ComalItalia is proud to be able to supply so many customers with the new metal manufacturing and fabrication equipment that they need. Sometimes when customers upgrade their plate rolls, ComalItalia may have some used metal fabrication equipment available for its customers. We will advertise such opportunities on this website under the section "NEWS from Comal Italia"
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Behind our metal fabrication equipment is the story of two talented families, which for generations have been involved in metal working and machinery building. It is the story of the Rigamonti and Chatmajian families, each from a different part of the world with different nationalities and cultural backgrounds but with one common thread running through them, the love of machine building, which led to the production of 3 roll plate rolling machines and other equipment. Comal Italia's business is the culmination of a history, the recorded part of which started in 1882.
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| The Rigamonti family’s involvement in the building of metal fabrication machines started with Primo Rigamonti, born in Albiate Brianza (Milan) Italy in 1925. At the age of 23 after completing his technical education he started “Officina Rigamonti” in a small shop of 50 M², where he manufactured wood working machinery and serviced/ repaired machinery in general. |
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Woodcutting circular saw |
Combination planer for wood |
In 1954 he built a 200 M² workshop and his production increased. In 1963 he started manufacturing metal fabrication tools in parallel with the woodworking machinery. A multi-spindle 8 drilling head machine was introduced into the product line. |
In 1970 the designs of the equipment were changed. Welded frames replaced the cast iron ones and in 1971 Officina Rigamonti received a prize from the Italian Association for Export Promotion as one of the main exporters of Italian machinery. |
In 1979 Paolo Rigamonti the son, also born and raised in the Milan area, completed his technical education and joined his father in the family business. In 1986 Paolo expanded the business and established COMAL in a new plant located in Busnago, Milan. The purpose was to phase out the wood working machinery being manufactured and replacing the capacity with Plate Rolls, Section Rolls and specialized roll forming machinery manufacturing.
All the equipment was originally mechanical in nature and design. |
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{The first slip-roll 1978}
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In 1990 all the designs were changed to accept hydraulic power and a new era of equipment sophistication began. The Delta line, which was strictly mechanical and initial pinch, became hydro-mechanical. Then the Alpha line of three and four roll double pinch plate roll machines was designed for lighter gauge material. In 1992 customer requests for higher capacity plate rolls was the basis for introducing the Kappa line of double pinch 3 and 4 rolls. The roll diameters were increasing in size as orders were being accepted. During this period the section rolling machines were also developed. In 2000 the further demand for larger capacity machines resulted in halting the Kappa line at the 420 mm diameter for the Kappa 4 models, and the 380 mm diameter for the Kappa 3 rolls - both with the orbital bending roll approach and introducing the Beta line.
{Heavy gauge Initial pinch rolls} |
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{Light gauge Initial pinch rolls} |
The Beta line models are super heavy duty machines with the Beta 4 rolls ranging from 480 mm diameter to 750 mm diameter and the Beta 3 rolls from 410 mm to 580 mm diameter. The design incorporates the rectilinear approach of the bending rolls to the top roll. Although the roll manufacturing industry is trying mainly to use the orbital bending roll approach, Mr. Rigamonti and the engineering staff at COMAL believe that for heavy rolling the Beta line design is trouble free and of better value for the customer. Many specialized versions of plate rolls are in COMAL’s product offering. The two roll Gamma2, the Four-Matic 2000, The Zeta 3 and 4 roll plus the Welle corrugated material rolls, all specifically developed to do a certain type of rolling far more efficiently than the standard plate bending machines, which translates into better value for the customer both with respect to speed of production and more prudent capital investment.
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{Garabed with his employees 1959}
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{Garabed, in the middle, with his Pyramid Roll. circa 1958} |
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The Chatmajian family’s recorded history of their involvement in metals and machine building starts with Great grandfather Artin, born in Aynteb, Turkey, in 1882. He married into a family with the name of Demirjian. “Chatmači” in Turkish means Framework or Structure erector and “Demirči” means blacksmith or iron worker. The whole clan was a collection of folks working with iron! |
Great Grandfather Artin participated in the construction of three bridges on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway which the Germans erected before World War I in Anatolia, today’s Eastern Turkey region. After a stint in the Ottoman Army as an armament repair brigade leader, he deserted and fled Turkey to Jerusalem, then Palestine, in 1918.
He opened a blacksmith’s shop in Amman, then Trans-Jordan, where he invented a double key lock for locking grain storage wells owned by partners. The locks were still functioning in 1963 when last visited! |
The middle son of five sons born to Artin was Garabed Chatmajian in 1920 in Jerusalem. In 1936 Garabed entered the three year apprenticeship program at the German Colony Workshops in Jerusalem and in 1940 completed the program as a machinist and fitter. He worked at various machining, tool making and machine building jobs until 1948 and fled Palestine to Jordan where he started his family in Amman, the capital. In 1954 he established “Abu Artin’s Mechanical Works” and continued that business until his immigration to the US in 1968. He built his own plate roll to roll truck mounted Water Tanks and Petroleum Tanks, which were very much in demand throughout the Middle East. |
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Garabed arrived in Los Angeles, California with $500 in his pocket and worked as a Die-maker for Verdugo Tool and Engineering until 1980.
His two sons followed the family tradition. Artin completed his technical education and graduated as a mechanical engineer from CSULA and George after graduation from CSUN apprenticed with his father as a class “A” tool and die maker. In 1980 all three established VAK Industries in Chatsworth, California. Artin was responsible for designing, selling and running the business, George and Garabed for machining components, building tooling and assembling automated machinery for the metal stamping industry. The business grew to employ 62 and was housed in a 25,000 ft² building. |
| {Garabed at 70, at his work bench, VAK} |
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In 1985 deep draw stampings production was added to VAK’s portfolio. |
{100 Ton under-drive press w/ tooling and controls as part of a complete production line / VAK Industries – circa 1997}
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In 1992 precision sheet metal was introduced to serve the Silicon Valley’s silicon wafer manufacturing industry by supplying customers with gas delivery cabinets. The sophistication of the machinery, tooling, automatic controls and components manufactured reached its zenith. |
In 1997 VAK delivered a complete one piece knob manufacturing system consisting of nine automated machines all integrated for no part handling by employees from beginning of the process to the finished product, running at the rate of 60 parts per minute. |
In 2000, an offer of purchase by one of VAK’s customers was too attractive to pass and the business was sold in its entirety |
Artin's two sons, Gary and Troy Chatmajian, the fourth generation, were raised in the machine building business and spent much time at VAK.
They completed their college education specializing in electricity and controls. Both are certified sheet-metal journeymen from Amada. They established ElectroMech in 2003, a company specializing in assembling / erecting machinery, training, repairing manufacturing systems and troubleshooting controls. |
 {Gary and Troy assembling a VAK project circa 1998} |
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In October 2007, COMAL decided to expand its market share beyond Europe. After trying to do so through dealers unsuccessfully, the Chatmajians were invited to participate in the effort. A sales and service center was established in the US, to become the global center for COMAL under the name COMAL ITALIA. |
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