News

• The ''Viscom Regional'' Season comes to an end
  
  
• An interesting workshop on CO2 lasers
  
  
• DiCielle: a point of reference for the customer

Customer corner

• Presenting Picchiani & Barlacchi Company

Special software

• New laser pointer

On Saturday 23rd May 2009, Cielle held a workshop dedicated exclusively to CO2 laser technology at its head offices in San Biagio di Callalta in the province of Treviso.
Cielle presented the Sigma 200x300 engraving machine which boasts a generous engraving area (2x3 metres), is capable of engraving plastic, wood, glass, leather and metals, etc., and is ideally suited to the engineering sector.
The Sigma 200x300 was used to perform simple operations on panels of various materials. Each participant at the event also received a small plaque, in wood or Plexiglas, made there and then using the machine.
The Open House also presented the ILS and VLS 3.50 machines from Universal Laser System (the U.S. company for which Cielle is sole distributor in Italy).
These two machines are CO2 laser engravers of small (600x300 mm) and medium size (900x600). Extremely versatile, they satisfy the needs of many applications, especially in the promotional and personal sectors.
The Open House was well attended, and attracted many regular customers. The event also provided the opportunity to lay down the foundations for new commercial relationships and to satisfy the curiosity of a large number of visitors concerning the capabilities of these machines.
Once again Cielle saw that the public attending the workshop, engraving specialists and laymen alike, is quickly learning to understand and appreciate the benefits of these high-tech machines.

In recent months DiCielle has been working hard to extend its product range and offer customers an even wider choice.
In particular, we have introduced new products in the fields of modular signs and sublimation, plus a number of top quality articles (all made in Italy) like keypads, spacers, etc..
DiCielle also supplies Cielle with products for creating automatic Braille machining devices.
Continuing growth in  our product offering is being facilitated by two main factors:

1. versatile and attractive advertising using web-marketing tools;
2. the courageous decision taken in March 2008 to hold prices steady on many products until the end of 2009, and to absorb increased costs from our own materials suppliers.

This important decision, taken to avoid impacting commercial strategies at a difficult time like the present, has allowed DiCielle to maintain a trend of constant growth, and to meet customers’ needs more effectively than ever.

It can easily look as if the amazing potential of modern machines, their multiplicity of accessories and sophisticated software have killed the art of engraving. This, however, is not true: experience and skill still give added value, so much so that certain products are still works of art.
This edition presents the firm of Picchiani & Barlacchi, and extends our thanks to Mrs. Chiara Montauti, owner of the company, for sending us one of their products, created using a ‘Gamma’ pantograph engraver from Cielle.
Before we begin, let us remind you that if you would like to see an article on your own company appear in ‘‘Cielle News’‘, all you need to do is send us a profile of your company and a particularly significant piece of work, either by conventional mail or by e-mail to cl-business@ciellecnc.com.

Picchiani & Barlacchi was established around 1902, in the early years of the last century.
In over 100 years of intense activity and production, the company has remained faithful to centuries of glorious Tuscan and Florentine traditions.
Picchiani & Barlacchi is organised in a number of independent workshop-departments coordinated by a single technical and commercial management group.
The company’s personnel is highly qualified and boasts vast experience. To train up a master engraver requires years of patient apprenticeship and continuous guidance, without which the quality that distinguishes Picchiani & Barlacchi simply cannot be achieved.
The company’s output is extensive, varied and complex, and mainly serves the cold forging and metalworking sector.
In particular, the company produces artistic medals, plaques, trophies, badges, decorations, enamels, artistic engravings, cups, and promotional merchandise, etc..
The first time you set foot inside Picchiani & Barlacchi, you are inevitably struck by the number, complexity and newness of the equipment, plant and machinery used to guarantee quantity and quality, and to keep pace with the latest manufacturing techniques.
Very soon, however, you realise that even the most advanced technology would be of little use without the continuous contribution of experienced and skilled engravers. Back in 1902 the craftsman’s dexterity was the sole means of production: even today it is essential to adding that touch of artistry that distinguishes Picchiani & Barlacchi and gives the company its unique reputation nationally and internationally.
Over the years Picchiani & Barlacchi has recorded the passage of time and Italian history with medals commissioned by public and private bodies, companies, numismatic clubs etc., to record important events.
Considered as an object of art throughout the Renaissance (especially those bearing portraits of the nobility), medals subsequently fell into disuse. More recently, however, they have been re-evaluated and have re-acquired their erstwhile prestige. When you realise how many personalities and monuments of the past have been preserved only as figures on medals, it is easy to understand their historical value. As a result, most commemorative medals have become tiny works of art, created with the same love and passion as far as larger sculptures, by artists of international repute.
Masters of the calibre of Pietro Annigoni, Antonio Berti, Marcello Tommasi, Giuliano Vangi, Iorio Vivarelli, Guido Veroi and Laura Cretara have contributed to many exhibitions over the years, promoting the medal as a form of sculpture to a wider public and spreading understanding of it as a form of art.

Detail of the medal.

The face and back of the medal.

Mr. Mario Rinaldi instructing a young engraver.

IncicamISO and ClTerminal software now include functionalities for using the new ‘‘laser pointer’‘.
At a hardware level, the laser pointer consists of a device installed on the head of the machine that emits a precision beam of red light on to the machine table.
The laser pointer allows operators to verify the real position of the work from reference on it.
At a software level IncicamISO has been given extra functionalities to permit the operator to use parts of the vectorial drawing as markers (hairline crosses). The position of these markers is written to the ISO file and transferred to Cielle’s engraving software (ClTerminal).
At the start of engraving, the program automatically asks the operator to position the laser pointer at the exact location of each marker. The software thus acquires the position and modifies the engraving paths so that the machine engraves accurately according to the real position of the work piece.
The laser pointer allows the operator to clamp and engrave all sorts of work quickly and easily.