„Continued success with Bihler“

M.S.Ambrogio: Enormous improvements in manufacturing efficiency

The M.S.Ambrogio Group has always relied on innovative Bihler technology to ensure its market success. This applies just as much to the first RM 25 from the year 1959 as it does to the 16 new servo-controlled GRM-NC and RM-NC stamping and forming machines. These have not only helped the North Italian family-owned company achieve enormous improvements in manufacturing efficiency but will also permit the production of more complex assemblies in the future. In this way, they therefore represent a further step in a decades-long, shared success story.

With an annual production output of more than ten billion parts, some 1,500 employees and a total of nine sites in Europe, North and South America, the M.S.Ambrogio Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of assemblies, electrical and electronic components, stamped-and-bended parts, springs and injection-molded components. The Group’s head office is located in Cisano Bergamasco, northwest of Bergamo, where M.S.Ambrogio S.p.A manufactures components for the automotive, electrical and electronics, household appliances and furniture industries on approximately 280 production lines. And it is in a small house in the nearby town of Lecco that this success story was born when, in 1949, Aurelio Sangalli, his father Mario and his brother-in-law Luigi Meda started to produce springs and small metal parts. Over the years and decades that followed, the company grew to its present size. Since 1990, Mario Sangalli, the son of Aurelio Sangalli, has been at the helm of the M.S.Ambrogio Group as owner and CEO.

Employees are the most valuable asset

Two aspects have always been and continue to be fundamental for the company’s direction and character: “Our success is based on an outstanding level of enthusiasm and expertise. These attributes were decisive all those years ago and continue to be so today,” explains Mario Sangalli. The workforce plays a vital role in all this: “Our employees are our most valuable asset. With their expertise and hard work, they have made the company what it is, and it is only hand-in-hand with them that we can continue to be successful in the future.” It is this huge value that M.S.Ambrogio attaches to its workforce that explains its immense commitment in the fields of employee support, personnel development and staff training. This is why M.S.Ambrogio founded its in-house Academy in 2015. This offers mechatronic courses for young graduates through close cooperations with renowned institutes such as the Polytechnic University of Milan.

Always at the forefront of technology

In addition to the enthusiasm and expertise of its employees, there is another crucial factor in M.S.Ambrogio’s success, and that is having the right technology. “We place great value on always being at the forefront of technology and working with the most advanced systems and machines available on the market,” stresses Mario Sangalli. “And when it comes to the field of stamping-and-forming technology, there is only name we look at and that is Bihler. There is no other company in the world that can match Bihler.” This view was also held by the founding fathers of M.S.Ambrogio. Back in the 1950s, they discovered Bihler’s – for its times revolutionary – stamping-and-forming technology and were immediately won over by it. With the help of Carlo Alberto Cerutti, the father of the current Bihler representative Efisio Carutti, they acquired a RM 25 back in 1959. This signaled the start of a collaboration that has lasted over 50 years and is now into its third generation.

Buy first ... then look for projects

“We continue to purchase Bihler machines and our most recent acquisition comprised 16 GRM-NC and RM-NC systems,” recounts Mario Sangalli. What makes this acquisition so special is that – as so often with M.S.Ambrogio – the systems were purchased without any concrete products being scheduled for them. “I was simply won over by Bihler’s NC technology, so we first purchased the machines and then looked around the market to identify products that could be optimally manufactured on them. And we didn’t take very long at all to find them,” explains Mario Sangalli. “Looking back, we can say that we have made a huge stride forward thanks to Bihler’s NC technology,” adds Marco Ruggeri, Corporate General Manager.

Improved efficiency, absolute reproducibility

Currently, connectors for charging electric vehicles are being manufactured on one GRM-NC. The linear tool used for this was designed in-house by M.S.Ambrogio itself. By contrast, a RM-NC is currently being used to produce fastening clips for vehicle side panels, again using a radial tool designed in-house. Mario Sangalli: “With our Bihler NC systems, we have once again been able to significantly improve our manufacturing efficiency while still ensuring outstanding parts quality.” “One vital aspect was that we were able to transfer our existing tools, for example from our GRM 40 and GRM 80 systems, to our new Bihler NC machines without the need for any expensive or time-consuming modifications. Everything can be set up in a matter of seconds at the touch of a button and production can get underway immediately. That would have been inconceivable with our mechanical Bihler systems.” More specifically, setup times have been reduced by 50 to 90 percent on average and manufacturing speeds have been increased by up to 300 percent. “Another very important plus lies in the fact that the systems are exceptionally stable and ensure very high reproducibility. For example, if we set up the same tool again after a six-month interval then we will have exactly the same component quality. That is an enormous advantage,” explains Mario Sangalli.

A new direction

With Bihler and, in particular, the new Bihler servo-controlled stamping-and-forming machines, M.S.Ambrogio is also well prepared for the future. “Because there is very fierce competition in the field of simple parts, we will concentrate on more complex components and assemblies in the future, for example on the assembly of metal-plastic composite parts. We can manufacture these at high speed and in optimum quality on our new systems. This is extremely capital-intensive but is still worthwhile because we have very few competitors in this market sector,” is how Mario Sangalli assesses the outlook. “We are also looking forward to future Bihler innovations, in particular in the fields of remote services, monitoring and AI-based services. We can then use these throughout the entire group,” adds Marco Ruggeri. “With Bihler at our side, we can be optimistic about our future,” is how Mario Sangalli sums things up. “We are now the third generation in the company to have worked with Bihler. I have no doubt whatsoever that we will also be able to continue our shared success story into the coming decades.”