A SUCCESS-STORY

"THE TRADITION OF LONG EXPERTISE "

D'Andrea's story is based on solid, lasting successes. The first series of TS heads capable of performing all "turning work on a stationary workpiece" conquered the world market in the 1950s, followed by the SENSITIV T-TA and U-TRONIC heads in the 1970s. In the 1980s, U-CENTER was added. In the same period D'Andrea receives the coveted industrial design award "Compasso d'Oro". 
With the 1990s, thanks to MODULHARD'ANDREA, TOPRUN and AUTORADIAL, a period of exponential sales growth began in 2001 with the launch of the MONOd line and the reinforcement of the production structure with the new headquarters in Lainate and the new Castel Del Giudice factory confirmed in Alto Molise.
The genius and commitment that spurred company founder Marino D'Andrea through the difficult years of rebuilding still characterizes the essence of D'Andrea, one of the most solid and vital companies in Italy.

1951

During the years of reconstruction, Marino D'Andrea left his home town of Capracotta in the Molise region to work in the Ranieri mechanical workshop in Rome. At that time, the main problem was metalworking with a stationary workpiece in the fine machining phase of the holes. For the drill to function properly, it had to be adjusted manually and with the machine at a standstill, a step that caused quite a few problems in production. Marino invents a small device, equipped with a double differential gearbox, whose perfectly synchronized operation makes it possible to register working diameters while the machine is running: the D'Andrea drill head is created.
In the spring of 1952, Marino D'Andrea came to Milan to have the drill head patented and exhibited at the model fair this year. After a few days of silence, the Milanese industrialists notice the important novelty and the first orders are coming. 
In 1954, following the success of the Turin and Brussels trade fairs in the previous year, Marino D'Andrea opened a small, efficient workshop in Milan, which was able to cope with the huge demand, after collecting numerous orders from all over the world to comply with the new drill head.

1960

Business is booming and drilling of the drill head is also beginning in the United States. Marino D'Andrea makes some major technical changes to the device, which is further automated and manufactured in five models to meet specific production needs. To date, with 36,000 manufactured units, about 20,000 companies worldwide have at least one D'Andrea drill head. 
Just 15 years after starting work, the D'Andrea brand is the epitome of quality and prestige. In the summer of 1966 ends the busy life of the brilliant company founder Marino D'Andrea, who died at the age of 53 years.
Two of the four children, Ermanno and Nicola, take the reins of the company and follow their father's path with constant product updates as a result of the technological evolution of machine tools and the unstoppable expansion of the world market. In the following years, this commitment resulted in drilling and planing heads with numerical control.

1970

In order to meet the intensive industrial development required by the sales success of the products on the domestic and international market, the factory is relocated from Milan to Lainate. In 1975, the heads of the TS series undergo an aesthetic restyling. The result is the SENSITIV T-TA. 
In the same year, the U-TRONIC are improved and put on the market. These are electronic heads that are capable of performing all types of turning operations with the workpiece stationary. They are handled by the numerical control of the machine tool on which they are mounted.

1980

D'Andrea grew in the 80's and consolidates its position on the world market with new products and more and more important awards. In 1981, the plant in Lainate is considerably enlarged. In the same year, the heads U-CENTER with numerical control arise; They are able to perform the same operations as the U-TRONIC, even if they are mounted in the tool magazine of the machining centers. 

In those years, over 60% of U-CENTER's production reaches the United States, where it is used extensively in the aerospace, petroleum and earthmoving industries. In 1989, D'Andrea received the coveted "Compasso d'Oro" award for industrial design.

1990

This year is a particularly important year for D'Andrea. After the crisis of 1983 with the restructuring of the company, a management and operational team is established that is excellently structured in all major sectors of the company: from the technical office to the production, from the trading area to the suppliers. 

