Salvagnini Maschinenbau produced its 4,000 panel bender for CMAlifts, the Italian manufacturer of elevators and lifting platforms. The milestone, celebrated at the Ennsdorf (Austria) plant, confirms distinctive leadership: no other manufacturer can claim such extensive experience in panel bending.

With over 4,000 installations in 80 countries, Europe’s largest plant dedicated to panel bender manufacturing, over 600 specialists across engineering and shopfloor, and over 40 years of experience, Salvagnini consolidates its leadership in panel bending technology. Since 1977, when Eng. Guido Salvagnini designed and built the first P4, the panel bender has never stopped evolving: today it is a fully automatic solution, ideal for the modern smart factory.

Salvagnini Maschinenbau’s 4,000 panel bender is part of an industrial journey marked by significant milestones: number 1,000 (installed in Germany, 2006), number 1,500 (USA, 2011), number 2,000 (Korea, 2016) and number 3,000 (China, 2020). It is a Generation 4 P4-3220 with a maximum bending length of 3,200 mm and a maximum bending height of 203 mm. It is configured with CUT, CLA, CLA/N, P, PSE and DPM options, broadening its application range. The machine will be integrated into an FSL Flexible Smart Line that also includes an S4 punching machine and multiple automation devices, to be installed inside the new fully automated factory CMAlifts is building in Corato (Italy).

“Being part of the Salvagnini Group’s history is a source of pride for the whole CMAlifts team. This P4 reflects our culture of continuous growth and innovation,” said Giulio Caputo, CMAlifts, Co-CEO.

“With the new P4 we will manufacture, fully automatically, among many panels, even our most complex profiles, with consistent quality and shorter lead-times.” Wolfgang Kunze, Technical Director, Salvagnini Maschinenbau, is equally pleased. “Our panel bender confirms in the field its high-end positioning, recognized by the market for productivity, flexibility, bending quality and reliability. Panel bending is gaining momentum because it addresses structural trends, from labour shortage to demographic shifts, reducing operational dependencies and variability. And in a context where sustainability is an increasingly decisive competitive factor, Salvagnini technology is already ready to support process efficiency and lower consumption. Our lean transition has been a turning point: today we demonstrate that it is possible to increase output while reducing energy use,” he further added.

Salvagnini Maschinenbau’s 4,000 panel bender is therefore not just a finish line: it is a platform for the future of productivity, sustainability and competitiveness for sheet-metal manufacturers.