Benchmark in the manufacturing of products used in the electric wiring market, CS confirms its soundness, a clear vision for the future as well as an outstanding propensity for unceasing evolution and the research of more competitiveness.
Specialized in the design and manufacturing of connection systems used in the electric wiring market, CS can offer custom solutions for connector-metal terminal applications, and can design whole connection systems with full compatibility and interchangeability with other systems manufactured by competitor companies. All activities are carried out by the headquarters at Cernusco s/N, in the outskirts of Milan, on over 3,000 sq. m. of operational surface, by a skilled staff composed by around forty employees and an articulated machine fleet. A properly organized structure, also recently enlarged by the implementation of a new area of 250 sq. m., hosting the new administration offices, the quality department, the technical design office and a new course room for the team’s updating and training.
Precisely in these new spaces we met Silvano Colombo, international marketing manager and president of the American subsidiary CS Colombo Usa, Inc., operating for 21 years, and the sales director Stefano Scaglioni; a favourable opportunity to outline the company’s state-of-the-art, the investments, the innovations in progress and the targets for the future. «CS – Silvano Colombo affirms – is living a period of important changes. One of them, besides the investment in the new office area, has concerned the management of commercial activities, with the arrival of Mr Scaglioni in the role of sales manager. Effervescence and dynamism that are mirrored also by new operational partnerships, like the one established with one of our distributors with whom we are extending production activities. Manufacturing always oriented to the market of connectors, however no longer intended only for the household appliance industry but also for electronics and industrial automation».
| CS IN NUMBERS 40 employees 3,000 sq. m. of manufacturing surface +10 million Euros of turnover +25 moulding presses (10 Ă· 250 tons) 800 million components produced yearly |
Made-in-Italy design and manufacturing
CS exclusively produces in Italy, betting on competences, know-how and expertise, as well as on constant research and development activities. Three are the departments that support the operational activity: the mechanical toolshop, which is a fundamental division for a company that has founded its existence in the field of the thermoplastic mould construction (the founder, Sergio Colombo, was one of the pioneers in the sector in 1949); the manufacturing department that benefits from constant investments in new presses, and the logistic area.
Each process phase is supervised by the technical office, coordinated and managed by the engineer Stefano Colombo, whose competences drive the whole development cycle of each product, from the mould design to the production start.
The production department is equipped with 25 presses for thermoplastic material, all made in Europe and periodically renovated, with a tonnage ranging from 10 to 150 tons, able to satisfy all kinds of requirements.
«The machine fleet – Scaglioni explains more in detail – is in progressive transition from hydraulic to electric technology. Furthermore, according to the 4.0 vision, the interconnection under completion is integrating an increasingly precise control process, aimed at improving the corporate efficiency».
A noteworthy production capacity that can be enhanced if needed through the collaboration with selected external suppliers to grant bigger volumes, matching flexibility and short delivery terms in full compliance with the qualitative standards that have always characterized the company.
«The mechanical tooling department – Scaglioni adds – is composed by numerous machine tools such as tangential grinding machines, CNC milling machines, wire and plunge spark erosion machines, lathes and machining centres. The mould design and the control of the machines installed in department are fully carried out by using a forefront CAD-CAM platform».
Flexibility, rapidity and process quality as support of more competitiveness
Professionalism, dedication and expertise of the staff operating in the mechanical toolshop division allow the design and the manufacturing of high-quality and precision moulds. Multi-cavity moulds, in some cases with even 128 cavities, able to process manifold resins with different characteristics. In this context, the quality and the accuracy in the mould making, proven at productive level, allow CS to guarantee their ultra-decennial operation; the advanced logistic management, due to specialized workers and digital control tools, permits to organize efficiently the real-time connection with the production, speeding up job order fulfilment times. In this approach as well the value of the service expressed by the company emerges, as founding element of its activity: productivity, quality, approvals but also service and delivery promptness.
«The latter aspect – Silvano Colombo intervenes – results in the job order fulfilment capability, due to the warehouse availability, within 4-6 weeks, in comparison with the standard delivery terms that the reference market sets at over 10 weeks. Prerogative joined by the great flexibility of being allowed acting directly on manufacturing, changing it according to requirements, priorities and urgency. All that thanks to a lean and efficient organization, in view of higher competitiveness».
