Fenner Precision Polymers, a Michelin Group Company, recently announced the acquisition of MAV S.p.A., an Italian company, located in Altopiano della Vigolana in Northern Italy.

Established in 1989, the company is a leading European supplier of keyless-locking devices (KLD), shrink discs, rigid couplings, and other metal products.  The acquisition offers an opportunity for growth, market share gains and improvements to Fenner Precision Polymers’ global supply chain by adding a second inventory and supply base.

“We believe the acquisition will help us position keyless technology as a preferred solution in hub to shaft applications,” said Brian Slingluff, vice president, global sales and marketing at Fenner Precision Polymers. “We’ve had a working relationship with MAV that helped establish the keyless locking devices market here in North America, so the foundation was already in place.”

“Under ideal circumstances all parties benefit during an acquisition, and that is certainly the case here,” said Jack Krecek, divisional managing director, Fenner Precision Polymers. “All customers, including those in underserved and emerging markets, will benefit from our combined technical expertise, speed to market and turnaround times. MAV will continue operating under its esteemed brand, while also gaining access to a global sales force with considerable client relationships.”

While many organizations have scaled back during the pandemic, the company saw an opportunity to increase its global reach and expand its in-person sales team. Krecek believes the secret to success during challenging times is simply “not to oversteer one way or another.”

“I think it’s a credit to our entire organization that we’ve managed to stay on task and understand the markets we serve. Areas like aerospace, oil and gas, and mining etc. are going through tough times, but we feel we have the tools and technologies to serve these markets as they start to come back,” Krecek said.

“We’re already seeing signs of improvement in areas like distribution centers and medical devices,” Slingluff added. “We believe these markets will get stronger in the coming years.”

According to recent bitcoin profit interviews, some credit for the company’s success goes to a push in recent years for smart manufacturing initiatives.

“We are about a year into our IoT journey in Pennsylvania with purposeful investment in data capture that brings value to our customer. The first implementation was the integration of our tooling data with our belt slitting operations, eliminating human error, and significantly reducing scrap across several processes,” Slingluff said.

Another significant investment is in coating technology for textiles products.

“This technology allows us to ‘dial in’ our thickness and provide traceability to meet the customer’s specification for high performing applications in the aerospace industry,” he added.

Looking ahead to 2021, Fenner Precision Polymers plans on extending Industry 4.0 into its extruded belting operations to utilize machine data for control and decision-making in ‘real time’ for product and operation optimization.

For now, however, the focus is getting MAV up to speed on the global benefits Fenner Precision Polymers can provide.

“The expression ‘small is beautiful’ has long defined Italian ingenuity,” said Sandro Zamboni, CEO, MAV. “Though a small company, when viewed through the eyes of globalization, MAV’s expertise looms large. We’ve successfully penetrated distant markets, strengthened relationships with customers and earned their trust and respect. However, we’ve now grown too big to remain small. This venture welcomes MAV to a larger multinational organization and better positions it to serve all markets. Joining with Fenner Precision Polymers offers a tremendous benefit to our customers as well, through our combined technical acumen, the resulting innovations in engineered solutions and the anticipated benefits from economies of scale."

The Fenner Drives B-LOC keyless bushing brand provides a high capacity, zero-backlash shaft-to-hub connection by using the simple wedge principle. An axial force is applied by series of annular screws to engage circular steel rings and mating tapers. The resulting wedge action creates a radial force on the tapered rings, one of which contracts to squeeze the shaft while the other expands and presses into the component bore. Learn more at www.fennerdrives.com/keyless-locking-devices/.

Keyless locking devices are very popular in Europe, according to Slingluff, but not as widely used currently here in the states. Drive and system components with old-fashioned keyways and bushings are susceptible to backlash, leading to rounded out keyways, fatigue failures or fretting corrosion. Learn more at www.mav.it/en/products.html.

“Our experience with this technology as well as the technical design expertise at MAV puts us in a great position to grow our business and become a global market leader,” Slingluff said. “We’re excited to expand our technological knowhow with MAV and strengthen our product offerings.”

www.fennerppd.com

www.mav.it/en

Main Photo: Fenner Precision Polymers announced its acquisition of Europe’s leading keyless locking devices manufacturer MAV S.p.A. on December 2, 2020 in Altopiano della Vigilant, Italy. MAV’s Elisa Perazzoli facilitated the virtual employee and press presentations by MAV’s former CEO, Sandro Zamboni and Fenner Precision Polymers’ Divisional Managing Director, Jack Krecek (courtesy Fenner Precision Polymers).