Prima Power: Level Up Your Fabrication Processes to Respond to Evolving Trends
By Rachel Duran
Metal fabricators know there is nothing like exposure to advanced technologies to see firsthand how products and services will solve their greatest challenges — and make life easier — as well as provide inspiration for new projects.
In September 2025, Prima Power provided North American media with exclusive behind‑the‑scenes access to its production lines and facilities located in northern Italy and southern Finland. The tour spotlighted the innovation, processes and people behind Prima Power’s sheet metal solutions.
Prima Power’s brand is “Evolve by Integration,” where they assist in scaling up, or “leveling up” their customers productivity levels, and in turn, contribute to the evolution of the overall sheet metal industry. This theme was on display and demonstrated throughout the tour of Prima Power’s facilities and at their customers’ sites.
Prima Power, headquartered in Collegno, near Turin, Italy, is a company of Prima Industrie. It manufactures the metal fabrication industry’s widest range of technologies, comprised of: 2D and 3D laser machines; punching machines; combined punch-laser and punch-shear systems; panel benders; press brakes; robotic bending cells; and Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), which includes storage tower and material handling solutions.
In addition to in-depth site visits to Prima Power’s facilities in both countries, the visitors toured two customer companies, EPTA Group, the no. 1 independent global provider focused on producing components for the commercial refrigeration sector, located in Casale Monferrato, Italy; and Steelcomp Oy, a subcontractor that manufactures sheet metal parts, welded steel structures, and conducts product assemblies, located in Kauhava, Finland.
Steelcomp has several machines from Prima Power to support its capabilities in sheet metal for functions such as punching, bending, laser cutting and welding. The company has expanded its operations to support advanced automation capabilities, which includes a Prima Power Night Train automatic storage system purchased in 2022. Steelcomp has a place for 600 pallets in the system and uses 280 pallets at the moment. “Because we need a buffer, we have the possibility to use a total of 500 pallets,” said Daniel Tot-Egete, sales manager, Steelcomp.
EPTA Group’s Casale Monferrato metal shop is the most vertical production site in the IARP-EPTA lineup, which features several machines from Prima Power comprised of panel benders, press brakes and punches, as well as Night Train storage systems, which supports the flexibility to situate terminals so materials can be accessed in any number of ways. This capability is helpful as more manufacturers use coil cut-to-length lines in sheet metal fabrication, which supports a variety of sizes, as an example.
Leadership from both companies stated the flexibility of the sheet-metal machines enables the companies to integrate, or scale up, with Flexible Manufacturing Systems for material handling and storage, building their production processes around the lines to best meet their individual needs.
The Best of Two Different Worlds
When Finn Power and Prima Industrie joined forces in 2008 to create Prima Power, the companies brought together an enormous amount of knowledge regarding solutions for the global sheet metal fabrication industry. Prima Industrie brought to the table its expertise in 3D lasers, 2D lasers and its background as a pioneer of automation technology. Finn Power’s expertise was in punching and shearing technologies, and in creating flexible automation systems such as the Night Train FMS for automatic material storage.
Prima Power’s sheet metal machinery lineup includes solutions for sectors including: aerospace; automotive; building and housing equipment; electric cabinets; elevators and escalators; energy; food service equipment; health care and medical equipment; HVAC, mechanics and machinery; steel furniture; transportation; panels and warehousing; and yellow goods.
A tour of Prima Power’s facilities showcased how the team members are hard at work turning innovative manufacturing ideas into scalable, flexible manufacturing solutions fabricators can implement for the long term.
Spotlight on Cologna Veneta (Bending Solutions)
Prima Power’s bending factory is part of a regional industrial cluster of panel bending solution manufacturers, known as the “Panel Bending Valley,” home to several industry OEMs and industry suppliers.
From the location, Prima Power produces a range of all servo-electric bending solutions, from stand-alone processes to robotic cells and fully automatic panel benders — all of which can be integrated into flexible production lines. A new machine is the BCe Smart+ 2720 panel bender, designed for flexibility in small- to medium-batch production.
“Our main strategy is to sell the press brake as a completion of bending packages because panel benders will never run 100% of the production, in terms of bending,” said Stefano Gecchele, bending product unit manager, Prima Power. “You will always need one or more press breaks to complete the parts to be flexible with very small numbers [of components],” he said. For example, a customer recently purchased two Punching + Shearing + Buffering + Bending (PSBB) lines for press brakes; just for the end of the line for the last bend. The uptick regarding the integration of robotics into panel bender lines will most likely change the way Prima Power approaches the market, especially in the United States and Canada. (Note: Half of Prima Power’s press brakes are manufactured in Cologna Veneta and half are produced at the headquarters location in Collegno.)