Customization and innovation in synergy
Stronghold of CS, as well as differentiating element and important part of the company’s activities, is also the manufacturing of “custom” products, which also improve the performances, the safety and the lifespan versus what currently available on the market.
CS tends to underline the weak points of the corresponding items by the primary competitors and to find different solutions to improve the functionality.
«Innovative designs developed upon precise specification – Scaglioni points out – that lead to the implementation of highly customized products intended for a determined assembling line, a determinate applicative ambit to satisfy determinate requisites».
Customization and innovation in synergy, then, like in the successful case that has resulted in the development of a particular secondary safety system integrated on the connector.
«I am referring for instance to the product range called MFT – Scaglioni specifies – on which we have worked hard to improve its performances of mechanical safety, essentially intervening on the terminal housing part. Actually, we have provided a winning answer to the demand for a secondary safety on the connector».
If in fact previously, to prevent eventual malfunctions detectable only on the mounted connector, the market provided for the use of a second piece in addition to the connector, to be bought separately (with accessory costs) as secondary safety, CS has succeeded in designing and manufacturing a fully integrated solution.
«In brief – Scaglioni explains – CS was able to integrate directly into the connector one or two safety locks, depending on the number of ways, by implementing a foldable flap to lock the terminal firmly inside its seat».
The success and the positive feedback obtained on the market for this solution – not only in the sector of household appliances but more and more also in the automotive field – has induced the company itself to extend such integration concept also to other connector typologies.
Outlining the market and new strategies
The visit in CS was also the opportunity to outline the state-of-the-art of the market.
«After crossing a period, from the second half of 2020 to almost all 2021 – Silvano Colombo comments – characterized by a real hyper-productivity that, actually, has led to double the turnover with good margins, also our company had to face a new market scenario affected by the exponential growth of the costs of raw materials, of the energy and of transports. In my opinion, very speculative growth since without any connection with the global context. At the present state, prices are in a phase of minimal variation and they tend to use the speculative variant to each event, also not related to the industrial sector; we do not expect a return to normal conditions, or better, to the pre-Covid period; it is a consolidated fact for all industrial fields that the supply/demand law has been overcome by the demand/speculation. Years ago, memory recalls the demands based on the dollar/oil variations, now dollar/Euro/oil. We are living a quite stagnant phase that we hope it will not last for a long time. Growth opportunities are not missing and our reorganization and our operational upgrade are framed precisely in this direction. Despite the presence of the well-known war conflicts, our vision remains positive, also thanks to our good market ranking. We go on looking forward with caution, backed also by our financial soundness and independence».
A security condition consolidated along the years that, in time, has allowed and allows the company to make huge investments. One of them is for instance the installation, on the roof of its factory, of a photovoltaic plant with 228 kW of peak, which allows satisfying about 20% of its energy requirements.
«Moreover – Silvano Colombo ends – an ambitious and exclusive project for the future implementation of a geothermal plant, for the cooling of manufacturing plants, is in progress. Looking at the future from the most strategic point of view, we do not hide we are also searching for a partner for a company takeover, with the goal, without overlapping, to further increase our production and distribution capacity». Manufacturing capacity that today reaches around 800 million components produced every year, for a turnover that is expected to exceed 10 million Euros.
| NEW 1-POLE CONNECTOR FOR 6.3 MM LOW INSERTION FORCE FLAG TERMINAL CS Connectors has designed and is currently manufacturing a new 1-pole connector for 6.3 mm low insertion force flag terminal for wires from 2.5 up to 5 sqmm section. The connector part number is 63N013.03 and is already available for sale. The same connector is produced in polyamide with self-extinguishing class V-2 or V-0 (according to UL 94) and also in no-flame version, compatible with the specifications for unattended appliances (GWEPT 750 °C without flame). Different colors can be available on demand. The main features of the new connector are the presence of a nose on the lid to keep the size of the cable entrance and an internal locking system to push the terminal into its position before closing the lid. Also, the length of the protection of the crimping area is longer than a standard connector to fully shield that critical region.  |
