When we consider the manufacturing sector, Italy stands out for the quality of its products, even in a market that has been made ever more challenging by global competition. Since its foundation in 1931, Fantini Cosmi’s Italian-ness has always been its strength, thanks to the Made in Italy production processes and the professionalism that have always been the distinctive features of its products and production lines.
This approach has had its fair share of challenges and sacrifice, but it has allowed the company to achieve excellent results, the latest one being the Red Dot Design Award 2021 obtained by Ecocomfort 2.0 Smart. But how is a Fantini Cosmi world-class product born? Here is a product’s typical life.
Concept and design
First of all, every cutting-edge product must be based on a winning idea. Fantini Cosmi has an in-company Interdisciplinary group whose task is indeed identifying new products, starting from the most divers inputs. From market trends to new technologies, without overlooking global scenarios, customers’ feedback and suggestions, everything is taken into consideration and weighed.
After the first stage, the idea must be turned into a product and, above all, one needs to ascertain whether the product is technically feasible and financially sustainable.
This is where the three Research and Development laboratories come into play, one of the mainstays of production. This is when the design and prototyping stage takes place, which also makes use of a close collaboration with research centres and leading universities, such as the Politecnico of Milan, as well as relying on in-company talent.
Precisely thanks to this collaboration, Fantini Cosmi continuously welcomes students, interns and undergraduates who collaborate on projects.
After the design stage, the prototypes are made, which undergo strict quality control, always in the three in-house laboratories. The products that pass the in-house tests are sent on for production.
The birth of the commercial product
Today, Fantini Cosmi is active in all cutting-edge fields: artificial intelligence, connectivity and Smart Home, electromechanical products. The software and hardware design of all new products, the production of the sensing parts and all tests are carried out within the Caleppio di Settala facility, where the production lines are also located.
Here are also some particularly interesting departments, especially with regard to construction of sensing parts, which are the most important components in the Fantini Cosmi production. This makes it possible to maintain high level manufacture, as well as to respond rapidly and flexibly to the needs of the market and scenario.
The most noteworthy departments are certainly those where capillary cutting is performed on the sensing parts, the welding area with laser and spot welding stations and the filling and sealing department. Here the sensing part is processed using a vacuum pump, then filled with liquid capable of reacting to changes, and finished for subsequent assemblies.
The various assembly departments have various lines: automatic for high volume products and manual or semi manual for smaller volumes. The products are then tested, checked, packaged and placed in the warehouse.
Innovation and control
The entire facility has recently been computerised according to good Industry 4.0 practices, by implementing an ERP and MES system based on SAP, which makes it possible to maintain visibility and monitoring on the entire product life cycle and more. The integration of information, in fact, makes it also possible to provide customers with reserved access, to check and monitor orders, processes and accounting information. The quality of the products and services that has distinguished the 90 years of the company’s successful history is unchanged.
——————————————————————————————————————–
To find out more, watch the Fantini Cosmi made in Italy production video!
