by Marco A. Guerritore
Editor in Chief Italian Fasteners magazine
On October 20, 2022, Mario Caracciolo, Director & Market Manager Italy & Turkey for SIE s.r.l., welcomed guests to the large conference hall of the "Environment Park" in Turin as the host of the annual NOF Metal Coatings Europe conference. He had a very positive expression on his face, which reflected his satisfaction with the important new developments that would be revealed during the conference.
For many years, SIE s.r.l., as the representative of NOF Metal Coatings Europe S.A. in Italy, has organized a meeting-congress for customers, technicians, and fastener operators at a hotel in the Turin hinterland.
In 2022, everything changes, as a symbol, the meeting was held at the green technological park of Turin "Environment Park", where green spaces are harmoniously and sustainably blended with architectural structures.
SIE s.r.l. considers this congress to be of particular importance, to the point of requiring the participation of the President and CEO of NOF Metal Coatings Europe S.A., Mr. Vincent Le Berre, accompanied by his closest collaborators.
Opening the proceedings, Mario Caracciolo welcomes all the attendees and particularly the President Le Berre and his collaborators who have come from France. “2023 – emphasizes Caracciolo – will be a very important and full of changes year for SIE s.r.l. which from January 1st, 2023 will change its name to NOF Metal Coatings Europe s.r.l.”
“Another important news – Caracciolo underlines – is the change of headquarters that has been transferred, precisely in this prestigious technological park that is the Environment Park."
After analysing the market situation, Caracciolo notes as the demand for zinc flakes coatings is growing despite the gradual transition to electric vehicles.
After other interesting technical analyses, he concludes his speech by mentioning the problem of finding new application processes for small screws, intended for electric vehicles.
After Caracciolo greetings, the President and CEO Vincent Le Berre thanked the attendees for their warm welcome and shared his gratitude for what is being done in Italy, in line with the philosophy of the Group.
"NOF Metal Coatings Europe – Vincent Le Berre reiterates – is continuously reinforcing its European Organization, with enhanced synergies with Asia, North and South America business units, from both an operational and sales force point of view. More actions on the Market, product & process developments, and investments in different fields of our activities will take place in a near future, to serve further Business and Technical development in Europe and Italy.”
Next, the staff members who accompanied President Le Berre took the floor.
"Based on advanced data research – Steven Kerveillant, COO, points out, – on the automotive industry, we are able to closely monitor zinc flake and GEOMET® development on the Market, which have been continuously growing during the past decade. As of today, BEV development is considered as an opportunity to maintain this growth trend, especially with the recent introduction of a new generation of coating equipment that will allow a better processing of zinc flake coatings on small diameter parts, in both silver and black colors.”
Benoit Millet, Technical Director, summarizes the situation as follows, "After several years of product development to better respond to customer needs in term of climate change and energy savings, we have reached a significant step into the reduction of our curing temperature, that will allow us to start our 1st scale up phase and industrial trials beginning of 2023.”
Last takes the floor Isabelle Perche, Quality and Training Center Director, who in her extensive report is keen to specify, "......that with the objective to better support existing and future GEOMET® development activities, NOF Metal Coatings Europe has entered into a modernization phase of its training program, with 11 years of experience in this field, and the objective to further support its network of GEOMET® licensees and dedicate to part makers and OEM Partners specific modules, in line with their business and technical demands.”
At the end of the conference, the interesting and lively session of questions to the various speakers by the audience immediately began.
Once the conference work was over, all the participants moved to an adjacent room where a generous buffet was served which also proved to be a further opportunity to continue the discussion, initiate new contacts, exchange ideas and impressions.
As a culmination of this interesting and stimulating day, the participants visited the new elegant and modern offices of NOF Metal Coatings Europe s.r.l. located in the "Environment Park" area.
All the staff were there to welcome visitors to the new offices:
- Andrea Erriu – Account Manager
- Mariella Liuzzi - Sales Administration
- Alessandro Asperges - Logistics
- Marinella Rossi - Sales Administration
- Carlo Zevi - Service Engineer
- Luigi Scimè – Technical Service
a team of highly qualified people, a guarantee for the full satisfaction of customer expectations.
With the visit of the new offices, a day full of ideas ended and where there was certainly no shortage of news.
