May 16th – 2013- A great day for sharing ideas and strategies, this is the summary at the end of a meeting between great characters of R & D in Automotive. A substantial audience formed by engineers of top manufacturing groups like Lamborghini, Ducati, Lombardini, Ferrari, Petronas, technicians, and many students of Engineering, which has followed very carefully the evolution of the theme “reliability”, developed in any possible way. From design to execution, trough prevention, and finally troubleshooting, in various stages, presented by outstanding speakers.
The day started with the opening of the President of Confindustria Firenze Simone Bettini. He addressed the welcome introduction with his usually frank and direct style, mentioning his passion for anything “noisy” (such cars and top class motorbikes) growing by the time with his business, which allowed him to achieve goals of true excellence. Never forgetting the original love for ”la Rossa” the car that in his view, still retains a heart …
He just asked to the many students (along with the Professors of the disciplines involved) to try to interpret life in a more creative way, becoming “entrepreneurs of themselves”!
While Giuseppe Adriani (on behalf of Aiman, Italian Maintenance Association) has outlined a very multi-faceted discourse that draws on palaeontology, industrial archaeology and not only, to reach the modern diagnostic technologies in the field of advanced lubrication and prevention of failure. A nice story about technological evolution from the beginnings of locomotion to modern mass transportation systems. He dedicated few slides to Monitoil, as a concept in itself to try to solve the problem of the collection in “real time” of main operating parameters useful for online effective diagnosis.
The word then to Dr. Giuseppe Natoli, with Petronas Italy a real “guru” in the field of formulations of lubricants engaged in this field since the beginning of the prestigious brand Selenia. Today Petronas laboratory (located in Villastellone facility close to Turin) is a center of excellence in the field of after-sales service and research of new products for an increasingly demanding automotive application. The presentation, which was shared with Giovanni Cecconello (Director of testing rooms), addressed the comparison between “racing” products increasingly sophisticated, though lasting for very short period of time and severe use of long drain fluids for routine purposes.
Next speaker Alessandro Paccagnini with Mecoil, for an overview of the early indicators of wear in mechanical systems. Obviously through oil analysis in operation, with tools and methods targeted for such purposes. The “weak signals” as a valid aid to help containing a risk failure in critical machines. The audience followed very carefully with uncommon silence the many interventions from the podium, but the coffee time was an appreciated break to exchange a few words, asking questions and try to touch the precious vintage motorbikes on display. As a courtesy of
David Mazzoni (R & D – Ferrari auto), who has very seriously approached the issue of reliability applied to the components most susceptible of the new V8 engines, both in terms of metallurgy, and as a challenge to optimize lubrication tasks. The process has been achieved mostly focusing on the early diagnosis developed on site to prevent the spreading of incipient failure, both in terms of performance outputs and spectrometric analysis (with RDE technology carried at the cells’ site with updated Spectroils instruments) to highlight the trend of critical metals.
At the end, the speech of Prof. D. Chiaramonti with his outline of the evolution of regulations in the field of bio-fuels. In his introduction he mentioned that in Italy we have been able to develop processes and systems that are unique in the world (like the production of ethanol from biomass fermentation of Crescentino site), today for the incompleteness of the rules and the difficulty in terms of investment, there is an increasing risk to be resettled in other geographical regions. In perfect synchronization with the program schedule has been served lunch (created by Bachini and Bellini) as always excellent, while the bad weather gave an interval between the rainfall, allowing many guests to stroll on the splendid terrace of the Villa. This was best chance to touch those gorgeous motorcycles kindly on display by C.M. E. F. “Club Moto d’Epoca Fiorentino”.
At 2.30 P.M. some groups registered to visit Mecoil laboratory (the Lab, in Mecoil facility, is just near by the main ballroom dedicated to the conference). Meanwhile in the Library (once the site of high-level discussions among great characters like Giovanni Gentile and Conte de Marinis) was held an interesting debate, though informal in a relaxing atmosphere, among “insiders” on the hottest topics of those working in the field of research and testing facilities.
