Alberto Ghisetti is graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in industrial automation & robotics and has completed an executive master in Project Management. In the last fifteen years, he has matured experience in the international sale of complete plants in the non-ferrous, mine and steel industry. He is working at Continuus-Properzi for ten years, actually, as Sales Director, focused in both aluminium and copper plants for rod and ingots production.

Alberto Ghisetti, Sales Director of Continuus-Properzi shares his insights in an interview with AlCircle concerning COVID-19 impact to the industry:

AlCircle: Can you briefly introduce your Company?

Mr Alberto: Continuus-Properzi, the leading expert in the aluminium and copper wire rod continuous casting industry, invented the continuous casting & rolling process for nonferrous rod production and today is the global leader of CCR lines for Copper and Aluminium rod, including all necessary elements from furnaces to casting and rolling equipment, to coiler.  Our product line also encompasses machinery for the production of nonferrous ingots with the Track & Belt system, the Continuous Rotary Extrusion System (Pro-Form), and our latest disruptive innovation, the production of the self-annealed copper wire using the dedicated MICROROLLING® mill without an annealing step.

AlCircle: Has Covid-19 influenced your business?

Mr Alberto: The current epidemic has affected almost all businesses in every corner of the world. Italy was one of the first countries outside China to be exposed to this situation. After a first tough moment, we were able to organize our work in order to reduce its impact to a minimum and the activities in our factory have not been delayed.  Today we have completely recovered all the critical situations and we are delivering our equipment as scheduled. The main impact is limited to the commissioning of our plants under installation due to the travel restrictions in some countries.

AlCircle: How is your company approaching this main impact of Covid-19 in your business?

Mr Alberto: We have immediately identified the tremendous improvement in technology as the solution to this problem and others. For this purpose, we have immediately decided to accelerate the improvement already designed and tested in recent years.

AlCircle: Can you provide an example of your solution to reduce the effect of Covid-19?

Mr Alberto: From many aspects, the heart of a new Plant’s life cycle is most likely the Commissioning.  In order to overcome the travel restrictions with some countries, we have defined a more effective, quicker, and less expensive method to perform the commissioning through the utilization and fruitful application of new technologies. We have called it “e-Commissioning” and it is a great solution for the current situation as well as an important improvement for the future.

The “e-Commissioning” consists of an innovative way to proceed with commissioning services which essentially:

• decreases the overall commissioning duration and costs, eliminating travel times and at least a significant portion of Continuus-Properzi supervisors presence on-site,
• exploits the diffusion of new connecting technology by means of large Internet band for assistance purposes,
• expands, deepens and makes more concrete the operational and maintenance skills achieved by the Customer’s staff.

The principle is extremely simple: the Continuus-Properzi commissioning team, working remotely from headquarters, in real-time and in an almost continuous mode, supports, leads and supervises the activities of the Customer’s personnel on-site.

The means and the methods adopted are such as to achieve a practically equivalent result, or perhaps even better, to that which is possible having the Continuus-Properzi team present on site.

Except for the execution of the hot test with the metal, this is particularly advantageous and recommended in all the first phases of the commissioning, from the erection to the cold test’s completion.

If you are interested to better understand how the e-Commissioning is in practice, we invite you to contact us and we will be glad to provide more details.

The Smart e-Commissioning will be able to offer a service to our Customer’s personnel that is practically at the same level as if the Continuus-Properzi staff was physically present on-site but with the great advantage of having provided very detailed training.

Indeed the effectiveness of this training leads to an acceleration of the Customer's staff towards autonomy in managing the new Line, from both the operational and maintenance perspectives.

Furthermore, this type of commissioning is more flexible since it can be suspended (if required) and resumed without incurring any travel expenses for personnel demobilization/mobilization.

This new way to support our customer during the Commissioning, combined with our traditional Commissioning with the presence of our Expert(s) on-site, is the natural evolution of our I4.0 program, named IULIUS 4.0, and will provide us with the flexibility to overcome any possible present and future restrictions. We are very optimistic about the future and for our e-Commissioning program.  Not only do we expect it to be an additional tool for us, but it is also a guarantee for our customer to successfully complete the project even during the worst, most restrictive conditions such as a global pandemic. 

AlCircle: Do you have other remote solutions for your Customer?

Mr Alberto: Starting from last year, as a natural continuance of the IULIUS 4.0 program, Continuus-Properzi introduced its Customers to the possibility of having a wide range of support via remote methods.

The main services include Remote Technical Assistance and Written Consultancy for Engineering support or problem solving.

The Written Consultancy is a fast “problem solving” approach based on information exchange via e-mail after the commissioning of the Line. The Customer will detail the issue, clarifying in which specific cases it occurs and adding any meaningful pictures or additional information. Continuus-Properzi will deploy its dedicated and qualified engineering/process team until problem resolution.

The Remote Technical Assistance is remote collaboration/assistance aimed at finding the solution of any possible operational or technological problem.  It will be supplied upon request from Continuus-Properzi headquarters by our Technical Assistance Staff in the shortest possible time frame.

The above-proposed solutions can solve a wide range of problems that may be experienced by our Customers and, in a case where it is not possible to solve the problem with one of the above methods, our Consultancy service also includes the possibility for an on-site Technical audit at the project site.

AlCircle: What do you recommend to your customer for the future?

Mr Alberto: Our suggestion is to immediately start a schedule to implement our IULIUS 4.0 program and our Remote Technical Assistance that, with a small investment, makes our support easier, faster and cheaper for our customers while providing huge benefits in terms of efficiency and operational costs savings. Both solutions are not only surpassing all the limitations due to Covid-19 but represent a very important opportunity for the present, the future, and even during normal working conditions.

The impact of Covid-19 has mainly accelerated the innovative solutions, based mainly on the diffusion of new connecting technology that was already defined by Continuus-Properzi for the future. All of the above solutions have been defined and most of them already presented in the months before the Covid-19 explosion, thereby, in a certain way, anticipating the future.

Today we continue to work on new ideas for our customers to improve our equipment and services to surpass any new challenges.  Continuus-Properzi never stops thinking of new ways to better serve our customers.  For example, we are glad to inform the readers that during the Covid-19 pandemic we have finished our completely new website (www.properzi.com) that has been launched only a few weeks ago.