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LINKHere a threedimensional modelof the chain link (pitch350 mm, weight 48 Kg) is shown.This extremely sophisticated component hasbeen improved to provide better structural toughnessas well as a notable depth of track wear. The nuthousings are cylindrical and guarantee better antiscrewgrip for the shoe fixing screws.LOWER ROLLERThe design with reinforced heavy-dutyedges and total protection for the sealgroup ensures maximum reliability andlong life (roller weight 525 Kg). The sealgroup can workin arctictemperatures(-50°C) withspecialHeavy DutyBerco rings inCast ChromeVanadium(minimum strength 65HRC), which is anti-wear, anti-scuff andanti-rust. The bronze thrust bearingrings are floating and the bushings havean increased surface.FRONT WHEEL WITH FORKAND GREASE CYLINDERThe composed wheel is made witha hot laminated ring, with forgedand treated hub, with side disksmade from high resistantwelded material (total weight3050 Kg).The fork is forged, treated andwelded to the cylinder rod afterthe joining zone to avoid stresspoints, the side supports are attachedto the pin using conical pegs.3TRACK-SHOEThe shoe is made from ahot-pressed piece, treated andtempered to provide the right combinationof hardness and toughness, shoe width 800 mm,weight 130 Kg.PUSHING CYLINDERThese completely hydraulic unit(total weight 790 Kg) functionslike a normalspring tensioner.The cylinder(internaldiameter 320mm) is connectedto a specifichydraulic circuitfrom the machine andconnected through a valveblock designed by Berco.The push can be set to a maximumof 220 tons.

Lynx 2000:The new Berco proposal forcamshaft and crankshaft grinding6Although it uses an “antique” processingprinciple, the grinder is relatively “young”compared to other machines such as thelathe, the milling machine or the drillingmachine.With the introduction of steel for toolson the market in 1855, which was toohard to be worked after it had beentempered, the American company Brown& Sharp was pushed to find analternative solution to traditionalmachines.By modifying one of their own parallellathes in such a way as to make itsuitable to hold a grinder holder head,the American manufacturer introducedthe first cylindrical grinder on themarket in 1858.This “grinding lathe” was soon found tobe insufficient for the needs, and itwas again Brown & Sharp who presentedthe first universal grinder at the CenturialExhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.The enormous development of the carindustry at the beginning of the centurygreatly increased the demand and useof these machines, and with this camethe introduction of grinders with differentfunctions with respect to the simpleexternal circular grinder.And it was exactly at this time thatBerco, founded in 1920 as a tractionrepair workshop, built its first universalgrinding machine.Since then the range and the technologyof the Berco grinders has evolved inan exponential manner, with theintroduction of specific grinders forcamshafts and crankshafts, for cylindersand heads, for rods, and so on.Thanks to their reliability and machiningprecision, the Berco grinders havebecome a reference point throughoutthe world of internal combustion enginereconditioning and for the productionof small special series.This undisputed world leadership inthe sector is in fact confirmed by themore than 7,000 machines sold, manyof which are still in operation, to thegreat satisfaction of their users.In more recent years, despite the factthat electronics haveeven further improvedtheir performance,there have been nochanges to the basic working principlesand the grinders continue to be used onlyin the sector of engine reconditioning.The constant wish for innovation andresearch into a revolutionary solutionhas led, after three years of study andresearch, to the birth of the Lynx 2000.Of a mechanical simplicity but at thesame time extremely sophisticated,easy to use despite the increased useof electronics, rigid and precise in itsperformance, the Lynx 2000 can beused to grind both camshafts andcrankshafts, with only one positioning,without any manual zeroing operations,without any centring operations betweenthe misaligned points and counterbalancingusing rotating weights.The Lynx 2000 is certainly arevolutionary machine and is destinedto become a new standard in the fieldof grinding machines, not only inreconditioning but also and above allin the field of production.The machine will be officially presentedin September at the AutomechanicaFair in Frankfurt, and again in Octoberat the Bimu in Milan.Berco NewsOne of the first Berco grinding machines (1930)

