Successful conclusion of MCE 2018
April 21, 2018
Mondeo’s quality management system is now at ISO 9001:2015 level
July 17, 2018
“If dealing with a truly innovative product, thinking about its beginnings, its development and its culmination is natural. That’s what happened to our valves, from the first marketed series to today’s versions. And research never ends.”
So says the founder of Mondeo Valves,Giancarlo Ghiotto, and with the same enthusiasm he had in 1986 when he presented the market with something that had never been seen before.
“After some very commercial product experience, I decided to put all my efforts into a niche product, a moulded stainless steel valve, that blended the characteristics of a noble material like stainless steel with an acceptable price.”
What risks did this challenge involve?
Being a completely innovative product, it couldn’t be taken for granted that the market would be ready to welcome the advantages quickly. The economic investment in cutting dies and distortion was, instead, notable from the very beginning. Luckily enough, we were immediately repaid by a market that is always careful with quality such as Germany, still one of our best markets, together with Spain.
From the first check valves to a wide range of stainless steel valves and manifolds…
We have produced more than 3 million valves until now, and we have more than a thousand manifold codes in production. Appreciation for the quality of our products is certainly an incentive to continue with our research, as well as being a great satisfaction.
What guidelines are behind your concept of research and development?
To perfect the engineering concept of the product in order to make it increasingly more effective and to optimise the production process in order to keep costs down. Hydraulic efficiency, which is the strong point of our products, remains at the centre of our philosophy, also because industry is becoming more sensitive to products that help save energy. Then we have research tied to new applications, for example we are now studying valves for compressed air.
How do you transform an idea into a product?
I still like putting ideas down on paper, ideas which I then share with the technical office. Today, thanks to 3D designing and simulation systems, technological progress makes developing products must easier. We are lucky to be in a truly excellent mechanical district, a real advantage when moving from design to the production of a prototype and then to the real product. In addition to in-house mechanical processing, we consider our suppliers as strategic partners that we can share the same work and quality research culture with.
