Elitron’s Giambattista Mele talks us through the company’s proprietary electronics and workflow innovations
Giambattista Mele has worked with Elitron for twenty years, having joined in 2006. He now runs the sales team and is part of the marketing for the packaging and visual communication divisions.
Elitron itself was founded over 40 years ago, starting life as a software house in 1984, and moving into machine building in 1993 with cutting systems for fashion, footwear and leather goods. Under the guidance of its owner and founder, Giuseppe Gallucci, the company pushed into general industry before moving its focus to include visual communication and packaging. Today, there are four divisions, each vertical on its own sector.
Watch Giambattista Mele talking to Jack at FESPA 26
One step beyond every single day
The position Elitron has chosen is not an easy one. There are far bigger names in the cutting world and Giambattista is happy to acknowledge it. “Elitron is a great company, not a big company. So we have to decide where to invest. Our investments go into innovation, and we need to stay one step ahead, always. Every day we wake up and we have to start one step beyond.”
The way Elitron does this is by owning every part of the machine. The feeding systems, stacking systems, mechanics, and all electronic components are designed and built in-house. That last piece is the most recent move, and Giambattista treats it as the headline development of the year. “Now we can say that all the electronic components of the Elitron machine are made by Elitron,” he explains.
Why is this important? Because every interface between two suppliers is a chance for something to get lost in translation, and that costs productivity and reliability on the factory floor. Giambattista reaches for a language analogy. “In the past we used some commercial components of good quality, but just like when you have to communicate between different languages, there is always something that is lost in translation.”
Now the conversation inside the machine happens in one tongue. Software talks to electronics, electronics talks to mechanics, all in the same Elitron dialect. “The language is liquid, it’s faster, and the final effect means greater productivity and reliability. If you work in one shift, two shifts or twenty-four seven, reliability is the most important thing.”
What the Kombo TAV does that others cannot
The flagship is the Kombo TAV, which Elitron launched at Drupa in 2012 and which has now reached its fourth generation. There are 130 installations worldwide. The figure Giambattista is proudest of, though, is the repeat business. “We are very, very proud to make installations with customers who purchased an Elitron machine in the past and now decided to invest in the new generation of Kombo TAV. This confirms to us that we are doing a good job.”
Where the Kombo TAV sets itself apart from the field is in the workflow, not the cutting. Plenty of suppliers can sell a router or a knife. Few can sell a fully integrated automated process that communicates with the printer, the CAD software, and the rest of the production line as a single system. The dual-head architecture, a piece of Elitron heritage that reaches back to the leather sector, is part of that. “Two heads means both flexibility and increased productivity,” Giambattista says. “You can split the machine into two working areas. The machine works with two heads on the left side while the operator is collecting cut pieces or positioning material for the next session.” He calls it a pendulum solution.
Sitting on top of the hardware is a stack of patented technology that does the work the operator used to do. The Seeker system reads reference points and printed images through dual cameras, then automatically loads the right cutting file for what is in front of it. The video projection system throws the digital die straight onto the material, so a printer can run a feasibility study or a prototype without producing a physical die first. The AiroPanel handles unloading and lifting waste away cleanly, without leaving attachment points on the cut pieces, which means the operator gets a fully usable yield off the bed. Pallets move through the system automatically. Elitron calls the result ‘keep on rolling’, and the phrase is accurate.
One workflow for many kinds of job
The Kombo line is the premium offering, with the SD, TH and TAV models stepping up through the range. For smaller businesses approaching digital cutting for the first time, or for big operations that want a sampling and prototyping table next to the main production floor, Elitron has the Spark range as the entry point. It comes as a fixed table or a conveyorised version, with V-cut, knife or circular textile blade options. “It is a good solution for all the smaller factories that are starting in or approaching the digital sector. It is not a machine for big production. Different tools for different jobs, but the same logic underneath,” he says.
The flexibility customers buy into is the ability to handle the smaller quantities, the orders that fall in between the high-volume identical runs and the one-offs. Whether that means fifty displays, five hundred or a few thousand depends on the customer. What matters is that the same machine can handle a full-stack pallet of identical pieces in the morning and single distinct sheets in the afternoon without changing the workflow around it. “Flexibility means the opportunity and the ability to integrate your solution into an existing workflow. Elitron is able to do this because we produce both hardware and software.”
That heritage, software and hardware under one roof, is what sets Elitron apart. Giambattista concludes, “We compete on integration, on control, and on the value of every component speaking the same language. And we are very successful at it.”
Elitron products are available in the UK and Ireland from Atech.