BUSINESS AND TRAINING
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Left to right: Caleffi export manager Fabio Rossi, Plumblink commercial manager and now CEO Gary Chandler, IOPSA executive director Brendan
Reynolds, CalAfrica general manager Patrick Gordon.
chain. Although a full Caleffi subsidiary, it retains its name
Pressco due to its reputation in the valve market with
90% of its production going to Caleffi, and the remainder
supplying local demand for its mixers and other fittings in
the Cristina brand (another Caleffi brand). The components
are hot stamped and polished at Pressco and then
chrome-plated and machined at one of the other nearby
Caleffi factories.
It makes the products in a wide range of different alloys to
accommodate the variance in regulations in the EU. Rossi
Caleffi has over 1 200 employees and in
2019 did Euro 326-million turnover, of
which the following is produced at the
sites visited by the South African team (it
currently has 16 offices and warehousing
around the world):
• Caleffi headquarters
Land Area = 99 724m 2
Covered Area = 46 948m 2
• Fully automated systems
• Caleffi 2nd building
Land Area = 11 105m 2
Covered Area = 2 952m 2
• 36 presses for plastic moulding, 41
assembling machines, 21 transfer
processing machines and 54
mechanical multi-spindles
• 1 billion plastic components per year
• The facility handles more than 350
million machined parts
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
• Caleffi HQ is home to the
CUBOROSSO research and
development centre and the MAV, the
automated vertical warehouse
Land areas:
• Approximately 90% of production is
located at Fontaneto, and 100% is
located in Italy
• 70 million pieces assembled
• The facility produces approximately
20 million finished pieces a year
• Caleffi 3rd building
Land Area = 79 840m 2
Covered Area = 23 617m 2
• Pressco
Land Area = 73 829m 2
Covered Area = 18 215m 2
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explains that at its Pressco facility Caleffi is moving to
make fewer, but higher-end, products tailored to individual
markets, in part due to the shift by many OEMs to plastic
components.
The tour proceeded to Caleffi’s nearby factory 3 plant in
Gattico, where the level of automation if anything increased.
The following day saw the team descend on Caleffi’s
headquarters in Fontaneto for a review of its largest
manufacturing facility; its tremendous vertical warehouse
containing approximately 15 double aisles 48m in height
and each the depth of several rugby fields with not a
human to be seen, and consequently typically unlit; and its
R&D and testing facilities, which had fairly recently been
centralised to this location from all over the country. Testing
is not only done here, but also at each plant and in fact by
each robotic station.
CalAfrica general manager Patrick Gordon explains that
CalAfrica was established in 1999 and for the past 20 years
been introducing into South Africa the latest technologies
available in Europe. “Caleffi’s advanced technology products
are renowned for robustness and longevity. Users can be
secure in the knowledge that once a system is installed, they
can forget about it.”. Such advanced products suit South
Africa with its water shortages and will be in ever greater
demand as people become more sensitised to their role in
conserving water. Indeed, in terms of standards in South
Africa such technology is a requirement in future building
developments.
So, what is Industry 4.0 really all about? Rossi explains
that almost completely automating the process frees up
management time to consider other more central customer
concerns with the final product. PA
@PlumbingAfricaOnline
March 2020 Volume 26 I Number 01