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Issue link: https://opticallabproducts.epubxp.com/i/92532
OPINIONS ONE-TO-ONE Q. A. Can you give me some background on MEI System? A candid conversation between OLP's Carol Gilhawley and Stefano Sonzogni, President and Technical Director of MEI System. STEFANO SONZOGNI, a mechanical engineer set up MEI S.r.l. with his friend at the base of the Italian Alps in 1985 with no experience in the optical industry. They began by making machines for specialty products like door handle assembly and others. Then, in 2003, they came out with an edger for a prescription lens that was wildly successful. Our company came from a friendship between me and Raffaele Scudeletti, who is still our production manager and a major shareholder. He was working in a metal workshop and I was working at a company doing the CNC (computer numeric control) machinery for multipurpose milling—wood, stone, and plastic. At that time, I followed the designs of some machines for frame manufacturing for Luxottica and Safilo. When I left, we started our own company, MEI S.r.l. Raffaele and I had started doing machinery for a local market for the automatic assembly of special metal working, so we had no optical experience at all. CAROL GILHAWLEY That was in 1985 originally? STEFANO SONZOGNI 1985—and we kept growing and enlarging our presence in the European market. We were always trying to find products we could reproduce—because it was good to satisfy the customers' needs. They would say: "I want to assemble this part and I want a special machine for this, okay?" And I would say: "Let me 8 november 2012 design something for you," and so on. But in a sense, this kind of job allowed us to grow the company on a technical front but it's easy to lose the profit margin on one machine. We made about a hundred machines assembling door handles. I even did a fish farm automation system. Then in 1995, a guy asked me to do a milling edger for a sunglass lens because I had tion lens. The business was so good that it convinced us to drop the old business and to be totally dedicated to the optical field. So from 2003 until now we have only worked in the eyeglass field. No more special machines, just machines for optical. CG WHAT MACHINES DO YOU MAKE? a contact in the optical industry. So we started to do an edger for a sunglass lens which we called the Sphera1. We started to attend MIDO every year. And the machine was a success, although we stayed with the old business until 2003, when we started to do an edger for a prescrip- SS Today we have edgers for sun and prescription lenses. We also have a milling machine for plastic frame manufacturing and a laser engraver to put the logo on the lens or on the frame itself. CG FROM A TECHNOLOGY STANDPOINT, YOUR BIG CONTRI- BUTION WAS THE INCORPORA- TION OF FOUR-AXIS MILLING. HOW DID YOU COME TO THAT? MEI System's head- quarters are in Valbrembo, in the north of Italy. totallyoptical.com