Antonio Pozzoli founded his company in 1976 in Monza as an engineering business, designing and supplying turnkey plants to various sectors and by the late 1970s was well-known as a manufacturer of combustion plants for textiles, ceramics and printing.
In 1978, ITAS supplied its first thermal oxidiser (which is still in operation and meeting today’s European standards) for cleaning of gaseous emissions.
Another prominent product of the company, literally, is the construction of very tall flares to burn off excess gas in the oil and gas extraction industry.

When Roberto Longoni started his private company in 1997, he acted as an export agent for timber. However, Mr Longoni soon moved into the fields of exporting
secondhand particleboard plants and supplying laminate raw materials.
Prior to that he had worked as an engineer in the HPL industry since 1972, subsequently gaining experience in production, plant erection and management.
It is the laminating side of the Longoni business which has become its mainstay and this has moved on from simply supplying laminate raw materials of all kinds to also being the sole international agent for NTST of China, which makes impregnation lines.
Based in Nantong, 250km south of Shanghai, NTST manufactures smaller-capacity impregnation lines for decorative and surfacing papers and since the cooperation began in 2003, Longoni has supplied more than 15 NTST lines worldwide.
Destinations include Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Peru and India. In Argentina, Italian resin producer Sadepan, sister company to panel maker Saviola, has a particleboard plant called Sadepan Latinoamericana producing decorative-surfaced boards and that factory has an impregnation line supplied by Longoni.
In Ethiopia, the Maichew particleboard line, supplied secondhand and refurbished by Modul Systeme of Germany, also purchased an impregnation line through Longoni, which also supplies the technologists to set up and help run-in these lines.
The company has also upgraded and refurbished some lines supplied by others, to increase their efficiency.
“These lines are suited to customers who do not require the highest throughput speed, but a reliable and economically-priced line to do what they require it to do – ‘horses for courses’, so to speak,” said Roberto Longoni’s son Ludovico, who joined the company in 1999 after graduating from university in physics. “Our lines are guaranteed to run at speeds of at least 30m per minute.
“Over the years, NTST’s technology has developed and it received CE certification for its lines in 2007. We are getting serious enquiries from some big panel making concerns; these days, smaller capacities are required and smaller investment cost is important.”
Impregnation and lacquering lines for finish foil are also offered by NTST, as are single- and two-stage impregnation with urea and melamine; lines for producing phenol Kraft paper for shuttering; and one-step Kraft impregnation for continuous pressure laminate (CPL) production.
“We offer a lot of experience in the impregnation business,” said Mr Longoni.
Longoni also sources resin plants through NTST, and other suppliers, to complement the impregnation lines.
The company’s expertise in high pressure laminates (HPL) has enabled it also to offer the technology for its customers to make high-gloss HPL, as well as HPL which does not use phenolic resin in its construction but a special urea recipe.
“Essentially, we operate in three main areas,” said Mr Longoni. “The supply of machinery; know-how and technology; and raw material supply.”
The Longoni company is also a major shareholder in two other companies in China: Shanghai Top Style Furniture Materials Co Ltd makes semi-finished products for furniture; Beijing Ludo Food Tech Co Ltd, together with Shanghai Ludo Cold Food Co Ltd, makes and markets ice cream.
For the decor paper business, Longoni has its own representative office in Shanghai and the company markets Chinese-made paper products in its
own name.
Sandvik Surface Solutions is represented by Longoni in all of South America for its press plates for the HPL, CPL and short-cycle press market – a relationship which began with Hindrichs-Auffermann.
In India, Longoni also represents the Aluminium Feron Company, a manufacturer of metal foil.
Machinery supplied worldwide encompasses not just impregnation, but everything from chippers to short-cycle press lines to complete particleboard plants.
“We represent a variety of suppliers in a variety of markets by selecting suppliers of the right quality for our clients, in order to reach the required performance at the best price,” concluded Mr Longoni.

Efficient transport of panels through the various processes in a factory is of course key to the efficiency of the whole operation.
Founded in 1986, EMG (the name stands for Engineering Manufacturing Group) set about specialising in that field and the end of April 2009 saw the completion of its biggest and highest-speed project to date, at Nelson Pine Industries MDF line in New Zealand.
Murray Sturgeon, managing directory of Nelson Pine in Richmond, Nelson, takes up the story.
“The background to this project was developed when we visited the Ligna exhibition in Hanover, Germany, in 2007,” said Mr Sturgeon when interviewed at Ligna this year.
“Nelson Pine Industries’ objective was to install a new sander line from Steinemann and a new cut-to-size saw line to complement the existing MDF finishing line, consisting of three Steinemann sanders, two saws and packing lines. This would enable us to sand, cut and pack the total output from our three Küsters continuous press lines, producing 1200m3/day over seven days, in a finishing line operating on day-shift only over five days, Monday to Friday.”
Mr Sturgeon went on to explain that to feed the new sander line required a high-speed panel feeding and stacking system.
“I had witnessed EMG sander infeed equipment, introduced to me by Mr José Lobo of Tafisa Brazil in operation in their plant at Piên in Brazil and was satisfied that EMG could handle our requirements,” he said.