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TRAINING OF THE UNIVERSITYOF KENTUCKYON “LEAN MANUFACTURING”8Berco NewsAs we told you in the last edition of“Berco News”, a new colleague joinedus on January 10th from John DeereDubuque, Mr Richard Rasmer, whofor the next two years will be workingon the joint Berco/John Deere projectaimed at cost reduction through theapplication of the concept of leanmanufacturing (refer also to the articleon page 10 of the January “BercoNews”, Course in Lean Manufacturing).With this aim a Berco task force hasbeen created with ten members(representatives of the purchasing,administration, sales, engineering,maintenance, production and qualitydepartments) to work alongside MrRasmer in the determined and constantstruggle for efficiency.Within this project, during the secondweek of February a meeting wasorganised at Copparo with someprofessors and assistants from the“Centre for Robotics and ManufacturingSystems” at the University of Kentucky,the main event being a "simulation"of lean manufacturing.31 Berco employees (among whichdirectors, general managers, machineoperators, workshop and departmentmanagers and technical and/oradministrative staff) were involvedin this "simulation", which lasted fortwo days in the company conferencespace.In short, it involved assembling somesimple electrical components (resistors,diodes, switches, and so on) on aplastic support to obtain a final productwhich is a “card” which, if producedcorrectly, attached to a battery, switcheson a LED.Applying some fundamentally simpletechniques such as “kanban”, "visualcontrol", "operations standardisation",and so on, it was demonstrated thatit is possible to obtain enormousimprovements in costs, quality, clientsatisfaction and production capacity.Richard Rasmer together with the professors and assistants of the University of KentuckyEven though during the simulationthe application of these techniqueswas shown to be very simple, applyingthem to the Berco production reality,which is far more complex, is much lessimmediate, although the validity ofthe methods demonstrated by ourfriends from the University of Kentuckyis clearly unquestionable.On another note the meeting onThursday and Friday between theBerco/John Deere group and theUniversity of Kentucky was much moreoperational, carrying out a detailedanalysis of the problems in the Bercosplit-links production department(work standardisation and productioncellularisation).In the near future the group activitieswill focus on other projects, amongwhich the study of material flows inthe two new departments of sealgroupsmachining and heattreatment/machining of sprockets, sothat the “machine which changed theworld” (as the lean manufacturing isdefined in a basic document onproduction organisation) becomesone of the most profitable Bercoinvestments.One moment in the lean manufacturing simulationProf. Heard (on the right) gives the last instructions

Updating the companyorganisational structureThe evolution of our company requires constant andcontinual changes.The flexibility requested in the working hours and thetechnological innovations in the factories are not enough,if these are not followed up with suitable organisationalmodifications in line with the new production needs.It is in this light that we must interpret the changes madein the production areas, the introduction of a newdirectorate of hot-forging and the nomination of theIndustrial Deputy/Assistant General Manager.The integration and improvement of the synergies in thethree Berco factories require the support of a profile withconsolidated experience who can co-ordinate the productionactivities. This task has been entrusted to Eng. GianfrancoMercuriali, previously the Director of the Berco factory inCastelfranco Veneto, who has taken up this new positionof Industrial Deputy/General Manager.He will take up this new position by the middle of this year,gradually as is needed, also to allow Eng. Aldo Battistinto leave the Busano factory under the joint responsibilityof Eng. Davide Pivi and Eng. Francesco Buriani and totake up the management of the Castelfranco Venetofactory in place of Eng. Mercuriali.On top of these foreseen changes, the company mustalso be ready to react in a timely manner to unforeseenevents, such as members of the management leaving thecompany.As far as this matter is concerned, following the departureof Ennio Dottori, Director of Personnel, from the company,to whom we would also like to wish every success in hisnew position, from April 1st Daniele Mingozzi will take upthe position of Personnel Manager and will manage theactivities relating to human resources in the three Bercofactories.Eng. Gianfranco Mercuriali will also be empowered in hisnew role as Industrial Deputy/General Manager, withresponsibility for activities relating to industrial relationsand contractual matters linked to production.New representatives named on the Thyssen-KruppEuropean Company Committee9Last January, in Dortmund, Germany, the works for the constitution of the newE.C.C. – European Company Committee of ThyssenKrupp AG took place.The E.C.C. is the only trans-national union organisation whose constitution isregulated by legislation, and has rights of information and consultation, althoughit has no contracting rights.One of the tasks of the E.C.C. is the diffusion of information on the technical andfinancial aspects of the group and it generally meets after the Board of Directorshas given out this data.Following the merger of the Thyssen and Krupp groups, it was necessary todisband the overlapping E.C.C.s in order to form a common one.The number of members has been reduced from 70 to 50, and by 2002 it will bereduced by another 15. The number of members of the Presidency has been fixedat eight, and for its composition it has been decided that out of eight, four mustbe German and four foreign, with the President and one Vice President beingGerman and another two Vice Presidents being foreign.Apart from Italy and Germany, the countries represented are: Austria, Belgium,France, Great Britain, Liechtenstein, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, andthe choice of the nominations has been made on the basis of the workingpersonnell in these countries. Salvatore Pece, representative of the co-ordinationof the RSU (work-council) at the Berco factory in Copparo, has been electedMember, beating the competition of the representatives of the other Europeancountries as well as the other Italian representative from the Acciaierie di Terni.At the head of the new union organism the following have also been elected: WernerNass from TKMS (President), Harald Gedike from TA Deutschland, FernandezJosè-Luis Manzano from Thyssen Boetticher and Daniel Demange from CG2a.Berco Newsis a quarterly House Organpublished for its employees,customers,suppliers and friends.The articles and photographs mayonly be reproducedwith the editor’sexplicit authorisation.Graphic Design:Berco CommunicationEditorial office: Berco News44034 Copparo (Ferrara) Italytel. +39-0532-864404fax +39-0532-864259e-mail: a.sbordoni@berco.comPrinted by SIACA ARTI GRAFICHECopies:Italian 4500 copiesEnglish 2700 copiesFrench 2.000 copies

