Bonfiglioli: Corporate Performance Bridging 2019 Sounding Results Through a Challenging 2020

24 September 2020

In the digital press event for the of two new products lines, Evox and Axiavert - a coaxial gearmotor and frequency inverter respectively – Bonfiglioli’s CEO Fausto Carboni opens the presentation by recalling and commenting some of the facts and figures that distinguished the company’s 2019.

In 2019, Bonfiglioli had the highest ever turnover, with 973 M€ (+ 6.7%) and EBITDA at 11%, in line with the previous three years. Significant investments were made in 2019, with capital expenditure amounting to € 62.4 million, completing an investment cycle of over € 170 million over the last three years.

All geographical macro-areas have grown, and the American continent in particular, with an approx. 20% rate. In 2019, business outside Europe accounted for slightly less than 50% of the Group’s total sales.

In 2019, Bonfiglioli completed the construction and started the operation of the new EVOlution gearmotor plant (EVO) based in Bologna, consisting of 2 merged plants and a complete layout, process and competence redesign, also thanks to a massive “injection” and integration of 4.0 technologies.

Moreover, in 2019, BMR, our mechatronic research and system company based in Rovereto – Italy, has extended its operation into a new 6,000 sqm building, capable of hosting also IoT development and test rooms.

Bonfiglioli, well established in India for over 20 years, has extended its R&D activities in the Country by making a significant investment in a rapid prototyping and working cycle simulation lab for Wind Turbines’ Yaw and Pitch drives, as well as drives for Construction Machinery to enhance reliably and innovation on the market.

Innovation’s always been in Bonfiglioli’s way of doing; Bonfiglioli has become leader of IoTwins, one of the most important research programs within Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation. IoTwins stands for “Digital Twin” of the industrial processes that will allow to virtually test plants and equipment in advance. This research group is responsible for 12 new digital twin platforms.

2020 turned out to be fairly different than expected; China gave the first dramatic signal of COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, with the rest of the world following suit 2 to 3 months later, with much deeper effects on people, on the communities and on business.

Bonfiglioli’s reaction was making the health and safety of its employees a priority. Distance between people has been ensured through re-layout and remapping of processes and flows in workshops, offices, canteen and common spaces, as well as through differentiated shift times and an extensive smart working. Moreover, disinfection materials and routines, protection masks, training and information session on how to behave for all employees have been performed in all Bonfiglioli companies, in order to ensure health and business continuity as much as possible.

Fausto Carboni, Bonfiglioli’s CEO remarks “Lockdowns and restrictions had a heavy impact on the company's economic performance. The month of April saw, apart from Germany performing similarly to the previous year, a largely negative result in Europe and North America. The April performance was even more drastic in India, where the country was totally paralyzed due to a very hard lockdown and intra-state transport blocks. A whole different story went on in China, where, after the first weaker two months of the year, it began to grow at rates of more than 40%, compared to the same months of the previous year. Starting from June 2020, the order intake has been significantly higher, and in August the total company performance was 13% higher than August 2019. All countries have set a remarkable turnover recovery in the month of August; China has increased its growth rate to more than 60%, India reached a 10% growth, while western economies, despite much better results, are still struggling, with the exception of Germany, up by 40%. The Wind Generator market represents one of the most important contributors to growth.”

Bonfiglioli Presents EVOX Platform

Bonfiglioli, announces the launch of the new helical in-Line geared motor under the newly born EVOX Platform.

Bonfiglioli - the Italian drive specialist – is announcing Bonfiglioli’s new geared motor platform that sets an innovative approach for the geared motor market.

Efficiency, reliability, modularity and performance were the drivers behind the development of the EVOX geared motor platform. Thanks to an enhanced modularity concept, EVOX represents a step forward for Bonfiglioli’s product range, with solutions for a wide spectrum of applications. The uncompromised selection of commercial components, the broad use of gear grinding processes, and specific “low noise” gear design make EVOX a benchmark product in terms of reliability and efficiency.

