Two young entrepreneurs. Gianni Rubino and Gaspare Errante take over a historic Tuscan company and choose Cutlite Penta to transform production. We met Gianni Rubino to find out how an XME 6000 W fiber laser revolutionized their way of working
Gianni, let’s start from the beginning. How did this entrepreneurial adventure begin?
Giancarlo Terreni Srl is a company with solid roots, founded in 1986 in Tuscany. In September 2024, my partner and I decided to take over the business. We are young, with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and a great desire to build our future. It was a big bet, but we believed in it from the very beginning.
What exactly does your company do?
Our core business is the casing of industrial machinery: we make all the sheet metal coverings that form the outer shell of the machines. We operate in various sectors: tanneries, woodworking, nautical,railway, practically in all fields related to industrial machinery. The process starts from a technical drawing in PDF or DWG that we transform into a finished product: laser cutting, bending, and final assembly.
There is also a second line that we carry on with passion: Trasportin Dog, the production of fully aluminum pet carriers, custom-made to fit into car trunks. It is a project born from the previous owner’s passion for dogs, which we wanted to preserve and develop.
How many people work in the company today?
We are a team of 14 people: 2 partners and 12 employees.
What need drove you to invest in a new laser cutting system?
We were using a CO2 laser from 2000 that had become a critical production limit. Maintenance was constant, machine downtime frequent, and for us, this meant not being able to guarantee delivery times to customers. The cutting system is the beating heart of our company, and we work precisely on urgencies: when a customer needs a component, they must be able to rely on us.
Do you operate only locally?
Our reference territory is Tuscany, but we collaborate with companies that operate on a global scale. For the Trasportin Dog line, however, we distribute throughout Italy, including the islands.
What led you to choose Cutlite Penta?
We had already evaluated two other companies but did not find the right solution. The meeting with Alessio Marrucci, the Cutlite Penta sales representative, made the difference. It was the first and only company to propose a visit to the Prato headquarters. Seeing firsthand how they work, talking to people, touching the quality of the organization: after leaving there, the decision was already made.
What I appreciated was the approach: not the classic aggressive sale, but a real listening to our needs and targeted advice on the machine’s potential. Alessio managed to create a professional yet human relationship, which for me, at my age, made a real difference.
And then, when you see the laser in action and compare it with what you had before, you realize that cutting speed, energy consumption, and production times are on another level.
What operational advantages have you noticed in everyday life?
The change has been radical. We work on thicknesses ranging from 1 mm to 30 cm, with very different materials. With the old CO2, every material change meant changing the focal lens, losing 15-20 minutes with each operation. With the XME 6000 W, just modify the parameters on the software, and the system adapts instantly.
Before, we were forced to schedule production by grouping jobs by thickness to optimize time. Today we can work on-demand: what enters the workshop is processed immediately, with a completely different level of customer service.
Why did you opt for an XME 6000 W?
The choice was driven by the need to consolidate our production capabilities. We had two machines, a CO2 laser 1500×3000 and a plasma system 4000×1500, that covered different work areas and thicknesses. The XME allowed us to replace both systems with a single solution: a larger workbench and cutting capacity up to 25 mm. The result is economic savings, greater efficiency and above all, the elimination of production bottlenecks.
Even from an energy point of view, the numbers speak for themselves: by monitoring electrical consumption, we discovered that the XME in operation consumes as much as the old CO2 in standby. And when the laser is on but not working, consumption is practically zero. The old machine was twenty years old, it’s true, but the impact on the energy bill was still significant.
Can you give us a concrete example of time and cost savings?
As soon as it was installed, I immediately did comparative tests. A job that previously took 2 hours of processing, today we complete in 20 minutes. This has allowed us to be much more competitive: we can significantly reduce the price, which for series processing represents a really important margin. And this while saving energy and optimizing resources.
How was the experience with the Cutlite Penta technical team?
Excellent, at every stage. The assembly technicians were extremely prepared and available, answering every doubt with clarity and professionalism. In particular, I want to mention Massimo Testi, Commissioning Manager, who impressed me with his competence and problem-solving approach.
A great human relationship was created with the whole team: in just 3 days, they fully trained us on the use of the machine. The system is really intuitive, which greatly accelerated the learning curve.
A final assessment of this experience?
Absolutely positive. Until a year ago, an investment of this magnitude was unthinkable for us. When you find someone who believes in your project, really listens to you, and helps you find the right solution, not the most expensive, but the one best suited to your possibilities and needs, well, it’s a feeling that makes a difference. Cutlite Penta gave us this opportunity, and today we can say it was the right choice.