When it comes to the next generation of press brakes, the Prima Power eP Genius 1030 Electric Press Brake combines speed, precision, and sustainability in a compact machine. Both experienced technicians and new users benefit from fast programming and setup.
No matter the machine being produced, servo-driven technology is at the core of Prima Power’s technology. What varies is the location of the automation: right-handed or left-handed design for unloading and stacking. “When we do custom or special solutions it’s because a customer asks for a special solution for his own needs,” Gecchele said. “We give priority to those customs and specials. They can be useful for many other customers, so once we complete the special, it then becomes standard in our offerings. Most of the time they are integrated with a machine from our Finland production site, which can be a Shear Genius or Combi Genius.”
In July 2025, the company celebrated a nearly 27,000-square-foot expansion of the bending production facility, which increases production capacity by more than 50%. In addition to more manufacturing space, the expansion includes a new service building that consists of an Academy Hall for training, among other spaces.
The expansion supports the growing market demand for advanced bending solutions, as well as Prima Power’s strategic expansion of robotics integration into its bending product line. To that end, in 2025, Prima Power acquired long-time partner, Sistec AM of Pordenone, Italy, a robotics specialist, in order to boost its expertise in robotics integration.
This acquisition will support the surge of orders from the U.S. market, where automated bending is the new standard, noted Luca Spadina, bending product manager for Prima Power. Options for the panel benders include the Unloading Stacking System, for example, which unloads and stacks finished products.
Spadina shared many advantages of the panel benders, including the BCe line: the BCe Smart, BCe Sharp and BCe Smart +. “You can do everything with this machine, from profiles to channels to complex parts,” he said. The panel benders support operators in the production of complicated, narrow profile bends or dynamic parts. The machines provide safe openings to ease the loading and unloading of parts.
Spadina shared the time savings resulting from the machines. As an example, a door for an electrical cabinet was produced in two parts: the profile to reinforce the door, and the main panel. “And they have to bend it,” Spadina said. “Before the panel, and then the reinforcement, they put it on a table and spot welded the parts, taking 10 minutes to finish a single component. Now with the panel bender, it takes a cycle time of 70 seconds for one part.”
Spadina also shared the benefits of Advanced Profile Inspection software, which applies corrections to bend angles. The corrections stay in the system, which is important when working with high-end machinery, where backend programming is critical, removing complexities. “If I have many contracts to fulfill, this allows me the tool I need to make anything,” Spadina said. “If you know how to use this tool, the possibilities are limitless from a bending standpoint.”
Spotlight on Collegno Headquarters (Laser Factory, Corporate Headquarters and R&D Operations)
Much like how the bending factory in Cologna Veneta is part of an industrial cluster, the Collegno headquarters is situated in a regional cluster of leading laser cutting manufacturers, as well as the integration of robotics into processes. Prima Power’s laser-cutting machine history includes cutting parts for customers such as Ferrari and Fiat.
“Our name is an acronym that comes from Progress in Manufacturing Automation (Prima),” said Enrico Garino, chief of communications and marketing for Prima Power. “And it’s still relevant after almost 50 years. For us, it is still what guides us every day.”
Prima Power offers 2D and 3D laser-cutting machines, and specialized processing through its LASERDYNE brand. A new laser-cutting machine is the Platino Linear 2D laser, which features a 22% smaller footprint. With features such as Smart Cut, Gas Mixer Cut, and ECO-TOUCH Cut, the Platino Linear reduces cycle times by up to 30%, and gas consumption by up to 40%.
Also, part of the 2D laser family is the Laser Genius, a productive and flexible machine that supports reversible layouts. With Prima Power’s automated material handling and storage solutions (the Flexible Manufacturing Systems), fabricators can streamline material flow in a single, flexible process.
At Blechexpo 2025, Prima Power debuted the Laser Core Next, a 3D laser-cutting machine ideal for job shops and flexible manufacturing environments. The machine performs in both 2D and 3D cutting, with optional welding applications, and is ideal for limited batch sizes of less than 1,000 parts.
All Prima Power 3D laser machines can be integrated into automated systems via the in-house Robotics Integration Unit, which creates countless combinations of sheet metal technologies, from advanced robotic cells to the Flexible Manufacturing Systems.
Also, in the laser cutting category is Prima Power’s new, and award-winning, Giga Laser Next, a 4 kW laser-cutting system that features four synchronized laser heads that simultaneously cut the same part, achieving up to 280% higher productivity per square meter. Giga Laser Next won the “Best Award 2025 in the Sheet Metal, Tube and Profile Processing” category at Blechexpo from MaschinenMarkt and Blechnet.
Giga Laser Next typically focuses on hot stamping high volumes of large and complex steel parts in the automotive sector, which feature fully automated production lines. To conserve floor space, the Giga Laser Next features a mezzanine level that supports the machine’s panels, cabinets, laser sources, and chillers, said Emanuele Musso, the 3D Laser product manager for Prima Power.
