Unrivaled Technology in Textile Finishing Machines: Biancalani
Massimo Biancalani, CEO (from left) and Maurizio Toccafondi, Director of the R&D
There are people programmed to have a complete view of a puzzle before it is assembled. They are able to think big without losing sight of the individual pieces. These professionals fuel innovation and progress in all sectors and their opinion is fundamental, but often little known. This is why it is interesting to find out what fuels the engine of textile machinery professionals, a sector of which Biancalani has been part for many decades.
“We often forget” explains Massimo Biancalani, CEO of the company, “Of how much innovation is a complex process. Biancalani made a precise choice that is to position itself in the textile machinery market with alternative finishing machines. The input, the spark of the creative process, always comes from one consideration: what is missing and would be desirable and advantageous in textile machinery?”
“This is what happened with Aquaria®” adds Maurizio Toccafondi, Director of the Research and Development (R&D) department. “We were looking for a different vision, something based on tradition and experience, but which was not sterile and banal. The result was incredible: We were able to concentrate six strengths in a single machine and therefore to provide a cutting-edge and, above all, alternative product. That gives remarkable results, some established and others to be discovered.”
But let’s start from the beginning. “The research that precedes the design” explains Massimo Biancalani “may seem manic. In reality, the correct term is widespread and it should be so, because it is the foundation of the entire design process. The opinions of external collaborators and professionals in the sector, market analyzes, statistics, research through this wonderful tool we have and which is the internet, all of this is collected by the Research and Development department. And it is these impulses that trigger the design. Biancalani technicians are very good at catching them. The company also chooses them for this “.
The director of the R&D department is keen to specify a concept: “Design cannot and must not leave room for future technological risks, creating machines that are poor in content. This often happens when trying to reduce machinery to the bone, as we say, with the aim of providing a product that is only apparently new, but in reality devoid of content. Is a mistake. The technological content goes ahead of everything. All relevant R&D sectors function on the basis of this imperative ”.
“The design itself” adds Massimo Biancalani, “the technical phase, to understand ourselves, is a sort of creative synthesis. It is when ideas arrive and above all the exchange of ideas that takes place in an uncodified way, with an uninterrupted dialogue. It is a confrontation between professionals who are very different in experience, age and specialization, which Biancalani was keen to bring together and collaborate within the company. This is what led to machines such as Airo®24, Airbox and Aquaria®.”
Toccafondi continues: “When you have a complete view of the project and after the construction of the machinery, there is another interesting step: Biancalani becomes a consultant, as well as often the sole supplier and obviously promoter of his own design philosophy. The company turns into a strategic partner precisely because it provides all this. And the highest level, common to the design and construction phases, is reached when leading customers in the textile finishing sector choose to test an innovative machinery.”
“At this point” Biancalani intervenes “We make available our technologists who work daily to set the machines according to the customer’s needs and discover the perfect functionality for what he wants to achieve. This is the real link with innovation, because the leaders in the sector open the way forward, which will carry the market forward, and the others follow it.”
“In fact, Biancalani customizes, personalizes the machines according to the customer’s needs, so much so that I don’t remember having made one identical to another” says Toccafondi. “All of them have actual potential” continues Biancalani, “many well-known and others, fortunately, still to be discovered. And the best discoveries, we know, are made while looking for something else, in our case while studying the potential of a machine. Power versatility is the secret of Biancalani textile finishing machines. And our work “.
