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Home > SAUDI ARABIA > Focus On
VICENZA, THE MECHATRONICS CAPITAL
Rome - There's a term which has difficulty in becoming part of everyday language and is even used rarely in the world of economics: mechatronics, in other words electronics applied to mechanics. This is a sector which on one hand overlaps with that of machine tools or machinery for manufacturing and civil automation, and, on the other, is in some aspects related to robotics. However, it is also a sector which cuts across various fields of industry, making it difficult to pin down and describe. Nevertheless, the future of the Western, and therefore also Italian industrial economy places great hopes in it.
Mechatronics in fact covers products ranging from electric gates to self-moving arms in industrial plants, from any automatic device used in everyday life to entire production cycles of extreme complexity. Italian companies, which have always displayed an ingenious passion for the invention of technical solutions, are perfectly set to make a mark in this specific sector.
One of the world's largest agglomerates of mechatronics companies is to be found in the area of Vicenza (www.vicenzaqualita.org), where there is an entire production district, with almost 300 companies accounting for over 10,000 jobs and an annual turnover of around € 8 billion, 70% of which is realised on international markets. The system is based on small and medium-sized companies, as is often the case in Italy's industrial success stories. It is in fact the small size of these companies which allows greater productive flexibility and better efficiency in the most promising market niches. These companies are dedicated mainly to the production of specific products, such as automatic devices for doors and gates, or technological systems with a number of possible applications. Examples include a number of major companies in the area of Vicenza, which have developed numerically controlled systems for performing repetitive movements. Applications for such systems include industrial robotics, as well as electromedical machinery, machine tools and mechanisms for the control and monitoring of thermal processes.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this industry is that it is a very recent phenomenon. As well as disproving the conviction whereby Italy always has problems creating industrial innovation, this shows exceptional adaptability to the changing local economic context. The area of Vicenza, in fact, is still today characterised by a large number of industries involved in textiles, clothing, gold and jewellery, furnishing, glass, leather and marble. This has led to many initiatives aimed precisely at providing those industrial sectors with the necessary machinery. The area has consequently become one of the main Italian and European centres for the industry of instrumental goods, with an entire generation of companies which have used their experience as a basis for proposing their creative expertise to new sectors. There are some manufacturing sectors, such as that of electronic boards for the integrated control of moving machines, which are benchmarks of excellence on a European and world scale. This is also thanks to the experienced and highly qualified workforce that only a consolidated industrial tradition can guarantee, and also thanks to an excellent university system which, in the Veneto region, has centuries of history behind it.
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