Intals

The story of Intals and Somet started more than a century ago. In 1902, Vincenzo Vedani took over a small artistic aluminium foundry in the centre of Milan, sensing the great potential of a metal that would, over the following decades, have multiple functions and a widespread circulation. Vincenzo’s son Carlo has been developing his father’s business since 1935, paying special attention to the recovery and recycling of aluminium, and founding Vedani Carlo Metalli. The company specializes in transforming scrap aluminium, which would otherwise be destined for disposal as waste, into metal alloys that will then be used to produce new items, thanks to the characteristic of aluminium that it can be completely recycled. This is, therefore, an activity of enormous environmental value, which enables energy and natural resources to be utilized to the full and conserved.

The economic upturn in the 1950s gave a further boost to the company’s efforts and it transferred to Via Schievano, with an area of 30,000 square metres, twenty times larger than the previous site. The company grew and branched out from the regional market onto the national scene and overseas, thanks to the contribution from Carlo’s sons Vincenzo and Edoardo who joined the company in the 1960, bringing to it their crucial business acumen. Vedani Carlo Metalli continued to grow, and their systems were enhanced and systematically updated and renewed in order to be always cutting-edge. In 1988 Somet, which had been set up a few years earlier to deal with the whole sales area of the business, acquired a foundry at Ambivere, in Bergamo province, and in 1997 the brand-new Parona site, in Pavia province, came into operation; this, with its 140,000 square metres, replaced the Milan site.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Vedani Carlo Metalli and Somet continued to grow in terms both of quantity, with the two factories achieving outputs of 140,000 and 40,000 tonnes of aluminium alloys per year respectively, and of quality: the ever-greater attention to technological innovation and to respect for the environment became the guidelines for the company’s development, and led to a prestigious result – the achievement of an integrated management system based on the international certifications, for quality (ISO 9001), the environment (ISO 14001) the health and safety of workers (OHSAS 18001) and the energy (ISO 50001). With its solid financial structure, based on its own resources without surrendering to the blandishments of easy financing, Vedani Carlo Metalli and Somet continued to grow even in the years when world economy had slowed down.

Internationalization and diversification of activities accelerated the transformations that have taken place in recent times, with the entry of Edoardo’s son Marco who started managing the business in 2005, leading it through the difficult period of the worldwide crisis that began in 2008 and turning it into a basic milestone of circular economy. Now, the two companies represent a great multinational presence with commercial relations all over the world and a more and more managerial structure, thanks to the contribution of skilled professionals outside the Vedani family, who are nevertheless still 100% owners of the firm. While being able to boast a long history of success, the company tries to keep an eye on the future on a daily basis, in search of new challenges and opportunities, with the attitude of a young, dynamic firm that is not afraid of having to continually put itself on the line. To give an explicit, tangible sign of this evolution, in June 2013 Vedani Carlo Metalli changed its corporate name to Intals.

In our factories we produce aluminium alloys, using metals for recycling, processing residues and collected scraps, which would otherwise be disposed of as waste. Our alloys will then be used by other companies to produce new items thanks to the characteristic of aluminium that it can be completely reused, thus avoiding the extraction of natural deposits which creates a negative impact on the environment in terms of pollution, energy expenditure and depletion of natural resources. Each tonne of recycled aluminium avoids the emission of 2,000 Kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the consumption of 16,000 litres of water – a saving of 95% in the energy needed to produce it starting from the mineral.

Respect for the environment has long been the guiding principle of our business, inherent in our company mission that aims to recycle a very wide range of raw materials, of very different sizes, origins and types. We have therefore achieved maximum flexibility in our systems in order to be able to treat all types of materials, optimizing recycling and environmental sustainability in the entire process by using an enormous range of methods and instrumentation for treating scrap.

Economy and ecology are closely linked in the recycling process. With cutting-edge technologies, emissions are reduced to a minimum, each element is recycled and given added value with the accent on energy saving, cost containment, conserving resources and safeguarding the environment. Part of the energy and steam needed for the process is recovered from the heat emitted by the kilns and by the pyrolysis system, the scrap is cleaned in the preparation systems, the residual metal is extracted from the dross and production trimmings, the fluxes are recrystallized and an aluminous material, ArgAlum®, is obtained from the process, to be used particularly in the building sector. Recycling while fully respecting the environment is the mission that will also guide our business in the future, with a full awareness of our civil responsibility and commitment to making our contribution for improving quality of life.