In last year's Focus on Italy, we reported that Trasmec Company Limited, headquartered in Casalbuttano near Cremona, was enjoying a rising market for its products around the world and this year, things are no different.   "We are very happy with the situation," said general manager Roberto Moroni, whose father founded the family business in 1954. "We have contracts in Australia and all over the world with the biggest producers of particleboard, MDF and OSB.   "We have also recently closed contracts through Dieffenbacher to supply machinery to Venezuela, Russia and Japan."   Other recent contracts include one with Kronospan for its new MDF mill in Alabama and another for the giant panel maker's new OSB mill in Romania. Trasmec is to supply all conveying machinery to both these projects, confirmed Mr Moroni.   When these projects are added to others in Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil, Trasmec has orders taking it through the next twelve months.   The order book comprises a mixture of contracts secured directly from the client and those supplied through the major complete line suppliers.   "Of course we are also developing the engineering of our conveying systems all the time and carrying out modernisations of existing plants around the world, although most of our business is in fact in new plants," said Mr Moroni.   With such a full order book, the company is making good use of the additional 5,000m² of storage space in a new purpose-built warehouse which it opened on an adjacent site last year. This gives the company a 'buffer zone' to gather together the many components often required for a large contract prior to shipment.   It also enables Trasmec to combine components shipped in from its joint venture manufacturing business in Romania with those produced in the Casalbuttano factory.   Trasmec hasn't always been involved in the panel industry, but it has always been involved in the handling of 'challenging' materials. It started out in the food, chemical, feedstuff and seed industry, only later transferring its experience in that technology to the wood based panel industry as Italian production developed and increased. However, today it supplies around 90% of its production to the panel industry.   The company offers standard belt conveyors and pipe belt conveyors to transport chips, strands or fibres around the mill, but also has its own development of the pipe conveyor, called the 'Cobra'.   In this system, the belt is formed into a tube and can be curved around corners without joints. It can also cover considerable distances if required, in one continuous length.   Standard chain conveyors are offered and, for higher capacities, the heavy-duty-construction Panzer series can carry loads of up to 750m3/hour on a single chain conveyor, says the company. Steel plate conveyors are also available.   Screw conveyors for dryer outfeed or storage bin discharge are another product line and come in a variety of configurations, with each project being tailor-made, as with all Trasmec's systems.   For elevation of chips or other material in a confined space, a range of bucket elevators are offered.   In addition to conveying material, the company also offers disc separators, for example to separate chips from sawdust.   Storage is another main area of involvement for this company, which offers moving floor systems for all kinds of silos and bunkers for wood or biomass plants. It also manufactures the hoppers and bins.   Trasmec is one of several companies involved in the panel manufacturing process whose products are easily applied to the biomass and other energy generation systems which are becoming increasingly popular.   But for the foreseeable future, this company is likely to be supplying the bulk of its design and fabricating expertise to the panel industry in which it is experiencing apparently ever-increasing demand, according to Mr Moroni.