In line with an increasingly sustainable and environmentally friendly production, Main Group has launched a new technology that lets all types of recovered materials to be reintroduced into the production cycle in a very efficient way.
Thanks to a new peripheral system that works together with Main Group machines, thanks to which it is possible to recover all the production waste that until now could not be reintroduced into the process and had to be thrown away, a waste of material that impacts both environmentally and economically – given the costs increase and the growing shortage of raw materials. The new technology developed by Main Group has made it possible to recover and reuse materials such as Eva, rubber or polyurethane, adding a strategic asset to the market dedicated to footwear machinery.
Main Group Technologies is a historical brand boasting a long tradition, a history of technology and innovation. In over 80 years of business, Main Group has represented the reference technology for injection molding of the main productions in the footwear sector. The Venetian group, based in Santa Maria di Sala, has served more than 16,000 customers throughout the world with its machines, to which it still provides assistance and spare parts.
The strengths of Main Group Technologies are: a wide acknowledge in technology, customer assistance, added value machines, a low-cost production and attention to the human being and the environment.
Main Group Technologies’ machines are robust and reliable, standing out among the most advanced technologies for footwear and safety boots in Polyurethane, TPU, Polyurethane + TPU and rubber. The wide company offer includes static machines with 2 or more working stations (easy to manage and ensuring high productivity), rotary machines for boots featuring mold holders with fast junctions and openable door, the system of EVA injection, compared to traditional thermo-molding; in the rubber field, the injection-casting in open/closed mold; in the polyurethane field, the injection of TPU + PU with integrated cycle on the same machine. In addiction to this, over the years constant research on automation has been thoroughly carried out, increasingly integrating robots to support loading and unloading operations and developing tools to make production more efficient.
Thanks to the use of these machines, customers achieve significant improvements in terms of time savings and costs reduction.
We met Mariano Bonato, Main Group Technologies’ CEO: “It is a complicated period, despite the great tension on prices we have a strong demand for plants accompanied by a great difficulty in finding raw materials and electronics, a challenge that we will have to manage in the next year. Dealing with raw materials is increasingly difficult for our customers: for this reason, we have created an internal division that specifically deals with this aspect and how to make the most of production waste. In line with this need, we developed the EVA recovery system that we have just presented at Simac, resulting from a two-year research work. It is a system that allows up to 30% of waste to be recovered by returning it to the production process and certifying how much percentage of recycled material, how much energy and how much workforce is used in the production process of a certain sole. This aspect is important for many brands that need to certify that their products derive from a truly sustainable production process.”
After joining new industrial and financial forces, Main Group Technologies has evolved over the years through modern industrialization criteria.
The modern 4000sqm-plant is entirely dedicated to assembling, building and testing machines.
“A part of it is instead devoted to the Research & Development Lab, where lies the true heart of the company – underlines Bonato –. Each customer project is followed with design wisdom and production optimization. The result meets the market needs and the production updates, as Main Group’s machines are always technologically advanced. A 4000sqm warehouse stores all the production components and spare parts, whose arrangement and handling are quick and functional, thanks also to a new management software system. The costs of skilled labor have a strong impact on footwear production and companies are looking for ever greater automation that allows for the rationalization of the use of skilled labor.
“Automation is an essential element and an important strategic lever for all future projects related to the footwear sector, capable of optimizing and increasing the productivity of machinery through the use of robots with new software and simplified operator interface. Each application is designed to improve the quality of the finished item, minimizing human intervention and improving productivity and replicability. “We want to create empathy towards this issue because, when we talk about robots, we always perceive a certain diffidence and hesitancy on the part of customers, who perceive automation as something difficult – underlines Mariano Bonato, CEO of Main Group Technologies – For this reason, counting on a strong partner such as ABB, we have created an automation division within the company and trained our technicians. We are making automation our ‘dependence’: robot and automation will become an integral part of the company and we will transfer this know-how to our customers.”
Mariano Bonato, CEO of Main Group Technologies