Berco elected Partner Supplierfor agricultural machinesfrom John Deere - Waterloo10Berco NewsDimitris Karnaros our guestfor five weeks’ trainingEven Dimitris, son of Mr. CostasKarnaros - Berco dealer for Greece,before joining the family business,wanted to complete his preparationwith a five weeks trainingprogramme in the different officesand departments at the Bercofactory in Copparo.Like him, other young entrepreneurs,born and bred in homes where theBerco name is part of the family,have been enthusiastic about thisexperience.Dimitris, 25 years old, has a degreein computer engineering from theUniversity of Brighton in England,and in a letter of thanks to theManaging Director Giovanni Bertoni,underlines that he received excellentcollaboration and informationfrom the Berco managers in thevarious departments, and that hedid his training in a supportiveand friendly environment.“I would like to inform you thatall I have learned at Berco, onthe products, internal companyorganisation, will be put to thebest use to promote the Berconame and the quality of itsproducts in the best possible way”.And we wish him every successin his career.Dimitris KarnarosOn 2nd February last, Berco and Bercoof America received the recognition oftheir status as PARTNER SUPPLIER forJohn Deere of Waterloo and thus becamepart of a small and select circle ofcompanies with whom the factory hasclose relations of excellence.As we have mentioned on severaloccasions before now, John Deereevaluates its suppliers on the basis ofpre-established criteria concerning:quality, punctuality of delivery, technicalsupport, cost management andwavelength, and the status of PARTNERrepresents the highest grade a strategicsupplier can reach over a year.For Berco, this recognition representsan even greater and exceptional successif we consider that the first supply wasdone only a short time ago.Furthermore, the working relations withthe most important world wide producerof agricultural tractors has meant forus the possibility to enter this newmarket segment, which had never beenapproached before.For the Waterloo factory, Berco producesrubberised mid-roller wheels for thelarge 8000T and 9000T series tractorsand is investigating the possibility toproduce also other parts of theundercarriage and maybe even thecomplete undercarriage.Our entry into the “green” business ofJohn Deere has certainly been easedand helped by the excellent relationswhich already exist with the factoriesin Dubuque, Davenport, Kernersvilleand Saltillo in the construction machinedivision.In the photo, Tom Keating from JohnDeere Waterloo, in front of one of the9400T series tractors, handing theplaque to W. Schmitz-Meimbresse, U.Kleinekordt and S. Image.

R A L O TBerco distributor tothe mines in the ex-Soviet UnionSince 1976 Mr. Carlo Gherzi, Chairmanof the company Ralot, has been livingand working in Moscow.Thanks to his perfect grasp of theRussian language (learned in Italy andimproved during many trips and studytours to Moscow) and to his excellentprofessional skills, right from thebeginning of his time in Russia, CarloGherzi managed to become knownwithin the various ministries and becamethe official supplier (and trusted friend)for the supply of bulldozer spare partsfor all the mines across the Sovietterritory.In 1990 Carlo Gherzi founded thecompany RALOT, with the main aim ofsupplying agricultural and food plantsto process the many agricultural productsgrown in Russia in order to obtainfinished products, as well as the moretraditional sales of spare parts which bythen was totally consolidated.Russia is an enormous country, and tosatisfy the needs of its more distantcustomers, Ralot has opened branchesin some of the strategic cities for spareparts sales, like Surgut (in the Tumenregion), Jakutsk (the Saha Republic),Magadan (Magadan region), Khabarosk(the Khabarosk territory), Norilsk (inthe Taimirskij region), as well as in Kiev(Ukraine) and Almaty (Kazakhstan).These offices are all under the controlof the main office in Moscow and areconnected through an Intranet to be ableto respond to the requests coming fromthe peripherical offices in real time.Berco began its collaboration in 1998when a meeting with the Berco salesdirector paved the way for a closecollaboration in the field Ralot hasalways worked in.Some important contracts were signedimmediately with Ralot’s main customerswho, having used the Berco products inarctic and in heavy duty soil conditions,found them to be of a far superiorquality than was expected and, aboveall, far superior than the productsoffered by the competition.The Ralot engineers take part on arotational basis in the training coursesheld at Berco, with the aim ofunderstanding the latest technologiesand new company products in orderto be able to share them with theclients.On the sales side, Carlo Gherzicollaborates with his brother Pierluigi,who co-ordinates the customer enquirieswith the Berco offices and takes careof the logistics of shipping the goodsto the most remote areas of the RussianFederation.In 2000 Ralot and Berco will participatetogether in the most important tradefairs of the sector, which will take placein Moscow, Kiev, Almaty, Tashkent andBaku.Carlo Gherzi11Carlo and Pierluigi GherziPressure washing of the extracted minerals to separate the gold