In the face of labor shortages, economic uncertainty and their own customer demands, today’s manufacturers need automation, modern software and data connectivity and they need it as a complete, integrated solution. They need more than just a high-performing machine – they need end-to-end efficiency.
Based on these needs, a new trend is emerging – one where equipment builders in the metal fabrication and manufacturing industries are increasingly shifting from selling individual machines (such as a standalone press brake, laser cutter or punch press) to promoting comprehensive production systems. But only some builders can answer that call. Among that group is Prima Power.
Compared to some machine builders that specialize in only one processing category, Prima’s broad machine catalog affords it the ability to offer customers that end-to-end efficiency – the full scope of capabilities they need to compete and thrive.
To showcase Prima’s comprehensive offerings and how they connect to form streamlined systems, the company hosted a press junket in late September 2025. Journalists from major industry outlets were given the opportunity to tour Prima facilities and customer locations to better understand the strategies and innovations that led to its current capabilities and to meet the people that will drive further innovations in years to come.
Bending Valley
The first stop was Prima’s bending factory in Cologna Veneta, located in Italy’s northern province of Verona where the company produces all of its bending equipment, including press brakes, robotic bending cells and automated panel benders. A few months before the press tour, the company announced the completion of a major building renovation and expansion, adding nearly 27,000 sq. ft. to the building’s footprint and increasing production capacity by 50 percent.
Choosing to expand instead of building an entirely new facility allowed the company to stay in the local area, known colloquially as Bending Valley. For decades, various press brake and panel bending machine builders have called the area home, which has resulted in a deep talent pool that Prima values.
In addition to creating additional floor space and production capacity, the expansion includes nearly 10,000 sq. ft. for customer and employee training, a new canteen and modern offices. This allows all R&D staff to be centralized on one floor. A new solar panel system provides the bulk of power needs, which is in line with the company’s commitment to environmentally conscious manufacturing. Every machine produced at the bending factory is based on servo-electric technology, which results in energy-efficient machines that are more precise, cleaner and quieter than traditional mechanical or hydraulic equipment.
Stefano Gecchele, factory manager, explained that the renovations benefit employees just as much as customers. Gecchele, who started working at Prima directly after finishing school, serves as a good example of the 250 employees currently working at the facility, who on average are 40 years old. Young employees are assigned a mentor to help them in their new roles and bring them into the fold. Through extensive and thoughtful training, employees like Gecchele choose to stay with the company, turning their entry-level jobs into long-lasting careers.
Core values
Upon entering the Cologna Veneta facility, the company’s tagline, “Evolve by Integration,” is hard to miss on the façade of the building’s new wing. Prima adopted the tagline after undergoing an extensive, reflective project aimed at defining the company’s core values. The result highlights the company’s understanding of its customers’ ever-evolving needs and the strides it must take to deliver on them. It also resulted in Prima’s brand promise: “To level up our partners’ productivity, contributing to the evolution of the sheet metal industry.”
That promise is achieved through a few key factors:
- Integrated, modular and scalable automated solutions
- Distinctive customer-centered approach and long-standing knowledge in engineering systems
- High-performance machines allowing flexible and precise execution
- Integrated and pragmatic commitment to sustainability through Prima’s Green Means philosophy, which affirms that tech-driven sustainability benefits customers through increased efficiency, reduced waste and lower operating costs
While the “Evolve by Integration” tagline is relatively new, the idea of evolution and integration within the company’s confines is not. In 2008, Prima Industrie changed its named to Prima Power with the acquisition of Finn-Power Oy, a company that perfectly complemented Prima Industrie’s offerings at the time.
Established in 1969, Finn-Power had a strong reputation for the production of sheet metal equipment – punch presses, bending and folding cells, punch-laser combination machines and automation for material handling. While Prima Industrie was already a leading player in industrial laser machines – laser cutting, welding, drilling, and 2-D and 3-D laser systems – the acquisition allowed the two powerhouses to combine strengths to meet customers’ full operational needs.
Open doors
The companies’ combined strengths and product catalogs have been central to Prima’s growing market share and were a recurring theme during Tech Flow, an open house that was held during the junket. Hosted at its corporate headquarters and tech center in Collegno, Italy, just outside of Turin, staff, customers and members of the media gathered for a day of factory tours, system demonstrations and technology presentations.
Presentations kicked off with a welcome speech and company overview by Enrico Garino, Prima’s head of robotics and chief marketing officer. Garino stressed how privileged he felt speaking to the audience that day. Despite working with the company for more than a decade, he continues to be impressed by the work his colleagues accomplish on a daily basis.
“It’s always a pleasure to [speak about the company] because we’re really proud of where we work and who we are,” he said. “Our DNA is written within Prima’s name: Progress in Manufacturing Automation. [But] I can’t talk about who we are today without talking about integration. It’s our brand promise – our promise to contribute to your productivity and the evolution of the sheet metal industry.
“We do this by proudly developing integrated, modular and scalable solutions,” Garino added. “And we do it with a distinctive customer-centered approach and with long-standing knowledge that has its roots dating back to the 1970s. We do it through high performance, flexibility and productivity combined together. That’s how we approach product development every day.”
