Giardina Group: a Ligna preview!
Giardina Group will participate in the next Ligna with a rich stand: plenty of machines and lines in operation, under the banner of innovation and the capacity to meet all finishing needs with practical solutions. We talked with Stefano Tibè, sales manager of the group.
“It will be a pleasure to show the results of the work we have done in these years”, said Stefano Tibè, whom we asked to tell us about the latest innovations by Giardina Group. “We will exhibit most of our technology, starting from the spraying solutions represented by “Dualtech Forma“, our flagship in the coating segment, developed together with Pininfarina. As we have been saying for some time, this machine is not only “beautiful”, but it incorporates the best of our spray coating technology, made even more effective and ergonomic by the “touch” of Pininfarina designers, who supported us in the engineering and design phase.
For profile coating – a business where we have come back strong after upgrading and reengineering our machines – our top-of-range model is “Profisprayer 2VE”, a 2-way spraying machine for moldings that is opening the doors of many industry leaders interested in this process”.
“Talking about standalone machines, we will show the solutions by Destefani, specializing in edge, profile and flooring element sanding, which a couple of years ago joined the Giardina Group family. We are exhibiting three sanding machines: the profile sander “Mvs 2500”, installed “in line” with the “Profisprayer 2VE”; the edge sanding machine “Mvt 4000” and the “Mvs Floor“, for flooring elements, which was one of the world premieres in Milan and will be in the forefront also in Hanover to reaffirm our intention to be reference partners in this specific woodworking segment”.
“The pleasant surprise of this year – Tibè added – is that many coating vendors are asking to exhibit together with us, as evidence of the partnership and close collaboration we are pursuing. So, Italian and international leaders will be involved in our “showtime” presentations on two finishing lines at Ligna, one for excimer coating and one for roller coating for 3D surfaces.
While in the past we dedicated one day for each producer, this year we will host two coating vendors each day, one on the “zerogloss” line, one on the roller coating line, who will show the effectiveness of their products combined with our technology. The lineup will include Adler Lacke, Heidelberg Coatings, ICA, Icro Coating, Iris, Ilva, Renner Italia, Sherwin Williams and Sirca, partners that we are proud of and will help us show how the “wedding” between coatings and technology can solve many problems”.
Giardina Group’s decision to display excimer technology responds to a growing market trend: in the past twelve-eighteen months, the “ZerogGloss“ coating has become a reality and not just a topic of conversation. This technology has matured thanks to the collaboration between technology manufacturers and coating producers, and the market is recognizing it as a process that can deliver more and more sophisticated finishings in the furniture industry, while ensuring high resistance. So, beauty and protection together, the ultimate purpose of any finishing process.
“The top requirements for a coating film is that it enhances the beauty of a surface, but no one forgets the resistance to scratching, wear or fingerprints that a good coating process can offer”, Stefano Tibè continued. “And I would also add that the possibility to achieve total opaqueness allows to gain back market shares we had lost to lamination processes, that until few months ago were the only method to achieve certain types of finishings. More and more often, we find wonderful finishings in the market, panels laminated with valuable veneer that – coated with our “ZeroGloss” technology – are appreciated not only for their soft touch, but also for the transparency and brightness that this process allows to achieve, having eliminated the silica that was so far necessary to create matte surfaces.
We are collaborating with big companies that paint for the most popular Italian furniture brands, they have adopted this technology for the quality of finishing, especially on natural veneer”.
At Ligna, we are showing coating applications with different finishing rollers, up to 10 grams or between 25 and 30 grams, to illustrate the versatility of this process that can deliver more natural or “covering” surfaces, which will be then dried using jellification, led, excimer or inert atmosphere methods engineered by Giardina Group. The latter is an interesting technology, as an inert atmosphere magnifies the efficiency of lamps, and therefore, you can use fewer lamps and reduce energy consumption accordingly.
The “Flexi“ line, the second operating line at Giardina’s stand, will show the possibilities offered by the roller application of basecoats on 3D panels, such as doors or kitchen cabinet doors, replacing spraying systems in this phase, optimizing the transfer efficencny and reducing cleaning operations and consumption materials.
“We will show the effectiveness of our “Flexi”, which we started to develop in 2017. This solution is covered by an industrial patent we have obtained for this machine developed from scratch”, added the Giardina Group sales manager.
The company has obtained three patents during the first weeks of this year. Besides “Flexi”, Giardina Group has been recognized for the value of its research with the “Pulsar” project, related to Uv drying and operating the lamps – that reach their maximum performance when turned on – to generate optimal continuous emissions in working conditions.
The third patent will characterize Giardina Group’s research in the near future, again in the Uv drying space, to create matte surface in a totally new way, without using excimer lamps.