vice-president and general manager.This led to a couple of options: purchase recycled material, or make its own. The choice was option B. A sophisticated supply chain Blue Mountain buys its materials from Ontario’s municipalities and manufactures a resin called recycled PET (or RPET), a process encompassing a sophisticated supply chain operation that wasn’t easy to put together. The concept became a finalized business plan by 2009 and trips to Europe followed during which the company’s key players met with Amut, an Italian manufacturer of plastic extrusion systems, and Starlinger, an Austrian manufacturer of complete extrusion lines for recycling plants. After examining different wash and extrusion options, the Canadians committed to one that involved washing the bottles, then grinding them. L’Abbe says this achieves a higher quality grind. “It was a really expensive venture and we wanted it to be as automated as possible, so we started looking at the whole supply chain: how material is recycled, what kind of technology we need, and how we would source our materials to get them into a food-grade form.” And it was imperative the entire operation was completely closed-loop. “We sent trucks to Toronto almost everyday,” says L’Abbe. “Now, we use those trucks to backhaul a load of recycled materials for the plant in Shelburne.” That one change closed the production loop. Not only did Blue Mountain cut its environmental footprint by recycling household plastic waste from Canada’s largest municipality, it racked up a bit of a profit. Today, the entire Ice River Springs operation starts in Shelburne, where trucks deliver up to 50 million pounds of recycled materials a year. It’s sorted, washed, ground and bagged, then sent to Feversham where a team of eight workers use self-manufactured preforms and Starlinger purification equipment to blow the 100% recycled, food-grade water bottles. They’re filled, labelled, capped and delivered.   Ryan L’Abbe with a discarded clear plastic bottle that will be transformed into 100% recycled clear plastic bottle     2012-10-10T15:13+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/falling_for_dead_wood/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/falling_for_dead_wood/#When:16:57Z There are millions of hectares of mountain pine beetle-infected wood in Canada. Most trees will rot where they fall, as there isn't enough demand for all the material. Yet there is a technology that could put this wood to use: cross laminated timber, or CLT. In Italy companies are manufacturing and allocating a lot of the stuff, for example using it to rebuild 4,000 houses since 2009, when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the country's L'Aquila province. The Timber Machinery Alliance is a consortium of equipment manufacturers, making the various tools needed to turn little pieces of wood into massive CLT panels. Corporate Knights saw the booth, courtesy of Machines Italia, at the massive Milan trade show, XylEXPO. 2012-06-26T16:57+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/guest_post_natural_gas_more_sustainable_than_an_electric_car/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/guest_post_natural_gas_more_sustainable_than_an_electric_car/#When:16:47Z Most of the car manufacturers in the world see a future with roads full of hybrids and pure electrical vehicles. But these vehicles are still fraught with problems, including the range on batteries, the high cost, and the energy density stored in batteries (about 1/20th that of gasoline). FIAT is taking a different approach and is ignoring batteries and hybrids, except to dismiss them as too heavy and too expensive and even too dangerous. At the FIAT research centre in Turin, Italy, general manager Stephanon Fiorentin told visiting journalists from Canada and the United States that the company is placing its bets on compressed natural gas (CNG). He and his team made some compelling arguments.   2012-06-26T16:47+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/more_of_tim_dimopoulos_680news_radio_broadcasts/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/more_of_tim_dimopoulos_680news_radio_broadcasts/#When:16:15Z 680News radio (680 on the AM dial) automotive journalist, Tim Dimopoulos talks about electric vehicles in an interview with Stefano Re Fiorentin, General Manager with the Fiat Research Centre in Turin, Italy. The interview was taped during the Machines Italia journalist Delegation to Italy last May 2012. The segment aired on June 14th, June 16th and 17th, 2012 on 680 News. 2012-06-26T16:15+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_milan_day_2_-_article/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_milan_day_2_-_article/#When:02:08Z MILAN, Italy: It has been another jam-packed day here in Milan, highlighted by three of Italy’s largest manufacturing technology trade shows – FluidTrans, PLAST and Xylexpo – which feature across more than 100,000 square meters of tech from some 1,500 exhibitors, including fluid power and transmission, plastics and woodworking.  I’m here as part of a trade media delegation hosted by Machines Italia and the Italian Trade Commission. 2012-05-27T02:08+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_milan_day_1_-_article/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_milan_day_1_-_article/#When:02:00Z MILAN, Italy: I’ve been in town for about 48 hours on an Italian machinery and technology tour, and already have much to report. During my seven days here, I’ll be posting stories live from trade show floors at the infamous FieraMilano, a super-structure of a convention centre on the outskirts of Milan. It’s housing not one, but three trade shows this week on behalf of Federmacchine, Italy’s federation of more than a dozen associations of manufacturers. I’ll also head to Bologna, reporting live from the LAMIERA trade show later this week. I’m in this picturesque city with eight other journalists, all from North America, as part of a delegation hosted by the Italian Trade Commissions of both Canada and the US, and Machines Italia, an initiative designed by the commission to promote Italian-made machinery and technology to manufacturers in North America.   2012-05-27T02:00+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_novamont_-_article/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/plant_takes_on_novamont_-_article/#When:01:53Z TORINO, Italy: While the terms “sustainability” and “environmentally-friendly” are generally conducive to competitive advantage these days, the plastics industry has struggled to shake the acumen that’s kept it a black-spot in the world of manufactured goods because of the petroleum-based, fossil materials it’s produced from. Thanks to modern technology, however, bio-plastics have become increasingly prevalent. Some thanks may also be warranted at an increasing social and cultural determination to keep the world as green as can be.   Packaging, Plastics and Rubber 2012-05-27T01:53+00:00 http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/fiat_500_amongst_the_top_20_most_sold_passengers_vehicles_in_canada/ http://machinesitalia.org/fr/index.php/itcblog/full/fiat_500_amongst_the_top_20_most_sold_passengers_vehicles_in_canada/#When:18:04Z According to a recent report by the automotive thinktank Focus2move, Fiat 500, the Italian compact car produced in Mexico, entered the Top 20 Models ranking in Canada. It is the first time in the Canadian car industry that an Italian product stands so high in sales.  From March 2011 to March 2012, a total of 2.061 Fiat 500 were sold in Canada; a stunning 384% over the previous year.   2012-05-02T18:04+00:00