A systems approach promises to make the digital future a reality

n 2008, Prima Industrie, Turin, Italy, purchased Finn-Power, then in Kauhava, Finland, bringing together a leader in laser cutting technology and a pioneer in punching and shearing combination machines, panel benders, and material automation. In 2011, the two entities combined to become Prima Power, merging global sales and service networks and even adopting both companies’ colors for the new logo. In 2023, private equity companies purchased Prima Power, removing it from the Italian Stock Exchange. As part of its last public filings in 2022, Prima Power reported an annual revenue approaching $570 million. In 2024, the group reported annual revenues approaching $640 million.

Even with all the changes since the two companies came together, Prima Power’s plan of offering a complete lineup of metal fabricating technologies made sense for the market. The world was thirsty for laser cutting machines and technological advancements from machine tool manufacturers. Meanwhile, metal fabricators were still churning out plenty of thin-gauge rectangular and square boxes that made punching and shearing combination machines and panel benders all the more relevant.

What had changed, as well, over the years were software and automation. The two worked together to ensure that machines could talk with each other, making possible the dream of one-piece flow. Software offered more efficient processing of orders, nesting, machine programming, and scheduling, and the automation made it so that fewer employees were needed to run systems—equipment connected to each other and with storage systems and buffering stations.

Today, these types of systems offerings appear to be what’s needed to make the promise of the AI-powered economy a reality. As the world’s leading tech giants pour millions into the creation of infrastructure—racks, cabinets, power generation, water treatment, and HVAC systems—necessary to power data centers, metal fabricators are looking for more efficient ways to produce parts to keep up with orders tied to this supercharged economic segment.

And this won’t end any time soon. At least, that’s what industry pundits are suggesting. The global data center market is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 10% to 2030, according to Prima Power officials.

“We have almost everything a manufacturer would need. We have laser cutting, punching, bending, and automation,” said Enrico Garino, Prima Power’s chief marketing officer and head of robotics, during a meeting with trade journalists flown to Europe as part of a press junket.

Newly expanded production facilities in Italy and a new building in Finland are a solid foundation from which Prima Power hopes to be a major contributor in the creation and exploration of the digital frontier.

Doubling Down on Bending

Cologna Veneta might not mean much to an average tourist visiting Italy, but those in metal fabricating might have a different point of view. The region is the cradle of modern panel bending technology, which is why it makes sense that it’s home to Prima Power’s Production Unit Bending (PUB) facility.

Over the years, companies in this sector have emerged and stayed in the same geographic location because of all the expertise available there. If a machine tool company is introducing a line of panel benders, those machines are probably made in this area under a private labeling deal.

In 1997, Finn-Power purchased one of these companies, and Finn-Power Italia was born. In 2001, Finn-Power sold the company to the Swedish fund named EQT Group.

Prima Power hosted Tech Flow, a customer event with technical presentations and equipment demonstrations, at its headquarters in Turin, Italy, in late September.

Starting in April 2024, Prima Power began a major renovation and expansion of the PUB facility. The first part of this activity was the addition of more than 26,000 sq. ft. of production space.

“To build a new factory, we would have needed to move about 20 or 30 km away,” said Stefano Gecchele, Prima Power’s bending product unit manager. “We wanted to stay close for our employees. We didn’t want to lose them.”

Because the PUB is somewhat landlocked in its industrial park, Prima Power had to build on a nearby parking lot to get the space it needed. The result is an L-shaped production area.

Preassembly is done in the original production space. Sourced parts, like frames, are assembled and prepped before moving to final assembly in the new addition. Additionally, a small space in the original facility is dedicated to press brake assembly, a minor but necessary part of the business because not all sheet metal parts can be formed on a panel bender. Prima Power offers servo-electric brakes up to 200 tons. (Use of servo-electric press brakes has increased in recent years as they do not require as much energy to run as hydraulic press brakes and also require less maintenance. Additionally, these press brakes are prized for their accuracy and consistency.)

In the final assembly area, 10 to 12 panel bending machines can be found in some state of construction. Gecchele said that with the additional space, Prima Power expects to produce up to 120 machines per year—a significant increase over the 40 or so benders it was producing about six years ago.

The need for the expansion was never more apparent than after the pandemic when manufacturing just took off. The demand for panel bending machines outpaced supply, stretching assembly times out to 14 months. The tight confines of the original facility didn’t help matters, especially as machines grew larger. For example, the EBe Express Bender 2226 can accommodate a part length of almost 150 in. (The machine also has a maximum bend height of just over 8 in.)

Ryan O’Connor, Prima Power’s marketing manager for North America, pointed out that increased production comes at a time when panel bending is in great demand. “Automated bending is becoming the standard in most high-volume-throughput companies,” he said.

Of the panel benders produced by Prima Power, about 90% will be part of automated systems.

More Room for Laser Machines

Prima Industrie was an early pioneer in the area of 3D laser cutting. It later added 2D laser cutting machines to its lineup in the early 1990s.

With that type of lineage, Prima Power bulked up its laser cutting machine capabilities with the completion of its new 118,000-sq.-ft. facility built on its campus in Turin. Trade journalists had the opportunity to tour the new facility as part of Tech Flow 2025 activities at the company headquarters.