The modular toolholder system MODULHARD'ANDREA will be developed within a short time. The technical solutions are excellent, both in terms of the precision of the Testarossa finishing heads, and the locking performance of each element. The success is great. The company's sales are starting to grow exponentially, and today the product represents 50% of sales.

In 1997, a restructuring of the company led Ermanno D'Andrea to run the business alone. In 1988, D'Andrea receives ISO 9001 certification as a confirmation of the high level of quality. 

In the same year, TOPRUN, a balanceable tool holder system for all mechanical machining, is released. In 1999, as the culmination of the positive decade, the new range of AUTORADIAL automatic planing heads is launched.

2002

The beginning of the new millennium coincides with the first fifty years of activity: D'Andrea celebrates the success of the company with important new products. In Lainate, D'Andrea opens the new headquarters in Via Garbagnate, a modern multipurpose building of more than 3000 m² dedicated to production and control, a 1500 m² area for the management, the technical office and the marketing department, as well as a large, well equipped room for the training courses for technicians and distributors. 

In Castel Del Giudice, in the Alto Molise region, D'Andrea also opens a new plant for the manufacture of semi-finished products.

D'Andrea extends the TOPRUN line with FORCE, the balanceable, particularly tight-fitting tool holder, and a new monoblock tool holder line: MONOd '.

2004

To complete the program of integrated toolholders, the new MONOforce line is created, an ideal and cost-effective solution for performing milling operations with solutions that are characterized by strong clamping force. 
The integration in the wide range of equipment for machining centers confirms the quality, reliability, strength and precision of "Made in Italy" D'Andrea.

2005

The year 2005 represents a moment for D'Andrea to search for solutions that lie outside the established and well-known schemes. In order to provide a higher rigidity of the modular milling systems, a milling program with integrated MHD connection called GRINTA was introduced. The program takes advantage of the perfect concentricity of coupling and the extreme torsional strength of the modular MHD connection and also includes 16 to 63 mm diameter milling bodies on which inserts with different geometries can be mounted.

But D'Andrea is not only entering the milling world with GRINTA, but also with a steadily expanding sector, namely the MULTI-TASK machine market with the new tool and tool holder program MCD'HSK-A63 , ModulCutD'Andrea is a modular tool and tool holder system for lathes that is extremely rigid, simple and flexible, with all its elements that provide the internal supply of cooling fluid. The extensive product range allows the use of tools for internal, external machining, cutting and tapping of the standard tooling systems available on the market.

2008

Continuing the search for solutions that enable turning on all machining centers, the new TA-CENTER line is created after careful planning and long experiments, accompanied by the TA-TRONIC version for traditional machines without automatic tool change. These heads are built in five 80mm to 200mm diameter models and can easily be mounted on any machine that has a U-DRIVE control group. 

The TA-CENTERs become the natural, more developed heirs of the U-CENTER, which for more than 27 years have been the protagonists in the market for machining turned workpieces on machining centers.

The TA-TRONIC stands for the modern further development with electronic control of the legendary SENSITIVE T-TA, which was outdated worldwide only after a production of over 40,000 pieces.

2009

The tranquility of the market has allowed D'Andrea to devote more time to examining a number of projects and product lines. U-TRONIC drilling and planing heads have been redesigned as part of the expansion of offer, technological solutions, functionality and aesthetics. They are suitable for use with boring machines and special machines and are available in diameters from 360 to 1600 mm; They allow a processing of up to 4 meters in diameter. 

The U-TRONIC can be supplied in a special version and are suitable for solutions with two slides or counterweights for self-balancing.

2011

D'Andrea's interest in offering the turning process with a stationary workpiece for all machine solutions led to the presentation of the U-COMAX heading series with axis control for boring and surface grinding with numerical control, which can be mounted on transfer machines, processing units and special machines. 

The tool holder carriage feed is also controlled during the rotation by a U-DRIVE control group, which is mounted after the spindle and is managed directly by the CNC of the machine tool. The U-COMAX is particularly suitable for special applications and extended-head equipment for deep machining.