Partnership in Profile: Ficep and Costa Levigatrici

In our fourth Partnership in Profile feature, Ficep UK’s Managing Director Mark Jones looks at the relationship between Ficep and Costa Levigatrici and the benefits our partnership brings to customers.

We have been the exclusive UK agent for the Italian company Costa Levigatrici for a few years now. We struck up this much valued partnership because we believe Costa represents quality in every machine it supplies, giving our customers competitive edge and a superior end result.

The company consistently sets the benchmark high for heavy duty metal deburring and surface-finishing machines, offering market leading automated machines used for the deburring of parts cut by plasma, oxy-fuel and laser. Not only do the machines eliminate dangerous and time-consuming manual grinding work but they also help businesses increase productivity and reduce production costs.

A brief history

The Costa family business goes back for five generations, starting at the beginning of 1900 with an industrial operation in Marano, Italy, where it originally manufactured hydraulic turbines, flower mills and stoves. In 1921 it introduced its first woodworking machines and in 1956 it built its first wide belt sander. In 1982 Costa Levigatrici was registered to manufacture and sell wide belt sanding machines. The company now provides deburring and grinding machines globally from four facilities in Italy.

The Costa range

The Costa range has been very popular in the UK in recent years. The compact MD4 machine is a flexible modular system which provides deburring and finishing for many applications in ferrous and non-ferrous materials.

There are also machines for grinding flat ferrous and non-ferrous parts, as well as for polishing large metal surfaces. Parts up to 150 mm thick and 1.35 m wide can be processed, and the polishing machines offer feeding speeds up to 10 m per minute. It makes these machines an ideal solution for removal of slag, burrs and oxide even when the parts are uneven or warped.

We are particularly impressed with Costa’s heavy-duty edge-rounding capabilities. For applications which for example, require superior edge quality to meet EN1090 higher execution class requirements, such as Bridges (road & rail) or industrial plants with high hazard potential, and safety critical structures with high consequence of failure. Costa’s machines XRS and XVS machines give a consistent and smooth 2mm radius which provides better coating application, on the edges of material.

Its Group R heavy deburring machine has oscillating brushes which rotate on their axes, covering the entire working surface. By combining the rotation with high frequency oscillation, the machine delivers perfectly uniform rounding on the edges, whatever the shape. Costa’s Group D unit offers heavy slag removal, utilising backing pads with hardened steel pins to give components a dross free surface.

For wet and dry sheet surface finishing, the Group C machine provides one of the largest roller and belt cylinders on the market. The long-lasting belt is less prone to tears as it is covered with special rubber and oil and is heat resistant with special high temperature bearings for applications which demand high abrasive power.

When polishing wide stainless-steel sheets, the quality of the surface finish remains consistent until belt life finishes, as the machines automatically compensate for wear of the belts. This is possible thanks to the machine’s inbuilt PLC which extends the life of the consumables which further reduces processing costs.

For added peace of mind, all machines in the Costa range exceed CE and OSHA approval and include noise reduction systems and special devices to protect operators, safe systems of work are a key factor in today’s modern equipment purchase.

To find out more about Costa Levigatrici, visit www.costalev.com