Salvagnini's Nicola Vanzo explains to Metalworking Production and Purchasing Magazine editor, Rob Colman, how many technologies have been brought together from Salvagnini's products to create the innovations demonstrated in the company's newest press brake. Video shot at the Lamiera trade show in Bologna, Italy.

Prima's Flavio Gregori discusses with Metalworking Production and Purchasing Magazine editor, Rob Colman, the company's drive for energy efficiency, and the particular value this brings to the company's press brake offering. Video shot at the Lamiera trade show in Bologna, Italy.

Orazio Davi, president of the Italian company DAVI explains to Metalworking Production and Purchasing Magazine editor, Rob Colman, how new technologies are helping his company train and support clients. Video shot at the Lamiera trade show in Bologna, Italy.

TORINO, Italy: There’s no doubting Italy’s ability to produce beautiful, functional and efficient cars. Some of the world’s most famous brands come from the country, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, and of course Fiat (the most modest of the bunch). It was only fitting that the PLANT’s recent media delegation hosted by Machines Italia and the Italian Trade Commission should stop over in Torino to visit the facility that’s responsible for that little car that’s seen on Canadian roads, it’s uber-cool 500 model. The Torino-based company is most widely known for its cars, but it has

BOLOGNA, Italy: There’s nothing quite like the harmonized hum of robotics, or the perpetual pounding of punching machines to let one know they’re at a metal production trade-show. Thankfully, those theatrics only add to an atmosphere only matched by exploring shop floors themselves. Only at this year’s Lamiera metal forming and production show, the environment’s a little cleaner, and maybe a touch quieter. (For some Plant Magazine Lamiera 2012 show floor photos, click here) Lamiera is the delegation’s first stop in Bologna, part of a media junket of Italian manufacturing and technology hosted

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. FluidTrans 2012 FluidTrans is hosted by Feddermacchine’s ASSOFLUID, an association of Italian fluid power and transmission equipment and component firms. The show

With energy resources dwindling and "sustainability" becoming a must-have word in the lexicon of almost every company in the developed world, the debate over the use of cleaner materials is intensifying, especially when it comes to plastic. Some claim the "war on plastic" is unjustified, with people to blame for pollution rather than the material itself, while others argue that taking simple steps to replace traditional plastics with more natural biological substitutes would cut back on carbon emissions drastically. One such company is the Italian firm Novamont, whose starch-based Mater-Bi bio

Azimut Yachts, with a boat making factory at Avigliana, in the province of Turin, is Italy's premiere builder of yachts and megayachts, some of which total 30 meters (70 feet) in length. Founded in 1969, Azimut Yachts was originally a boat chartering service run by a young university student, Paolo Vitelli, with a passion for sailing. In 1970, the fledgling firm was doing so well that prestigious yachting brands began to appoint Azimut as their main boat distributor in Italy, and soon after, the company began designing its own yachts. In a joint venture with Amerglass, Azimut designed the AZ43

The company, a Milan-based innovation think-tank that specializes in the production of components for ultra-high vacuum and gas purification applications for industrial customers invests at least 10% of its revenues in research and innovation annually, a practice it says saved the company. In 2009, SAES Getters recorded its worst sales in the 70 year history of the company, $164 million. It attributes that rough year to changes in technologies of one of its major industrial sectors. When consumer electronics companies were producing liquid crystal displays (LCD), SAES Getters provided vaccuum

Though not the flashiest Italian car manufacturer, automotive firm Fiat has long been a staple of the country's industrial sector, providing vehicles to a wider mass market than its local brethren: —the Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis that cater only to the elite. As such, the firm's research and development center, with a main base in Orbassano, Turin, is constantly thinking up ways to reinvent its automotive products in cost effective ways, from their physical design to their fuel efficiency, safety features and beyond. Established in 1978 as the Fiat Group reference center for