Engineering adhesive tape aids competitiveness in the professional kitchen sector

In the kitchen supplies industry Artinox patented Inox stainless steel shelving is set to replace varnished iron shelving, which for certain uses is not capable of meeting the maximum hygiene-sanitary standards. The shelving is noted for its innovative simplicity, eliminating bolts or other metal fixing through the use of 3M adhesive tape.

The importance of their work to customers became apparent because of the added value delivered to them through the innovation introduced into their work. Innovation, pursued from the outset, has been an underlying goal of the company’s business, especially, but not only in products, but also in techniques, seeking out methods that offered advantages for their own manufacturing operations and which provided benefits to their customers.

One of these was the early adoption of 3M adhesive tape that had just been commercialised when they started the business in 1985. The company trialed and tested it, and has been using it ever since. It simplifies manufacturing and finishing by eliminating the need for bolts or other mechanical fixings and it delivers a more hygienic, more easily maintained, solution to end-users. As they continued to push the boundaries of innovation, 3M adhesive tape has been an integral part of their design and development toolbox.

At the same time, they saw the importance of presenting the company in a way that distinguished their own product manufacturing activities from the existing service ones. Artinox, which was to continue to concentrate on its own slice of the market and own clients, did not allow for restructuring to accommodate new requirements, so a new company, Irinox srl, dedicated specifically to electrical cut-out boxes and equipment for temperature control, was set up.

Irinox opened the way for entering the area of big restaurants, refectories and banqueting kitchens as well as up-market restaurants to which it could deliver value in terms of quality, and above all innovative equipment for rapidly decreasing the temperature of food. This equipment could assure maximum product hygiene in addition to measurable economic benefits in cost reduction.

According to Mario Zanaldo: “Today we are the largest producers in the world of this kind of equipment. Before the distribution of our equipment the cooked products, prior to deep-freezing, had to progress through a series of phases, including cooling at room temperature. We have enabled these processes to be speeded up reducing both time and cost, and ultimately having a positive impact on food product cost and customers’ bottom line profitability.”

Says Zanaldo: “Arex will soon be launching another innovative product. A food container in stainless steel which allows for the production of vacuum inside itself, thereby eliminating the need to recourse to plastic pouches.”

Although Artinox has given birth to two other highly specialised companies, it has continued to maintain a high level of innovation itself. Its patented Inox stainless steel shelving is set to replace varnished iron shelving, which for certain uses is not capable of meeting the maximum hygiene-sanitary standards. Inox has been developed through avant-garde techniques and comprises a series of floor lamps and terraces with solutions and treatments for easy cleaning. The shelving is noted for its innovative simplicity, eliminating bolts or other metal fixing through the use of 3M adhesive tape. The result is virtually an integrated single part, aesthetically pleasing due to the elimination of unsightly screws and bolts.

Another original product are their stainless steel plates for walls, flooring, doors for kitchen furniture, worktops, sinks and cooking platforms, offered with eleven different finishings, colours and various formats with non-slippable solutions, and bringing hygienic safety. The product is ideal for replacing ceramic plates in those environments open to the public, and also for bathroom furnishings of a certain level, or for the walls of large shops etc. Fixing to floors or walls is also ac