The Steinemann Satos sanding line was itself a major project, having 14 heads and a designed maximum running speed of 150m/min.
“To this end, at the time of placing our order with Steinemann, and for the saws, Nelson Pine Industries Ltd favoured EMG to supply and supervise the installation of our panel handling equipment, which incorporated EMG’s patented Sequential Panel Feed System to reach sander throughput speeds of 150m/min for thin panels,” said Mr Sturgeon.
“I am happy to report that our programme was completed in March 2009 and all plant and equipment is operating to our satisfaction and at Nelson Pine Industries Ltd we have reached our objective and now process all MDF on a five-day-per-week basis.”
The line that EMG supplied for the sanding operation included loading and unloading stations, transport to and from the sander, and a system to guarantee that only one thin board feeds into the line at a time, explained Marco Conzadori, sales manager and son of one the founders of EMG.
“The sanded master panel is 2.75x7.3m. The complete line took only three months to assemble on site, including all the mechanical and electrical work,” he explained.
Other recent contracts for EMG include all panel handling after the Dieffenbacher continuous press for line 3 at Eucatex’s mill in Brazil, with delivery completed in July this year, and handling for an Imeas sanding line for a Russian client, which was due for delivery in August.
While the panel industry provides the vast majority of EMG’s work, the company has also employed its handling expertise in the steel sheet industry, where the synergies are obvious.
Four years ago, the company branched out into a completely different field with the design and manufacture of a gun cartridge filling line, bringing automation to what had previously been a largely artisan-based operation.
Returning to the panel industry, EMG has other projects in the pipeline, including one of similar size to the Eucatex order, and was expecting a down-payment from the client imminently at the time of WBPI’s visit to Cremona in June.
“South America is traditionally our main market, though Russia has been growing for us recently,” said Mr Conzadori. “We have also had a lot of interest from India.”
That South America is important is illustrated by the fact that EMG has its only manufacturing operation outside Italy located in Curitiba. EMG do Brasil was set up in 2007 and today employs 32 people, while the Cremona operation employs 35. One of the main products made in Curitiba is a conveying system for chips in the green end of panel mills.
Globus of Italy, a manufacturer of wood size-reduction machinery, is moving the manufacture of its smaller machines to EMG do Brazil, which also produces lines for pellet production.
Mr Guido Conzadori, Marco’s father, is leading the business and reflected on the current market.
“We are a young company in years but not in experience,” he said. “At the moment, in spite of the global crisis, we have used our flexibility and skill to cover our manufacturing needs until the end of 2009 and possibly half-way through 2010. This is largely due to our special relationships with our customers/friends, like Nelson Pine, Duratex, Eucatex, Outokumpu and so on, who have helped us to promote our success.”
Close cooperation with other companies, such as Arco International of Pontevico, Brescia in sawing systems, and the creation of Novopellet as part of the group to produce pellet systems, has helped EMG to weather the economic storm and to fill the extra 33% of extended factory space which the company opened in June 2008.

Imal srl was founded in 1970 and sister company Pal srl in 1978. For years the two companies operated entirely independently and in fact competed in some areas where their product ranges overlapped.
Both were highly profitable companies in their own right.
In 1998, the two companies’ owners saw an opportunity in combining their strengths and eliminating those product overlaps, so shares were exchanged in each company.
In 2006, Romeo Paladin, founder and president of Pal, decided to sell his shares in his company, Imal became the majority shareholder in Pal, and holding company Imal-Pal was born.
However, the two companies continued to trade as separate entities, complementing each others’ products and expertise.
Major complete plant supplier Siempelkamp of Germany had held shares in both independent companies for over 20 years but in 2008 Imal-Pal bought back those shares, becoming completely
independent on September 3 last year.
Pal and Imal are now owned by the three families who founded the businesses – Benedetti, Dal Ben and Zanasi, each currently represented by two generations in the business.
Loris Zanasi, managing director of Imal is, quite naturally, troubled by the current economic crisis.
“2008 was a record year for both Pal and Imal, with a combined turnover of approximately €86m,” he said. “But orders have dropped off dramatically this year.
“Up to now, glue blending systems were the mainstay of Imal, with 38 being sold in 2008 and 1,407 blenders being sold in total – the largest number in the world for particleboard.”
The company has also supplied 768 glue preparation/dosing systems, 638 thickness gauges for use on the production line and 566 laboratory moisture meters, to name but a few products.
Orders included the gluing line for Homatherm’s thick insulation board line, which is a dry-gluing system using MDI resin in a blender; a new fibre resination system for Eucatex in Brazil; and one for Kastamonu in Turkey.
“Thick insulation board is in a growth mode due to building regulations,” said Mr Zanasi. “Since the earthquake in Italy all new houses must be built with an external linked-box construction that will not fall down in earthquakes and the cavities between the walls must be filled with insulation at least 10cm thick. This offers good insulation in winter and summer.”
These rules came into effect on July 1 this year. Wall insulation was of course already compulsory, but thinner.
However, when markets take a dive, it is sensible to have another option to offer to the market and Imal has just that: The company’s pallet block manufacturing line, using a particleboard-like material extruded through a mould, has been very successful and can utilise urban waste wood easily.
