Our History
Established in 1968 by a handful of ground breaking pioneers in the world of precision engineering, ALTA Spa has been at the top of the oil hydraulic cylinder tubes market for over 50 years, gaining itself the reputation of a reliable and highly innovative Company.
In 1967 Fluidotecnica, now named ALTA, began producing and distributing cylinder tubes with innovations that would be seen on the national scale in the following years, substantial changes in the design and construction of oil hydraulic cylinders, improving their functionality and optimizing their costs.
This innovation consisted of using cold drawn tubes instead of hot rolled tubes, and of stress relief heat treatment instead of normalization.
The mechanical properties of the steel were greatly increased and consequently the decrease in thickness, weight and cost were all values that spurred on the progress of Italian cylindrical steelmaking and the conquest of significant commercial spaces in the most advanced markets.
From the first Fulmer honing machine, manufactured in the year 1934, and which arrived in Italy as a “gift from the United States of America” with the ERP plan in the years following 1945, ALTA achieved the utmost success, made possible thanks to a combination of applied intelligence and experience gained from the new and more demanding requirements created by the market in the following periods.
In the 1970s that ALTA decided to acquire and recycle machines used in the arms trade, transforming them to be used for a more noble purpose, that of revitalizing Italian industry.
So it was that ALTA used its ever more modern and developing knowledge to create an advanced, high-production technique and apply it to two Bencini machines from the OTO Melara cannon factory in La Spezia and two Borsig machines from the torpedo factory in the arsenal in Pozzuoli (Naples).
In the early 1980s, ALTA was the first to experiment with replacing honing with rolling, a process originally intended for an entirely different purpose.
Cylinder tube manufacturers tried to follow the process ALTA had begun, but the use of tools produced differently from the technology ALTA had been equipped with by that time did not allow them to achieve excellence in tube surface roughness.
In 1992, Alta obtained ISO 9000 certification, the first company to do so in the industry, which further guaranteed very high quality standards, and it became the first point of reference for many international manufacturers of oil hydraulic cylinders.
Since 1968, the company has had a continuous and steady expansion to the distant markets of the Americas in the west and Oceania in the east, bringing the export item to more than 75% of its turnover.
In the coming years, ALTA will be increasingly focused on giving added value to its customers, raising efficiency and bringing savings to the production processes.
ALTA Spa is founded. This picture shows the document that certifies the inscription of the first employee to ALTA (Boring and Honing of Tubes and More) Spa.
With the first employees come the first machines. The first substantial changes are made in the planning and production of oil hydraulic cylinders.
Acquisition and transformation of machines originally used in the arms industry.
ALTA conquers new markets abroad. Opening of the new manufacturing plant in South Africa.
Growth leads to new headquarters being built in Tradate.
The beginning of experimentation to substitute honing with the rolling process.
The new headquarters, with a 2500 meters squared warehouse.
Obtaining ISO 9000 Certification.
Cooperation Agreement with Rothrist AG (Switzerland) tube and wire drawing mill.
ALTA becomes the top partner for ready-for-use welded tubes.Further expansion of the headquarter located at Via Brescia, Tradate, with a 5.500 mq warehouse.
The beginning of fully automated system design for tube processing with “ALTA finishing”, the birth of the T5 tube (welded tube, cold drawn, +C condition and with ALTA finishing).
The T5 project is completed with the activation of the computerised control process of the internal surface. Now the T5 automatic plant is the first in the world for quality and production capacity.
New fully automated AL-MA warehouse, with a capacity of over 3000 bundles (over 6000 tons). The system is connected to the SAP management system and receives, stores and prepares tubes for shipment to customers. Active 24 hours a day.
