Have you ever seen tracked vehicles extracted from a quarry in Lessinia?
Maybe you don’t think that’s possible.
Then I suggest you follow me on this short journey.
Who decides to visit the Veja Adventure Park usually heads towards the Lessinia mountains and begins to go through the hairpin bends that take it from curve to curve up towards the uncontaminated woods of the area .
Once in Sant’Anna d ‘Alfaedo, however, there is a detour towards the hamlet of Giare , this place in a search engine you will see this map appear:
You will immediately notice that there are not many “attractions” indicated … among these there is the one we are talking about today The Mechanical Constructions F.lli Antolini .
I arrive with my car at the crossroads that leads right there and immediately notice a sign indicating it, almost hidden, at the foot of the slope that climbs up to an old stone quarry.
On reaching its destination, however, it is completely different to my sight.
Iuri the owner and one of the founders of the company welcomes me with an unmistakable tuft and sideburns, a fetish of the glorious 80s, and shows off his inevitable smile. </ span >
I’m visiting to find out how this company set in the mountain was born and the journey starts right here.
Where Mezzi Cingolati Antolini comes from
Simulating the arrival of a truck, containing the materials that will be processed here, we enter the unloading area where I am struck by the great order and cleanliness, but soon there attention shifts to a strange medium.
Iuri tells me that it is a slingbar, a sort of remote-controlled spider that is used to move the steel plates that have just been laid.
It is also thanks to it that he proudly tells me that
– In our company there have never been accidents at work – </ p >
With my mouth already open I head towards the cutting department, where 4 different machines use a voltage of 380V which is transformed into a laser beam, with which the different slabs are shaped.
They will subsequently be used to build the machines for which Tracked Vehicles was born Antolini .
We then move to the welding section, where other robots take care of joining the cut parts and between an anecdote and the other the visit to the first floor ends. </ span>
It is said that when the transporters brought the largest laser cutting machine, with a single bed of even 8 meters, the fog had prevented delivery for 15 days .
Nobody wanted to climb up there without favorable weather conditions!
In production
Iuri leads me to the second floor and mind you, it’s not about climbing stairs or taking an elevator; the second floor can be reached on foot from the street and soon I’ll tell you why.
Here I find other workers at work, who assemble and weld other artifacts, destined to compose aerial platforms, in the construction of which the company is specialized.
I get suspicious seeing means that I don’t recognize as essential for the current production, but the mystery is about to be revealed, in fact thanks to another short walk we go up to the third level of the company, the highest and oldest.
Here I find 15 different CNC lathes and milling machines in a large space, which however appears cramped to the eye due to the crowding of fascinating machinery.
I am introduced to Federico, a specialized turner to whom I ask to tell me in a few words what they do up there and he patiently takes off his clothes as a master of mechanics and dresses as a master of elementary to tell a little grown-up child how holes, finishes, fittings, grooves and everything else commissioned are made here.
Then there is a fleeting meeting with Giuseppe, another of the founders, who puts me to the test with a phrase in Venetian dialect that I have to repeat three times .. . I think I have not passed the test.
Finally Iuri tells me how these three levels are the result of an evolution of Antolini Tracked Vehicles.
The discovery
It is revealed to me that the company was born like a phoenix from the ashes of a disused quarry, owned by the family and how the idea of building everything came about there, right where once there was the quarry still clearly visible, but now transformed into an alcove for a completely different activity.
This short journey ends then downstream, at Seventh of Pescantina , where there is the assembly and welding section by hand of tracked vehicles , powerful machines capable of moving, lifting, cutting or adapting to the most varied customer requests .
Lessinia is therefore characterized by natural beauties, curious paths, pieces of history and legends, but also hides production activities of excellence, which allow the creation of technologically advanced machines completely Made in Italy and at the same time offering many families in the area a job in manufacturing.
