AEROTECNICA COLTRI

A wide range of compressors for
specific applications
From breathing-air gas to technical gas

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Aerotecnica Coltri Spa exports 90% of its production to 60 countries. In light of this, the company can boast a global vocation and is an internationally recognized “brand”. Aerotecnica Coltri Spa is based in Desenzano del Garda (Brescia) and manufactures high-pressure compressors that can be used in different sectors: from the diving industry to fire departments, from hunting to target shooting weapons, from natural gas to industrial gas. Its story begins at the end of the 1960s, when Carlo and Giuseppe Coltri started manufacturing compressors. Today, Aerotecnica Coltri Spa is one of the most important companies in the world in the design and construction of high-pressure compressors for pure breathing-air and technical gases. The company’s overall covered area is approximately 8,000 square meters and its staff counts about 50 people. Recently, with the proliferation of natural-gas vehicles, Aerotecnica Coltri has also begun to manufacture compressors to refill the CNG cylinders used in such vehicles.

Production and export

•Production cycle – The company has an in-house workshop that processes and obtains nearly all the mechanical components from die casting or bars to drawn bars using high-tech CNC tool machines and horizontal machining centres. The production process starts from a foundry that provides cast iron and aluminium for cylinders and casings. The company’s palletized horizontal machining centre allows obtaining high-quality products. Highly qualified personnel run these machines and oversee the robotic cells, too. The company consists of four interconnected facilities, and a separate facility is reserved to the assembly of the pumping units of the major machine line.
•Quality control and tests – All tests are run in the metrology room in order to maintain the high quality of the production while meeting the required parameters. The technical department constantly runs random checks using measurement tools ranging from simple gauges to DEA measuring machine, a system that serves as a highdefinition scanner detecting any dimension difference (in microns) of the analysed item, checking the tolerance,
and providing information on any improvements to be applied to the entire production. A trio of robots combined with automated CNC machines are also in use: these fully automated robots comprise an island that needs no human supervision.
•Global export – 90% of the company’s production is exported to 60 countries. In some countries, the distribution network involves the acquisition of companies that operate in the machine maintenance industry, such as Coltri Sub Asia Pacific in Bangkok, in the free-trade zone for East Asia; and a company in Sharm El Sheikh for the Middle East and Egypt. Moreover, a network of dealers is also present in almost every country with spare parts warehouses for both routine and special maintenance.

The compressors

The company offers a wide range of breathing-air and technical gas compressors from the small portable compressor of the Mch6 series, with a flow rate of 100 l/min and a pressure of 300 bars, to more powerful machine for large refilling centres, such as the Mch36

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with a flow rate of 600 l/min and a maximum pressure of 425 bars. These compressors are available with single and three-phase electric engines as well as combustion engines powered by gasoline or diesel fuel. Additionally, a series of important accessories is offered, such as filling panels, transfer hoses, oxygen carbon dioxide and helium analysers, 300 to 200 bar reducers with safety valves and other useful accessories. “The use of high-pressure air compressors – says the owner of the company, Caudio Coltri – is very much diversified. They can be used for breathing air, diving or fire departments; to refill systems for air guns such as “paint ball”, a war game with with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules, an anti-stress game; to refill real high pressure weapons, equipped with a 300 bar tank for hunting or target shooting. Last but not least, the industrial use. High-pressure compressors for natural gas and technical gases, excluding oxygen for obvious reasons”. “Our engineer Marco Corsini – continues
Coltri – works as an electrical designer and his work is characterized not only by his proven ability and valuable technical background, but also by his great passion. He’s a mechanical engineer, with previous experience in the boiler industry, and has optimized existing machines with technical solutions that, in the case of the Mch16 compressor, have increased the stroke from 40 to 50 mm, increasing the compressor capacity compared to that of the previous series (with a stroke of 40 mm). The new compressor has been called Mch23 because of the pumping unit, to which follows a series of acronyms depending on the type of frame and accessories selected. Dr Corsini has also created a new frame called Ergo.” This group will be part of a Premium line, the top of the range of the catalogue, while the 40 mm stroke model, named Efficient, will continue to be produced within the Mch range, with the possibility to offer from 300 l/min of Mch16 to 30 l/min of Mch23.

“I would like to point out – says Coltri – that the old model has been completely revised: the cylinders are no longer made of cast iron, but of aluminium, equipped with a new type of wear-proof coating called Gilnisil, patented by Vittorio Gilardoni, whose company also treats our cylinders”. “The connecting rods have been redesigned in forged aluminium, no longer cast in shells. We use a new forged crankshaft in steel, no longer a cast iron casting, the flanges are made in die-cast with new moulds, all the fittings and nuts are in stainless steel. All components are produced in house. We also apply the painting in house. These improvements clearly increase the quality of the final product.” “All this – explains Coltri – is what the market requires from us. It acknowledges our results and matches the growth of our company. The feedback is immediate because the result of how a compressor works is soon obvious. The high quality of our products pays us off day after day, thanks to a team of people working together with a common goal. Our team is very close-knit – from the design department to production and sales -, and is well-supported by the purchase of new machinery, including a three-axis multipallet machining centre for monoblocks, a Y-axis lathe, a CNC lapping machine for machining cylinders, and a double-headed lathe. Moreover, a 3D machine was purchased for prototyping.” “Man decides – concludes Coltri -, the machine helps the man. Together, we made a
huge step forward”.

www.coltri.com