Gilardoni SpA a Socio Unico is proud to announce the creation, within its Mandello del Lario factory, of a museum area that, through photographs, ancient machinery and historical documents, retraces the history and stages of the ambitious entrepreneurial journey, long over 70 years, of the company.
The History
The great industrial reality of Gilardoni SpA a Socio Unico was founded in 1947 by the intuition of Dr. Ing. Arturo Gilardoni (1905-1987). Everything happened visiting the 1927 Exhibition, mounted in Como to commemorate the centenary of the death of Alessandro Volta: electricity-related innovations led the future engineer to focus his study interests in the field of X-Ray.
The patent relating to the magnetic particle metalloscope for the control of meta-artifacts article dates back to 1932, opening the way to experimentations that continues today in various production areas.
Later, Ing. Gilardoni begins to revolutionize the X-Ray sector creating, in 1948, the first monoblock for therapy and, shortly after, as media diagnostics.
From the second post-war period the researches of the Ing. Gilardoni concentrated mainly in the hospital sector and until 1955 saw him particularly committed to imaging diagnostics, radiotherapy and non-destructive testing of materials.
In 1970, after about 24 years of experimentations and research, its factory, the old and small spinning factory, doubles its size becoming a structure of over 17,000 m².
Since then, the reality of Gilardoni has not been stopped, reaching innovative goals such as airport security and transport quality controls, without neglecting the initial sector of radiological diagnostics.
Today the company is strongly positioned on the global market and is one of the leading manufactures of X-ray and ultrasonic equipment in three elds:
- medical division (diagnostic radiology, angiography, mobile surgical units, emergency radiographic system, X-ray irradiation systems);
- security division (X-ray system for baggage control and body scanners both for airport and other anti-terrorism sectors);
- non-destructive testing division “NDT” (quality control systems using X-ray and ultrasonic technologies for automotive, aereospace, and railway industrie sas well as for steel and light alloys production, and in the food sector).
The Archives
The study and the recent arrangement of the Archives have also made possible to better focus the extraordinary journey of the Company, documenting an intense dissemination and research activity, through scientific publications, catalogs, advertising graphics, together with technological objects, machinery, applications and supports, stored in deposits.
A substantial part of this fund is constituted by the publications that have occupied over time the innovative discoveries begun by Arturo Gilardoni since 1932, together with those popularized by the written ones, provided with citations and bibliographical references. Of note is the integral conservation of the “Notagil“, the first and only Italian technical-scientific periodical, published by the same industry since 1963 with an initial circulation of 10,000 copies.
A special sector is dedicated to the conservation of the radiogenic tubes produced by Gilardoni starting from 1958, real technological rarities such as the “Rotagil” series, rotating anode tubes for medical diagnostic equipment that will open wide fields of future research.
Among the curiosities that emerged from the consultation of the archive documents, the project for a simple and economic “anti-atomic shelter“, conceived by the engineer Gilardoni in the eighties, for mass production and at reasonable prices, made available to the largest number of citizens, in the event of a nuclear conflict.
A look always aimed at the future
The real value of Gilardoni has always been to know how to look to the future, adapting to the times or even anticipating them.
Even today, with the collaboration of a highly qualified staff, it transfers the traditional skills in the production of X-Ray and ultrasonic equipment, in completely innovative sectors such as those of digital images and the development of the interpretation through sophisticated artificial intelligence systems. These objectives have always been pursued on a global scale through the redevelopment of the business model, the adoption of materials and design methods capable of improving products and their cost-effectiveness.
In everyday life, the educational and dissemination aspect is not forgotten, through collaboration with the major Italian and foreign universities and participation in international industry conferences, creating the optimal conditions for permanent training access to ever-changing technological knowledge.