Microchannel Devices was born as a spin-off of STV Italia, parent company of 5 companies with production sites in Italy, France, Hungary, Romania and Brazil. For over 50 years the group has been operating in the industrial photoengraving market for the production of silk-screen printing dies and chemically etched photo metal components. STV Italia takes care of the strategic planning and of the research and innovation for the whole group, and it is from this activity that MCD comes to life.

A successful project that was born from the territory and evolves with it, thanks to the collaboration with realities such as Politecnico, MESAP, IIT, whose mission is to connect and enhance the potential of the realities of the north-west in Italy. And, of course, as LIFTT, which follows step by step an intuition that has now become a Factory 4.0 in Settimo Torinese.

We talked about it with Alessandro Vaiarelli, CEO of MCD.

What is the rationale for this spin off?

“After the crisis of 2008-2009, we asked ourselves how we could evolve the company’s business, which was born in the 1960s, into something more innovative and modern. We wanted to go beyond a mature industrial market, overcoming the limits imposed on those who provide services and products in subcontracting. The goal was to use our technologies to create a proprietary product that would add value for us and appeal to a global market.”

But had you spotted this product before?

“Yes. In those years, the company was supplying photo-etched plates for an innovative product, PCHEs (Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers). A new market had opened up following the expiration of their inventor’s patent: several players in the energy sector in Europe – including the former Areva, the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique and the main heat exchanger manufacturers – started RD projects using the plates supplied by STV.

In 2015, however, we realized that this high-tech product, pertaining to a de facto monopolistic market, from a manufacturing point of view was 80% made with our components.  STV’s ambition was to break this de facto monopoly, with its rigidities and lack of innovation typical of these situations, and to do so faster than the other potential players trying to develop such products. To do so, we needed to fill two gaps: know-how related to heat exchanger engineering and diffusion bonding technology.”

How have you bridged these gaps?

“It sounds like rhetoric but it’s reality: by working as a system, exploiting the synergies, skills and excellence present in the area. In fact, we launched a feasibility study as part of the Piedmontese Innovation Pole MESAP, involving the Turin Polytechnic and an engineering company, AMET, which would later become our partner, and we used the funds made available by the region through Finpiemonte for the first time for R&D activities. From the technological point of view, we did not want to follow the main road established by the inventor of the PCHE, today the market leader, but we wanted to find a technical solution that would allow us to have an innovative product and that would enhance one of the most important skills and assets of STV Italia, that is to be able to produce photoengraved plates also of large size.

With this feasibility study it has been demonstrated the possibility to design and produce exchangers of the PCHE family with the technology of diffusion bonding in hot isostatic pressing.

 At that point, always with the same partners and supported by POR-FERS funds, we launched a broader and more articulated research project called XL_PCHE that allowed us to develop our technology at a TLR 7 level, that is verified in an industrial environment. Finally, two patents related to the innovative process developed have been developed and filed.”In the picture some phases of the industrial scale production process of the first XL PCHE

You then built an entrepreneurial project around this idea.

“With the technology developed, in 2019 we decided to proceed to industrialization by creating Microchannel Devices srl, an innovative SME with a strong manufacturing connotation.

We then acquired a 4,000 sqm property, renovated it, installed laboratories (to continue research), purchased machinery and equipment, obtained permits and certifications, hired engineers and technicians, all with the goal of creating a modern 4.0 facility.In the photos the first machines installedIn the photo the Microchannel operational headquarters in Settimo Torinese

LIFTT’s contribution played a key role in all of this. Here comes the synergistic role of the territory again! Working with LIFTT has opened doors for us to venture capital finance and beyond.”

An industry open to investors

“Doing business in 2022 does not allow for long gestation periods, or for moderately diluting interventions over the years. Quite simply, the global context in which you operate does not allow it. Hence the need to undertake seamless development through a series of capital increase rounds, and of course the importance of involving third party partners. Being innovative means, above all, a change in approach: from a family-owned company to a company with widespread capital. So here we are at the realization of our idea: at the beginning of 2022, the production of large-format microchanneled plates started and we are in the process of completing investments through a new round of capital increase for the installation of the largest HIP furnace in Europe, which will take place in the third quarter of the year.”


In the picture Alessandro Vaiarelli with Freddy Aps and Jean Michel Chaillet visiting the supplier of the kiln to be delivered at the end of the summer at the Settimo Torinese plant.

Even the location of the plant reflects a dialogue and commitment to the area.

“Yes, even this achievement is the result of collaboration and dialogue with those who actively work to create a positive impact on the territory. I wouldn’t hesitate to call it the “Piedmont Model”, as opposed to other models that are also geographically close and about which there is a lot of talk, especially thanks to shrewd territorial marketing. In this region, we prefer understatement, but also concreteness: having interlocutors such as LIFTT and world-class entrepreneurs who are an expression of the territory, such as Stefano Buono and the Investors Club, or financial institutions such as Intesa Sanpaolo, very attentive to local companies and our bank of reference for over 50 years, means being included in a virtuous circle, as well as an added value difficult to detect in other contexts. In this particular case, I would also like to underline the high quality of the collaboration with the Municipality of Settimo, which has “made a system” by supporting the development of the abandoned industrial area of Cebrosa. This is a strategic area, at the entrance to the Turin-Milan freeway and the main communication arteries, but above all with a high industrial concentration: as the Mayor, Elena Piastra, recently told La Stampa, this site has been renamed “High Productivity” because of its proximity to the high-speed railway line. Names such as Google, Tim, L’Oréal and other important companies on the industrial scene operate here.”

Next steps?

“In the meantime, as often happens, there has been an evolution of Microchannel Devices’ mission. If at first this was very “product oriented”, i.e. focused on producing PCHE made in HIP technology for the traditional Oil & Gas market, in the last two years we have caught the evolution of the markets. In particular, we were struck by the explosion of interest in the hydrogen sector, again in the energy field, but also by the possibility of using micro-channeled devices in other segments such as “carbon capture”, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), or even applications in the field of waveguide antennas. Being aware of this strong interest, has allowed us to change the mission of the company in the business plan 2.0, no longer “product oriented” but “market oriented”, where the market of reference relates to the production of micro-channel devices for the energy transition and circular economy. A challenge within a challenge that is extremely fascinating and, in the end, inevitable, if we really want to intercept the market of tomorrow.”

Who works at MCD?

“The human factor is essential for us, and we strongly wanted to create a team of young talents. Also in this case we have drawn from the territory, thanks to the collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin. To date, we have hired six young engineers alongside senior managers from international companies in the sector such as Jean Michel Chaillet and Freddy Aps: we are a team in progress and naturally projected towards the future.”Young engineers and senior technicians, a winning mix

PCHE

The Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger is a heat exchanger made of photo-etched plates containing micro-channels transformed into a monolithic block through a solid state welding process (Diffusion Bonding). It is extremely compact and has a high heat exchange efficiency (up to 98%). PCHEs are a valid alternative to traditional Tube & Shell exchangers in all applications involving liquids or gases at high pressures and temperatures, limited space and critical applications such as off-shore platforms or LNG vessels.

Precisely because of its operational characteristics, the PCHE has become in recent years a key component in hydrogen distribution systems (refueling stations) and this has led to a significant expansion of the reference market.