The first products of the EVOX geared motor platform are the new Helical In-Line Gearmotor CP combined with the new Asynchronous IE3/NEMA premium high efficiency electric motors. The synergies between these two new concepts create an efficient, strong, small and simple gearmotor ecosystem. The in-line gear units will be first released in 6 different sizes: 55, 100, 200, 335, 500, 650 Nm with motor power between 0.12 and 15 kW IE3.

The EVOX Platform is characterized by a new simple and clean design, suitable for any application environment furtherly featured by optional C3/C4 surface protection or by ATEX rating (explosion proof protection).

The EVOX CP gear unit is ideal also for higher precision demanding applications, thanks to the reduced backlash configuration available in the standard catalogue. EVOX CP also helps eliminate any customer experienced friction, thanks to an innovative lubrication concept that allows the gearmotor to be used in any mounting position, thus overcoming the need of changing oil level and oil plugs configuration. This will give our customers the freedom and flexibility to use the product in any orientation.

The geared motors will be available both in compact and IEC flanged versions, allowing customers to choose between a standardized motor and a dimensionally optimized configuration. BXN motor, the IEC standard, and MXN motor, the compact version, share most of the configuration and options, including dynamic brake, incremental and absolute encoders, thermal sensors and switches. The new standard motor terminal box is shaped with its 9 PIN connectors, for up to 8 different voltages at 50Hz or 60Hz power supply with a single winding, making it suitable for the EU, US, Indian and Australian market. Further 6 windings cover the rest of the world.

Bonfiglioli research and development team designed the entire EVOX platform to enable condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, both sensored and sensorless. During the development of the EVOX CP gearmotor, a complete mathematical model relating thermal behaviors of the gearmotors to the electrical variables has been developed. This will enable effective sensorless condition monitoring and predictive maintenance directly managed by our AxiaVert Inverters acting as an edge computer.

In the near future, the EVOX Platform will include other product range extensions.

Bonfiglioli Presents AxiaVert: Simply Smarter

Top-level functional safety, high control performance and IIoT-ready solution for a wide spectrum of applications. Bonfiglioli announces the launch of the AxiaVert premium frequency inverter series.

The new AxiaVert Series provides the ultimate combination of flexibility, modularity and connectivity, aimed at offering an optimal response to specific industrial application requirements across a wide range of sectors and with different degrees of complexity. AxiaVert is now available in 4 sizes, with a power range between 0.25 – 15 kW. Higher power versions will be released at a later stage.

The advanced digital and open communication protocols, complying with automation and Industry 4.0 standards, allow a smooth integration into automation networks, thanks to the compatibility with a great variety of fieldbus protocols and machine controllers. Communication encryption is embedded by design in AxiaVert to ensure secure communication. In addition, thanks to condition monitoring functions on the key inverter components as well as on the gearmotor critical parameters, AxiaVert is able to provide real time diagnostics, energy optimization and predictive maintenance information related to the motion system up to the entire machine.

The wide range of advanced integrated functional safety functions, in compliance with EN ISO 13849-1 and IEC 61508 international standards, are available in different versions, to select the most suitable option in terms of costs and performance and match the actual needs. This approach simplifies configuration and reduces the need for external safety components, while ensuring a safe and controlled operation of different movements (e.g. lifting applications), thanks to Safe Brake Control and fast spindle axes with Safe Limited Speed, even sensorless.

Thanks to its modular structure and PLC software programmability, the system can be flexibly adapted and customized to meet many different application requirements, by defining the proper software parameters and functions, and selecting the most suitable hardware modules, such as communication or encoder modules, variants and accessories. In addition, the AxiaVert Series offers a great variety of frame and power sizes, mounting variants and cooling concepts for greater freedom of design.

Great process versatility is ensured by the high compatibility with a wide range of motors (asynchronous, synchronous, synchronous reluctance) and by its high speed, position and torque control accuracy, both for open and closed loop applications.

Finally, user-friendliness is ensured by AxiaManager engineering software for programming, commissioning, operation and monitoring of AxiaVert. AxiaManager is available as a Windows PC GUI and as a mobile App for an instant access to the drive status and configuration with a simplified user interface.