Italian component manufacturer Melesi is located in Cortenova, only an hour away from Milan.

Officine Ambrogio Melesi is just one of many medium-size companies in northern Italy. But the company, a manufacturer of components for the oil and gas industry, isn’t situated in a grey, polluted industrial area. The herds of cows and flocks of sheep that provide the milk for renowned cheeses such as Taleggio and Casera can be found grazing on the green, grassy slopes of mountains that are just a stone’s throw from the industrial plant, situated in Cortenova, in the Sassina valley, just slightly to the east of Lake Como.

Milan is just an hour away from Cortenova, but the pace of life and the quality of the environment are completely different. You could say that Melesi was “born and bred” here, and in such natural surroundings it has always had a heightened sense of environmen­tal awareness.

It recycles wood from boxes and pallets, selling it to furniture manufacturers that use it as fuel for various kinds of paint ovens. It recycles iron oxides (foundry slag, which represents 2 to 3 percent of the weight of raw materials) and resells it to cement works that use it in concrete mixtures. It recycles both hydraulic and emulsifiable oils. It recycles metallic chip and sells it to reduced production cycle steelworks. And finally, thanks to its partnership with Sandvik Coromant, it recycles carbide inserts, which are made with heavy metals and therefore potentially harmful to the environment.

Sandvik Coromant recycles all used inserts, regardless of brand.

Melesi has started procedures to attain the ISO 14001 standard certification, which will certify the company’s low environmental impact. Det Norske Veritas, Melesi’s certifying body, is expected to issue the certificate during 2008. “Nowadays many large customers ask us to certify or document the low environmental impact of our produc­tion cycles,” explains operating manager Antonio Gallo. “This is something that all environmentally responsible companies should do. It also gives us an advantage over competitors from Asia because they cannot guarantee ecological production cycles.”

Melesi was already recycling inserts back in 1989, dealing with local recycling companies. It joined the program run by Sandvik Coromant in 2006. At the time, other Italian recycling companies and several insert manufacturers offered to collect Melesi’s worn inserts. “We initially chose to recycle for financial reasons,” says machining manager Roberto Benedetti. “Now we are more driven by environmental awareness. We have chosen Sandvik Coromant as our partner because we know it uses environmentally friendly processes to recycle our waste.”

When collecting the used inserts, Sandvik Coromant works the same way everywhere. Inserts are collected in special bins (regardless of brand), and the bins are sent to collection centers via normal freight carriers. Sandvik Coromant pays for them based on weight.

Melesi machines titanium and high-alloy steel with a high percentage of nickel. These materials wear inserts very quickly – so quickly, in fact, that Sandvik Coromant technicians often come here from Sweden to test new materials. For example, Sandvik Coromant indexable insert drills from the CoroDrill 880 product family were developed in association with Melesi, among other customers.

Hot pressing of a hub. Melesi uses presses, hammers and chip-removal machines in its plant.

Each year Melesi produces some 600 kilograms of carbide scrap, so managing tool wear is as important as recycling.

“Each machine wears inserts in a different way,” says Corrado Galbusera, Sandvik Coromant specialist who is responsible for the recycling program at Melesi, “so we suggested introducing a cutting-edge wear control procedure that allowed Melesi to save more than 30 percent by accurately assessing each machining operation cost.” Currently Benedetti is managing the inserts, but Melesi might designate somebody specifically for this role in the near future, he says. Benedetti assigns a new insert to a machine and uploads it to a control program by scanning its barcode. When he gives the new insert to a machinist, the machinist then gives him the worn insert in exchange. “Before deciding to scrap the insert, I assess how and how much it is worn,” says Benedetti. “Often it can still be used on the same machine or on another machine that will wear the insert in a different way, such as a machine working on the other side of the insert.”

The Challenge in Brief:

The need: To find a partner that uses environmentally friendly processes to recycle used inserts.

The solution: To join the Sandvik Coromant recycling program.

The result: The opportunity to get an ISO 14001 standard certification for low environmental impact as well as improved economy through both payment for recycled inserts and managing tool wear.

Main Markets from Asia to America:

Melesi was founded in 1914 to manufacture agricultural tools but soon switched production to flanges for the oil and gas industry. It uses presses, hammers and chip-removal machines in its 43,000-square-metre plant, and has 138 employees. In 2006 it used almost 28 million kilograms of raw materials and had a turnover of 93 million euros. The turnover for 2007 was EUR 133 million. Its main markets are the Middle East, Asia, North and South America as well as Europe (mainly for offshore platforms in the North Sea).

Originally published in Metalworking World 2.2008, a business magazine published by Sandvik Coromant.