The alliance between business and university brings a “Made in Tuscany” innovation to mechanics applied to printing. The Pisa-based Esanastri, born in 1974 in Calcinaia and specialized in serigraphy and digital printing, has developed – in collaboration with the bio-robotics institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa – the first robot to eliminate the only manual phase of the serigraphy process, making it faster and more precise and, therefore, more productive. The automaton, renamed “Galileo Weeding machine”, intervenes in the elimination of discards from the stencils, automating the so-called “stripping” process.

The innovative solution elaborated between Calcinaia and the Sant’Anna laboratory was born from a project of industrial research and experimental development, begun in 201 and financed by a tender by the Regione Toscana [Region of Tuscany], and later transformed into a prototype of which the industrialization phase conclude in the construction of the device already covered by a patent. The product’s launch is predicted for October, when the “Galileo Weeding Machine” will be presented at the SGIA Expo in Las Vegas – the world’s top convention for specialty printing & imaging technology.

The goals of the company, which counts 100 employees and is guided by the Posarelli family, the robot’s introduction will not only generate internal benefits for the Calcinaia plant production, it will allow the opening of a new line of business. Ownership of the patent will in fact lead to a partnership with a company specialized in the production of printing machinery in order to commercialize the innovative machine among the most important groups active in the serigraphy sector. The industrial plan predicts a sale objective included between 30 and 50 units for the first year.

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