In terms of the integration Garino spoke of and on which the company’s tagline is based, Prima’s advanced automation systems are comprised of fully automated machines – for laser cutting, punching and bending – that can be integrated into a complete line that can include a full logistics and warehousing system, also produced in-house. As the electric distribution and data center market is projected to grow at a CAGR of at least 10 percent through 2030, smart manufacturing and automation like the type Prima produces will be critical.
Antti Kuusisaari, vice president of system sales, followed, explaining the rise of AI and the ever-growing need for precision-engineered sheet metal components in the data centers AI requires. He explained the various ways that Prima will play a role in that area, starting with the company’s advanced automation systems and supported by the MES and ERP software that is developed in-house.
“We’re witnessing big growth in several sectors related to [AI],” Kuusisaari explained. “The production of electrical cabinets has more than doubled in a short period of time, for example. Prima has always been flexible when it comes to the different types of production requirements involved, understanding that operations need to quickly change from one product or process to another. And that’s also why we’re investing so much in software.”
Around the globe, he said, countries need to ramp up their electrical infrastructure, but in the face of labor costs – if labor can be found – software carries a heavy load. Or it should. And the team at Prima understands the assignment. Kuusisaari described Prima’s software as the tie that can bind machines together into “seamless processing solutions,” but he said the software must also be relied upon for just-in-time production, machine and data monitoring, product design, data-based decision-making, sales activities and more.
During the open house, visitors received full tours of the recently renovated facility, including the production floor where the company’s full line of laser systems are built. In addition to its 2-D lasers, a new system was also on display in the company’s production area: the Giga Laser Next, a 3-D laser cutting system designed for high-volume, fully automated, integrated production lines in the automotive sector.
The system’s four synchronized laser heads cut simultaneously on the same part; each laser head moves independently thanks to a sophisticated collision system that allows them to be as close as 40 mm apart. Depending on the part, the system can ramp up productivity to as much as 280 percent. Less than a month after the open house, the Giga Laser won the Best Award in the sheet metal, tube and profile processing category at Blechexpo, held in Stuttgart, Germany.
The north star
With the excitement of the open house still palpable, the visiting press pool made its way to Prima’s manufacturing and tech center in Seinäjoki, Finland. The more than 215,000-sq.-ft. facility is where the company’s punch, punch-shear, punch-laser and automation equipment is produced and where the bulk of Prima Finland’s 400 employees work. As with Prima’s Italy locations, the Seinäjoki facility, built new in 2019, features modern amenities, including a showroom for customer demos and a full canteen for staff.
The choice to build new was, in part, based on the old factory’s limitations. Ceiling heights were too low for the company’s soaring Night Train flexible manufacturing systems, which the company describes as a logistics center versus a warehousing center. It is not just a place to store material; it is a system to manage all of a customer’s material and parts. With a nearly 30-ft. crane hook height, the Seinäjoki manufacturing space and showroom can accommodate the full range of configurations and shelf heights customers may need.
The new facility represents a 30 percent manufacturing capacity increase and features the latest technologies in building sustainability. Heat recovery systems, solar panels and the use of 100 percent renewable energy exemplify Finland’s pursuit of eco-focused living.
During the facility tour, Jarmo Mursula, Prima Power Finland’s CEO, discussed the company’s overall priorities, which include software development, automation and the shift from selling standalone machines to selling full customer solutions.
“Everyone can make a machine that makes holes,” he said. “The software is what allows the machines to talk to one another and is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of manufacturing today.”
In fact, half of Prima Power Finland’s R&D staff is dedicated to software development. And, with the acquisition of Sistec AM, an industrial automation company, Prima has positioned itself as the only company that makes everything in-house, including the CAD/CAM software component.
The next chapter
In addition to an insider’s look at Prima’s headquarters and production facilities, several customer visits were also included on the tour. Seeing the various system configurations at each customer location and hearing their testimonials provided a first-hand opportunity to see Prima’s solutions come to life. The customer visits harkened back to a comment made by Garino in Italy.
“Our equipment feels bespoke, but it isn’t,” he said. “It’s super modular. Everything we develop is meant to help customers be efficient and productive.”
Since 2008, when Prima Power emerged from the integration of Finn-Power and Prima Industrie, the company has not let up on the gas. Prima’s newly remodeled facilities have helped grow the company’s employee base, enhanced R&D activities and expanded the ways in which it can interact with customers. These facilities have truly remade the way the company is perceived.
Prima has also made strategic high-level business moves to focus on the next chapter in manufacturing and quickly innovate when market needs shift. Understanding that software is the backbone of most manufacturing trends, the company has invested heavily in its development. Its recent acquisition of Sistec nearly completes the efforts to offer customers end-to-end capabilities. But the company, which is committed to evolve through integration, is certainly one to watch.
“With robotics [and software development] in-house, we’re ready for whatever the future brings,” Mursula said. “Reliability and technical capability are so important with connected systems, which rely heavily on data analysis to determine root cause issues and more – a well-known Industry 4.0 concept. While Industry 4.0 is about collecting data, Prima is moving to Industry 5.0 to strategically use that data.”
