Lamiflex, founded in 1976, is a leading global provider of advanced composite materials solutions. Part of Itema Group since 2017, Lamiflex is engaged in further boosting a longstanding tradition of excellence in its sectors, leveraging on the new synergies derived from the cooperation between the two companies. Lamiflex’s Sales Director Davide Carrara provides insights into their glorious journey so far and also shares details about their growing dominance in India
The core business of Lamiflex focuses on key components for rapier weaving machinery such as flexible rapier tapes and sprocket wheels and that is also what they started with. Lamiflex was born as a textile mill in the Seriana Valley, worldwide famous as the cradle of the Italian textile industry. It was established by Davide Carrara’s mother Luigina Bernini and Luigi Castelli. To increase the company’s productivity, the Italian company chose to invest in rapier looms, but had to face a technical problem: the nylon rapier tapes melted easily when the looms were running at high speeds. And that’s how everything started. Luigina and Luigi, interestingly, introduced the first composite tape that, thanks to a cotton structure combined with phenolic resin, was able to bear the highest speed with no risks.
Entrepreneurial Journey
The entrepreneurial vision of the two mill owners, fully aware of the potential of the emerging market of composite products, completely revolutionised the rapier weaving machinery world forever, taking Lamiflex to the pinnacle of the textile industry today with a turnover of more than Euro 20 million per year, more than 100 employees in Italy and Hong Kong, and a global network of distributors. But Lamiflex did not stop there. Over the past few years, the Italian company, based in Ponte Nossa, has diversified into different sectors, taking advantage of the technical know-how on composite products acquired over these 40 years.
Collaborative Effort
Lamiflex boasts of the widest technological in-house availability on the market, from pultrusion and pullwinding to wrapping, RTM and many others. In 2017, the company joined Itema Group to maximise market efficiency and competitive strength. Together, the two Italian companies work on a co-engineering platform to develop innovative solutions to make the lives of the weavers easier and to help them get the most out of their looms. Itema Group and Lamiflex aim to jointly develop and produce highly innovative and high-tech solutions, not only for the textile machinery industry but also for a wider range of industries.
The long-term vision, the forward-thinking mission and the innovative approach of Lamiflex combined with the solidity, strategic mindset and the dedication to innovation of Itema Group provide both companies with the opportunity to become more competitive together, guaranteeing an enhanced value that is unmatched elsewhere in the market owing to the optimisation of the processes and improvement of product performance. Today, Lamiflex is worldwide famous for its flexible rapier tapes and accessories, including sprocket wheels, tapes openers, grippers and supports.
Scope in India
Lamiflex has a strong presence in traditional rapier markets such as China, Turkey, India and Italy and Europe. Says Carrara: “I have to say that even if India is traditionally a market with more air-jet machines, our products have always garnered a lot of interest and we have a lot of loyal customers in this region.” What allows Lamiflex’s products to truly stand out is its deep and wide know-how on composite products and related manufacturing technologies. “We have been working in this field for over 40 years and we feature the widest range of manufacturing technologies available on the market. We guarantee our customers the best quality thanks to the highest standards of ‘Made in Italy’ products,” Carrara states.
“And thanks to our global network of agents and distributors we can satisfy customers in any corner of the world. Moreover, the experience gained by working in such diverse markets is a key advantage to develop tailor-made solutions according to our customers’ needs. Beside this, the internalisation of the production processes and research and development, along with a globally widespread network of distributors, makes it possible to have short lead time to satisfy every request in a fast and reliable way,” he adds. Carrara envisions huge scope of growth in the Indian market on account of the fact that an increasing number of Indian mills are investing in new factories. Records suggest great sales of high-speed looms such as the bestseller rapier machine from Itema – R9500 – and its second generation – R9500-2.
Post Pandemic Possibilities of Growth
Lamiflex participated in ITMA 2019 Textile and Garment Technology Exhibition. The exhibition was a success and generated leads and important new contacts for the company thanks also to the synergies with Itema Group. At the trade fair, Lamiflex launched with Itema Group the iBOOSTER. Developed for weavers who want to work extremely fast, the package literally boosts a machine’s performance without compromising reliability. Thanks to a deep material study made by Itemalab® in close cooperation with Lamiflex, Itema Group and Lamiflex succeeded in developing new reinforced tapes, sprocket wheels and micro smart coolers to ensure extended lifetime.
With Lamiflex based in North Italy, and in particular in the province of Bergamo which was highly affected by the corona virus outbreak, the company had to close for some weeks as required by the Italian government in order to prevent the virus from spreading further. “When we had the authorisation to restart our activities we implemented the same stringent safety protocols introduced within all the Itema Group companies with the aim of protecting the health of our employees and their families. Despite the difficult situation across Europe, we attracted good response from many of its countries,” Carrara informs.
“Unluckily, the second wave is still hitting hard many of our strategic markets, but we are working to find new ways to reach our customers and to make them feel supported even if we cannot be physically close to them. We want them to be sure that we are always ready to respond to their needs,” he adds. Carrara strongly hopes that the second half of 2021 will be characterised by an improvement in the overall global situation and that the company will emerge stronger and with new competence developed in managing this unpredictable and never-seen-before situation. “Regarding the Indian market, we see a very big opportunity. We need to develop fresh approaches and strategies to adapt to the new scenario derived from the pandemic. We will do all the needful to continue to support the growth of Indian textile sector and to always keep as a priority the requirements of our customers in India as well as all over the world,” he adds. And while textile components for rapier weaving machinery will continue to be a priority, Carrara says that other areas and sectors will be explored too, including composite solutions for medical applications and aerospace.