By reducing the number of laser cutting stations and changeover time by an average of 75%, the machine produces a one-piece flow with fully unmanned automation. Musso said because there isn’t a turntable, and the work piece is fixtured, the four laser heads are always cutting, with load and unload automation terminals, resulting in high productivity. “You get maximum production out of the work area, which allows faster processing,” Musso said. “It is a different flow than standalone 5-axis machines. It’s perfect parts at a very high volume. Standalone machines with a turntable are a good solution for medium volumes, or with manual loading and unloading, or for, let’s say, very small parts.”
Prima Power showcased an automotive OEM’s car frame door, demonstrating (not live) stamping on single piece for monolithic (blanking to the laser) production for high-strength steel (HSS) door rings. Engineers worked closely with partners, Siemens and Cenit, to optimize functionality, for instance with anti-collision systems that monitor the four laser heads.
At the heart of all fabrication machines and Flexible Manufacturing Systems is Prima Power’s software, which offers an all-in-one streamlined solution to support customers as they plan, program, run, control and trust (verify) their production processes, resulting in precision, efficiencies, and savings in time and costs. The Tulus Office suite, and its various programs, monitors the status of machines and tasks, where fabricators can view in real time what is taking place on the factory floor.
Tech Flow 2025 Event
A highlight of the tour in Collegno was the Tech Flow Event, where Prima Power’s team members from both Italy and Finland shared with customers its sheet metal product solutions and specialized knowledge, providing live demonstrations of machines, as well as customer success stories.
Product applications on display on the machine floor included parts for industries such as HVAC; data centers; elevators; housing equipment; aerospace; automotive; food service; electrification and e-mobility; furniture; and warehousing. Machine demonstrations included a combination machine fed panel bender; 3D lasers cutting automotive frame components; 2D lasers; automation towers and picking and stacking robots; a laser-punch combination machine; and servo-electric press brakes. Additionally, tooling partner, Stanztechnik, demonstrated turrets and other tooling used in Prima Power’s machinery.
Spotlight on Seinäjoki, Finland Facility (Automation and System Integration)
From the more than 215,000-square-foot Seinäjoki facility, which was built in 2018, Prima Power specializes in building all of the company’s storage and material handling solutions, as well as its laser-punch and punch-shear combination machines.
Nearly 90% of the machines produced at the facility are exported, which is why for 30 years its customer service capabilities have featured remote diagnostics and data collection capabilities (before it was a common manufacturing practice), to ensure issues and updates are handled swiftly to keep machines running.
Prima Power’s team pointed out the company is not just selling machines and automation, but rather a part flow management process. By partnering with fabricators as early as possible in the process, fabricators can begin to think about their production processes differently, even redesigning parts or eliminating processes, such as riveting. “When clients see our team analyzing their parts and processes, while conducting our advanced application time studies, customers start to really pay attention,” said Antti Kuusisaari, vice president of system sales for Prima Power. “They start to ask; ‘how can I evolve by integrating this into my process?’”
Every machine built is a custom product, built with the flexibility to meet each customer’s needs. What’s more, the addition of Sistec AM prepares Prima Power and its customers for what’s coming next regarding automated manufacturing.
“With our recent addition of our new inhouse robotics division (Sistec AM), our proven history of developing our CAD/CAM System in-house, and our long standing market innovations like the Night Train — we are positioning ourselves to be a forward focused partner in flexible manufacturing systems that actually grow with your business demands,” Kuusisaari said. “We are proud of what we make and how it moves the industry forward.”
The Seinäjoki facility is home to the culmination of expertise in producing Flexible Manufacturing Systems such as the Night Train, and sheet metal fabrication equipment. Prima Power will also integrate its automation systems with fabrication equipment from its competitors.
Machines manufactured in Seinäjoki (which features more than 129,000-square-feet of manufacturing space) include punching and combination machines: punching, punching-laser, and punching-shear.
Flexible Manufacturing Systems produced include the best-selling Night Train, an automated and flexible storage solution; the PunchBend for cut-to-size material and ready-bent components; and Punching + Shearing + Buffering + Bending (PSBB), which automatically processes blank sheets into ready-bent components. Storage solutions also include combo towers, and combo towers to support material flow for 2D laser machines.
The innovations at Prima Power’s Seinäjoki facility and at its plants in northern Italy provided a clear vision to media visitors of what’s possible when advanced technologies, skilled people, and proven processes come together in a seamless flow. The ability to evolve by integration — connecting sheet metal machine technologies and expertise with a flexible storage and material handling production environment —allows fabricators to respond to the needs of an ever-changing manufacturing sector.
About the Author: Rachel Duran