A factory supplied recently was built on a greenfield site near Cork in southern Ireland (Eire) to utilise waste wood from the city. The complete wood cleaning system was supplied by Pal as part of a turnkey project for Imal which included the boiler, dryer and three press lines.
“Although we are aware that we are in difficult economic times, we are extremely optimistic for the future,” said
Mr Zanasi.
For instance, the Ligna exhibition in May was a great success for the company, with 17 contracts being signed at the show. “These orders totalled over €3.4m, ranging from values of €5,000 to €1.2m,” said the managing director.
A major new product shown on the Imal stand was the GA717-2 laboratory formaldehyde tester. The number refers to the appropriate EN standard number.
“Formaldehyde levels are becoming more and more important to furniture makers – particularly IKEA – and our system takes four hours to produce a result, compared with two weeks for the conventional chamber method. Ours is based on gas analysis,” explained Mr Zanasi. “The California Air Resources Board [CARB] accepted this EN standard in March this year.”
Also new at the Ligna show was the TM200 thickness gauge for use on the panel production line at speeds of up to 210m/min. It is normally installed just after the press and is claimed to offer a resolution of 1/100mm.
The top and bottom heads are moved simultaneously by a pneumatic panel and the electro-valves are designed to close the heads as soon as the gauge detects the presence of a board, and to open them at the end of the board.
The visualisation software monitors thickness in real time at each position along the length and width of the board and provides averages and trend graphs.
Measurement of the fibre geometry in MDF production and the particle geometry in particleboard is also an important part of quality control.
FiberCam 100 is an optical fibre screen which operates with dry fibre and optical measurement, avoiding the problems of clogging screens. The measuring range is 0.05 to 25mm and as many as one million measurements a minute can be taken, measuring the width and length of the fibre.
ScreenCam 100 is an optical particle screen which operates on the same optical principle as the FiberCam and can be adapted for on-the-line operation as well as laboratory use. The measuring range is 0.15 to 50mm and the measuring time is said to be one minute, in real time.
So, Imal has plenty of established and new products to offer to the global panel producing market now and when things improve.
“This year will be quiet but we do still have big projects under discussion,” concluded Mr Zanasi.

The ability to diversify can be the key to survival in difficult economic times and the company founded by Fabio Paron in 1981 is well placed to do just that.
Globus’ product range includes vibrating and chain conveyors, drum chippers, knife ring flakers, hammermills, refiner mills and the Cam Classifier. This latter machine is designed to screen particles using elliptical cams with a ‘V’ profile which make the particles jump to different heights according to their size, while adjustable gaps between the cams, of varying size along the length of the classifier, allow appropriate-size particles to fall through and be collected.
Another example of Mr Paron’s
engineering flair being used to adapt more common principles is the use of the patented ‘wobble spreader’ in Globus’ knife ring flaker SRC 1400-AR. This device is designed to distribute the chips more uniformly across the length of the knives than in a conventional knife ring flaker.
That range of products is one key to the ability of Globus to diversify its markets; the rapidly increasing interest in biomass energy generation is the other.
“Today, 30% of our business is related to the biomass energy sector and we are currently quoting on projects to a total value of around €6m,” said Mr Paron.
“We are not yet involved in the household recycling sector but that is another possibility for us. We go step-by-step in these developments.”
In July, Globus delivered its first mobile chipper for biomass chipping in the forest. This is to chip the ‘waste’ in the forest, such as small logs and
branches, which in the past would have been burned in situ. This chipping unit has a 640HP motor for an average production of 150m3 of chips per hour. The unit weighs around 25 tonnes.
Another mobile unit under preparation will have a 1200HP motor, capacity of about 300m3 per hour, and will weigh in at around 35-40 tonnes.
“We already have two enquiries from eastern Europe for this larger machine,” said Mr Paron.
Of course the panel industry is still a vital component of the company’s business, as it has always been, and this year’s Ligna exhibition produced two orders for equipment for particleboard lines – one in Uzbekistan (a 400m3 per day line) and one in India (800m3 per day).
Unlike many in the industry, Mr Paron believes that Africa offers potential for his products and he recently installed a small flaker at a panel line in Zambia and another chipping and flaking line at the William Tell particleboard line in South Africa, close to Johannesburg. Another project in South Africa is also under discussion.
South America is another important market for Globus and the company is moving the production of some of its smaller machines to its new subsidiary, Globus do Brasil, in Curitiba. Here, Globus will collaborate with EMG Brasil, a subsidiary of EMG of Italy, which
produces conveyor and panel handling systems.
The machines are being sold with the brand name “EMG with Globus Technology” and in September, engineers from Curitiba will come to Galliate to spend three months learning about the machines. Then, all assistance for the market in North and South America will be based in Curitiba.
“Our strategy there is to establish a marketing, service and commercial network for the continent,” said Mr Paron.
A keen poker player, Mr Paron has decided to offer his “Four Aces” to the market in 2009: the knife ring flaker (‘Hearts’); the drum chipper (‘Diamonds’); the refiner mill (‘Clubs’); and the hammermill (‘Spades’).