Light was also a critical design element for Salvagnini America Inc. when the manufacturer broke ground in April 2019 on a new $7 million, 30,000 sq. ft. multi-purpose educational campus.
“We are used to factories that rely on artificial light, use window blinds to shut out natural light or don’t have windows at all,” says Andrea Scarpari, head of engineering for Salvagnini America. “Our new Campus will allow light to enter from the roof and the walls. It’s not a conventional building. Salvagnini is headquartered in Italy so we wanted to bring an Italian touch to the campus. The design was concepted by an Italian firm and incorporates the use of natural light with concrete, wood and steel.”
The new Campus will focus on Salvagnini’s equipment, IoT integration, service and virtual simulations. It will also feature dedicated areas for education, training, observation and design-for-manufacturing concepts. One thing the Campus is not, Scarpari asserts, “is just another showroom.”
The Campus will also accommodate employees to nurture continuing education for personnel. “We’ve grown our North American workforce,” Scarpari says. “We want to aid employees in sharing information and ideas as well.”
Facilitating the needs of both customers and employees is part of Salvagnini’s holistic approach to parts production. “We want to advance customers’ operations through design, technology, processing, automation and shared partnership,” Scarpari says. “We want to stimulate original thinking.”
The main section of the Campus will feature Salvagnini product lines to demonstrate how they perform. FMS punching, shearing and panel bending lines will showcase the journey of parts from raw material to finished products without human intervention. Flexible manufacturing cells display machines that offer a more versatile layout for people with restricted space. While not physically connected, these machines communicate via software. As part of the Design For Manufacturing experience, customers will be able to bring their part to the Campus,” Scarpari says. “We’ll run it on our machines and then team up with them to look at ways to improve our equipment solution for their operation.”
Software is also becoming increasingly important. “We’ll have an area, almost like a laboratory, dedicated to finding new ways to manage information through software,” he adds.
COVID-19 won’t interrupt Salvagnini’s grand opening which is expected to take place before the end of the year. Multi-media tools throughout the Campus will support virtual equipment demonstrations and remote discussions. The new Campus will also support social distancing requirements with unique features like observation decks.
In addition to supporting customers and employees, Salvagnini also plans to extend the reach of its’ new Campus to academia. Internships will be available but the manufacturer has also set goals for connecting more closely with its community.
“We want to play an even bigger role in our community,” says Scarpari. “We want to connect with young people and raise their awareness levels about manufacturing. It’s not just about equipment making parts. We want to expose young people to the technology behind these machines and how we use it to contribute to society.”
“From concept to fruition, realization of the Campus has been a long process,” Scarpari adds. “But it’s worth it.”
salvagnini.com.