Established in 1967 and acknowledged as sector benchmark, CPM’s mission is the design and manufacturing of special rolling bearings with a dimensional range included between 10 millimetres of bore and 800 millimetres of outside diameter. The whole product development process, from design up to logistics of the finished bearing, is carried out in the forefront equipped factory at Nova Milanese, in the outskirts of Milan, (MB), with the support of a staff composed by over 185 employees.
The company relies on an operational structure made up by five buildings, for 20,000 square metres of manufacturing surface overall, in whose interior are located the various departments where turning, grinding, lapping and assembling operations are performed.
«The heat treatment as well – specifies the Technical Manager, Lorenzo Santambrogio – one of the fundamental phases of the manufacturing cycle, is in-house executed by Carbotempra, company headquartered in Italy and property of CPM, too, equipped with performing automated lines and specific state-of-the-art high-performance furnaces, with low environmental impact. This allows us an optimal, and even more rigorous, management of various projects’ job order fulfilment times, as well as a more accurate focus on the process quality».
What are the main sectors supplied?
«About 4 million bearings manufactured every year – Santambrogio underlines – find application in several applicative ambits, in Italy and abroad: from power transmissions to the textile field, from medical to food sectors, just to mention the primary, prevailing and historical ones. They are joined by the more recent but not less important biking ambit. We have developed for the latter applications used in amateur and professional segments».
The technical division directly takes care of each design in CPM, collaborating with customers since the first product development phases, providing its know-how, gained in over 50 years of expertise.
«The company – Santambrogio adds – relies on all primary certifications, that is to say ISO 9001, IATF 16949, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001. The in-house adoption and development of the Lean Production represents another fundamental issue to be fully compliant and consistent with our business claim, that is to say, “your needs… our actions”. This with the precise goal of succeeding in satisfying customers’ requirements at best, with tailored solutions expressly studied and developed according to precise performance requisites».
Can you describe a successful case among the most recent projects implemented?
«Among the most recent and interesting projects, stands out the one concerning the manufacturing of a bearing for a major customer operating in the production sector of preserve canning machines. The demand was studying a custom execution born from the customer’s requirement of extending the application duration reached by using standard bearings. Besides this need, another decisive feature for this kind of application concerned a particular attention to the smoothness of the bearing itself. The study and the thorough analyses carried out by our technical office have led to the design of a special solution of high-precision bearing, angular-contact “hybrid” double-row ball bearing, that is to say made of stainless steel, with ceramic rolling bodies and “for life” lubrication».
How did you manage to ensure the expected duration and smoothness levels?
«All structural characteristics – Santambrogio ends – have been aimed at extending service life and at reducing the rolling torque and, therefore, improving the sliding performance of the bearing, fundamental use feature. We have so optimized each single element of the bearing: from the race geometry to the cage typology, from the shield profile to the fat of alimentary kind and the axial backlash optimization. The first aspect connected with the race geometry is a fundamental parameter for the improvement of the bearing’s life. It is very important because, in the special use of this design, the bearing must operate in constant cycle. Therefore, the extension of maintenance intervals is fundamental to ensure the high output. After an initial phase of tests executed successfully, the bearing started operating with final customer’s full satisfaction, confirming the validity of the project and the full conformity with expected requisites».
(by Gianandrea Mazzola)