In Depht 11_2011_Est.indd - CASAGRANDE GROUP

C6: stories and emC6: storie eEvents and anecdotes told by someone that lived andmade history with the world’s best-selling hydrauliccrawler foundation drilling rig.And of those that took up the challenge to upgrade it.With age and experience, whether referredto personal or to professional life, each ofus has anecdotes to relate, stories of objects,places and people. We all associate objectsto emotions and, when these are recurrent andcommon to a number of people, they assume therole of icons.Vespa, KTM, the Golf with sun-roof, the R4, Levis 501,down outerwear, tear-drop shaped Ray-Bans, leather briefcases,the extra watch, Lacoste and many others. Dependingon the objects on the list, the owner’s age and habits canbe assessed. It is rare to find this type of example in the durableassets sector. However, for those like us that work in thespecial foundations and ground consolidation sector, an exception exists: it is called C6.From the many, we have collected some stories from those that had hands-on experience of the C6.Sergio CasagrandeIn the early days it used to be called SCM 5004, a name too long and complicated for a sincere and straightforward person that knows only too well the value of effective communication. Born in 1979, the SCM 5004(then 5006) soon turned, simply, into “C6”. Nevertheless, the name is only the beginning. “Through its threedecadelong history, the C6 – relates Sergio Casagrande, President of Casagrande S.p.A. –, has undergone10 important evolutions; actually, 10 stages of improvement that have brought it to being unanimously esteemedfor performance and reliability”.It is from daily needs that great stories are born. “Initially it was an expedient for mining machines, and thefirst client to become a firm believer in this new concept of machine was Spinetta Marengo’s Sacco Companyin Alessandria, Italy”. It was in fact Sergio Casagrande himself, when he was a salesman in the firm, whosold the first C6 in 1979.Evolution (which we would nowadays call “sustained improvement”) is the red thread of C6’s history. “Fromthe very beginning we gathered very positive feedback from our clients – continues Sergio Casagrande –.Nevertheless, we never stopped striving to obtain the maximum at all costs. We knew that our clients wouldwant precisely this”. And so, in one work site after another, C6 has become the testing bench for designers,technicians and commercial people alike. “The dedication and will to innovate it of those that designed, builtand sold it, became the veritable strong points of the machine itself”. A challenge that, as then, is still validtoday.Mariano Roman“To win, you need a dream”, begins the industrial director of Casagrande S.p.A. Mariano Roman, who madeinnovation become the “mission” of its close team of engineers. “Our aim was to build a machine that wouldbecome a reference for the market, one that would represent a breakthrough compared with the previous version”.It cannot be denied that this was an ambitious goal to say the least, “because improving an absolutechampion like the C6 was, proved to be a huge challenge but, at the same time, absolutely fascinating”. Bornand bred in the automotive world, with an innate passion for engines, Roman compares the C6 myth to thatwhich in turn was an absolute myth for the automobile market: the Volkswagen Golf. “Series 1 and 2 of theVolkswagen Golf were reference points for the motor car sector, then followed by the 3 series which took allmarket rules by storm in terms of performance and perceived quality”.In other words, the challenge that Roman and his team faced with the C6XP, was to make a superior machinewith a correct price positioning: “To take the real and perceived quality of this drilling rig to a superior level– the industrial director continues – we have introduced innovative concepts such as “Full Load Sensing” management,the FTW (Front The Wall) patented system, noiselessness (this is unrivalled in the C6), a practicallytotal versatility”. A result of this kind was made possible thanks to a “focussed partnership strategy with thebest suppliers in the sector”, Roman concludes.Severino TrainottiSeverino Trainotti, co-founder of Casagrande in 1963 with Bruno Casagrande, has lived and left his markon 50 years of this great company’s history. At 79 years of age, he has just recently abandoned the worksite, a proof of an enthusiasm deeply-rooted in his heart. “The first C6s? We tested them by sinking wells onSaturdays and Sundays”…. Wells were therefore the object of the experimentation, and the testing groundwas Fontanafredda itself. “The first hole was drilled at my house, - Trainotti remembers – the second at BrunoCasagrande’s house. We would “go down” 40 metres to carry out our testing, even if good water is alreadyfound at around 28-30 metres in this area. One day we tested the C6 right here on Casagrande’s land: to sellthe machine to a German firm we drilled down to 40 metres. We totally fl ooded the grounds!”.For him too, the C6 is a tale of great innovations that stemmed from worksite experiences. “I would alwaysreturn home with new proposals: I used to outline what was needed to work more efficiently to the engineers,and they would devise the required modifications”. “One day, I remember working at Ponte di Legno – Tonale,in the mountains. The C6 wasn’t equipped with brakes to work on such an incline. That time we had to resortto makeshift stops to block the machine. Once home, I told the designers that the machine had to be providedwith brakes”.Day by day, job after job, thanks to amazing team work (worksite technicians and office engineers), the C6has become what it is today: a timeless myth. This machine has undergone countless transformations and yet ithas kept its most outstanding characteristic unchanged and genuine: its capacity to evolve. And so, 32 yearsafter its debut, Casagrande is ready to present the C6 in its renewed version, marked with the acronym XP,which stands for “Extra Performance”.