Founded in 1932 as a cooperative company specialized in electrical and thermo-hydraulic plants, today Cefla is a multi-business group, that has made its heterogeneity a strong point. Evidence of this is a turnover of more than 450 million Euro and almost 2,000 employees, distributed throughout the production pole in Emilia Romagna, where it has its headquarters, and over thirty locations throughout the world, half of which are production sites.
The strategic vision and long-term planning, together with the financial solidity and continuous investments in technology and product and process innovation are the values at the roots of Cefla’s success. Thanks to this company philosophy, the group has developed in five business areas: Cefla Systems (civil, industrial and energy systems), Cefla Shopfitting (interior decorating and custom solutions for sales points), Cefla Medical Equipment (for the dentistry and medical sector), C-LED (specialized in the development of LED technologies) and Cefla Finishing (world leader in painting, decorating, wood finishing, digital printing on wood and its derivatives).
In particular, Cefla Finishing manufactures “ready for use” lines for the wood market, but is also a point of reference in technologies for the finishing of glass, plastic, fiber cement, composite materials and metal. Always in the forefront in dedicated technologies, Cefla Finishing chooses Mattei compressors to generate the compressed air for pneumatic utlilities that serve the production sites.
“Mattei has been present in Cefla as a supplier of compressors since at least 1996 - comments Claudio Cavini, Maintenance Director for the Cefla plants – Mattei was recommended to us by our Business Unit that deals with installations, that already used Mattei machinery in its work sites, obtaining positive results in terms of customer satisfaction.
This choice was fully confirmed over time. “Mattei compressors have proved themselves to be efficient both in reliability and work life – continues Cavini – and also the running costs have proved to be very low. These are the competitive advantages that make the difference”.
There are nine Mattei compressors installed in Cefla, mostly from the Air Centre series, with an average power between 55 and 75 kW. “These are both air-cooled fixed and variable speed compressors – explains Flavio Molinari, Head of Sales for Mattei Italy – They are particularly quiet, thanks to the soundproof cabin, allowing them to achieve noise levels of between 64 and 76 dB(A).
They are also extremely reliable and designed for heavy-duty industrial purposes at constant pressure. The AC Series compressors are equipped with a modulating intake valve, which assures the output of air at constant pressure, as well as also allowing them to operate without any tank”.
Cefla Finishing has also purchased an Optima 75 model, that adjusts its operations to suit the load profile requested by the network. This is possible thanks to the Mattei inverter, managed by means of the MaestroXS electronic controller.
Molinari also underlines the advantage of the limited maintenance costs of the machines supplied to Cefla: “The absence of roller and thrust bearings, to support the rotor, permits avoiding expensive overhauls on the compressor group and allows for hundreds of thousands of work hours with no need of particular interventions”.
Two compressors (AC55 and Optima 75) are also equipped with a Heat Recovery Kit, which produces hot water at 70°C, for sanitary and heating purposes. “A considerable portion (about 80%) of the energy utilized to compress the air is normally dispersed in the form of heat – explains Molinari – Mattei has provided for a Heat Recovery Kit which permits heating water for sanitary or process purposes. The Kits, which are composed of water-oil heat exchangers, a thermostatic valve and a special hydraulic system, can be integrated into the air-cooling system of the machine, which in turn makes for a self-regulated oil temperature control which is also self-protected from any drops in water supply or overheating”.
September, 2017