A sheet metal blank heads down a conveyor toward a panel bending machine at Prima Power’s Customer Technology Center in Finland.

The new expansion is primarily dedicated to 2D and 3D laser cutting machine manufacturing, but it also contains room for press brake assembly and machine training for service technicians and customers. The laser machines begin assembly in one cell and leave that area only when they are completed and have been tested.

“Each machine you see has an order,” Garino said. “We do not build machines for stock.”

The goals of this laser production are reliability and stability, according to Giulio Amore, Prima Power’s 2D laser product manager. Again, a lot of these machines are part of larger systems, and if they are to run without operator intervention or as part of a lights-out production scenario, the lasers need to operate without incident. That means the software has to deliver cutting instructions that minimize errors like part tip-ups, and the laser needs to perform as it was designed.

These laser cutting machines are almost always attached to parts storage systems, such as the company’s Night Train automated storage and retrieval towers. Amore stressed that this type of automation is much more than just warehousing of raw material, calling them “logistics centers,” as they also can store laser-cut blanks that might not yet be ready to head to bending or other downstream processes.

Also nestled in a section of the new facility is Prima Power’s latest 3D laser cutting machine—the Giga Laser Next. The machine is a good example of how the company is leaning on software to turn tried-and-true technologies into cutting-edge machine tools.

When most of the manufacturing world is using industrial robots to reinvent shop floors, Prima Power chose to employ a familiar cartesian architecture and linear drives to move four separate laser cutting heads independently and quickly around a workpiece. These retractable arms work in overlapping areas, and advanced anticollision controls keep the fast-paced cutting heads from hitting each other, even though they operate as close as 40 mm from each other.

Because ancillary equipment like laser sources, chillers, and electrical panels are designed to be placed on a mezzanine over the cutting chamber, the entire laser cutting machine occupies roughly a 33- by 33-ft. space. Company officials said that one compact 3D laser can match the output of four single-head 3D laser machines.

As with other Prima Power machine tools, the Giga Laser Next is designed so that it can fit into stamping or other automated lines. Robots can be integrated into the 3D laser to ensure that parts can be removed and replaced while the four lasers tend to another workpiece. In these automated cells, minimum idle time between cutting action is said to be less than 2 seconds. Prima Power officials added that the core application and orders received for this new four-headed workhorse are in high-volume automotive sectors for parts such as door rings and other high-strength steel body components.

A New Home in Finland

In 2018, Prima Power completed its move to a new facility in Seinäjoki, Finland. It marked the first time that all aspects of the company—including engineering, R&D, production, and the equipment showroom—were under one roof.

Previously, production was done down the road in Kauhava. The production facility had been expanded several times, and the patchwork configuration was not conducive to a streamlined production process. Additionally, as demand has grown for more flexible manufacturing systems, production needed more space than its roughly 100,000-sq.-ft. shop floor allowed.

Prima Power’s new home has about 400,000 sq. ft. of space and wide aisles to accommodate movement of components and assemblies. It also contains a spacious painting facility that can accommodate the large subassemblies for combination machines and automation systems.

Antti Kuusisaari, Prima Power’s vice president, system sales, said having R&D, software developers, and engineers all within a short elevator ride and walk to the factory has helped to optimize production efforts. It’s a major reason that the factory is able to turn around system orders in a matter of weeks.

The combination machines and modular sections that make up the storage systems are fabricated separately before being brought together in final assembly, where units are put together and tested. Some of the systems, like a laser cutting machine or panel bender, are not completed until all of the elements arrive at the metal fabricating customer’s site. With advancements in digital twin technology and simulations, however, Kuusisaari said that Prima Power can ensure that the systems will be operational upon installation and commissioning in the field.

What makes these types of flexible manufacturing systems unusual is that they can be arranged in any sort of way. Some companies might require material flow to go in a specific direction. They might need machines to be on one particular side of the storage system. Shops might need a line to actually bend at a 90-degree angle to accommodate a wall. These installed systems rarely look exactly like another.

“We have done so many combinations in the past,” Kuusisaari said, “that we know what we can do when we get a new type of request from a customer.”

Where It Comes Together

In all of these Prima Power facilities, you’ll see “Evolve by integration” on marketing material or painted on a wall. It’s more than a company slogan; it captures the dynamics of today’s metal fabricating market.

Those metal fabricators that rely on the ways of the past—operating stand-alone machines, piling up WIP in the aisles because planning is poor, and wasting material—are going to fall increasingly behind competitors. Shops need the latest software and flexible manufacturing systems to ensure efficient and quality production of parts, but that only can happen when all of the elements are integrated.

Disparate systems in a metal fabricating company are islands of obsolescence. Connecting them puts an organization in a much better position to take advantage of future opportunities.

See integration at work on the shop floor

For a closer look at how this integration strategy plays out on the shop floor, read Rob Colman’s blog on how Epta and Steelcomp are using closely integrated storage and metal processing systems to drive efficiency and flexibility in very different manufacturing environments.