News
31/03/22

LM Group with Magnoni and Marpatech at IPACK-IMA 2022

The LM Group, composed of LM, Magnoni and Marpatech, is a leader in offering technologically advanced handling solutions and transport systems, guaranteeing high quality products calibrated to the specific needs of each customer. The entire Group has 90 employees in 3 locations between Modena and Santarcangelo. The plants occupy a total area of 7700 square meters. The 2021 turnover, at Group level, will exceed 19 million euros. Founded in the 70's, LM has been managed by the Franzoni family for more than 30 years, which has managed its progressive expansion. Michele Franzoni is the General Manager.

 

 

- What technology do you particularly value in this period?

 

At IPACK-IMA we will have two circuits with a series of different handling systems in operation, so that we can show some of the features and potential of the conveyors produced by the various companies in the group: LM, Magnoni and Marpatech.

 

In one of the rides we will carry empty aluminum cans, which is Magnoni's core business: this is the first fair, in fact, where we have the opportunity to show the range of Magnoni (a company acquired in 2019 and the latest addition to the LM group) and how we have successfully managed to integrate it into our portfolio. In our stand, therefore, will be exposed a high speed air veil aligning conveyor (in which the movement, accumulation and alignment of the cans occurs through the thrust of the air), a vacuum elevator belt (to elevate the cans in a small space) and the automatic twist, patented system of cans tipping with automatic format change, a product among the most requested. The circuit will then be completed by a LM dual-axis sorter (one of the best performing systems on the market for dividing cans from 1 to several rows at high speed) and a series of conveyor belts built by Marpatech.

 

La seconda giostra rispecchia invece la seconda anima di LM, quella dedicata al trasporto ed alla manipolazione di prodotti nudi o confezionati in imballo flessibile nel food, bakery e confectionary. We will then show a series of washable belts, our 2 types of curves, a hygenic-design belt and a plastic mesh (and the mesh is also of our own manufacture), a "pull-nose" belt system with a retractable pen (normally used to distribute rows of products from the process to the primary packaging) and an innovative system of cadencing products without pressure, using belts with moving ends that chase each other. Finally, two flagship products could not be missed: a LM skid diverter and Sortech Marpatech, a 90° sorting and transfer system that is gaining more and more consensus, becoming one of the "must-haves" of the group.

 

 

- What expectations do you have for the event?

 

We have high expectations. Certainly because it is our first important appointment after the stop due to the pandemic, but also for another reason: most of the handling systems and conveyor belts produced by the companies of the group are sold to other machine manufacturers and line integrators who will be present at the fair for the most part as exhibitors. These are companies with which we obviously have daily contacts, which have slowed down in the last period, so we believe that IPACK-IMA can be the ideal moment to strengthen business relations and talk together about the future.

 

 

- What perspective do you see for the 2022 market?

 

Obviously we hope that the energy and raw material crisis and international tensions will soon be resolved. Since the first months of the pandemic we have been focusing on some so called "functional" innovations of LM products: we realized that some of our products developed for secondary packaging such as belt curves and Sortech are more and more used for intralogistics, express couriers and e-commerce.

 

We have therefore developed products dedicated to the specific needs of these sectors, which on the one hand require speed, robustness and easy maintenance, characteristics that coincide with those of the end of the line of high-speed bottling, which is our daily bread, and on the other hand have some peculiar requirements. With more than 3.000 curves installed with satisfaction of many customers, we made some changes on this product and on Sortech in order to make them perfectly suitable for these further applications, which represent an important growth area for us.