Orlando Srl: where the other laser shops bring their biggest jobs
“If you do what everyone else does, you are dead before you start.” Orlando Srl's strategy fits in that sentence: big machines, high power, bevel cutting. The result is that when a job does not fit the other laser shops' machines, they bring it to him.
Francesco Orlando runs a company born in Sicily as a welding shop and grown in the North around subcontract laser cutting. Today it works exclusively with Cutlite Penta systems: a 20 kW PLUS that arrived in 2021 and a second 15 kW PLUS with bevel cutting. In between there is an unusual personal story, a software package that has been with him since before us, and a very clear idea of how a company should grow.
From Enna to the North: growth built on real work
Orlando Srl was born in Enna, Sicily, as a welding company, from a project of Francesco's father-in-law. The founder died eight months after the company opened, and Francesco found himself carrying the business forward with very little experience and a great deal of determination. He tells it himself, in the most disarming line of the interview:
I did not even know how to switch on a welding machine. And we are welders.
After about ten years came the decision to move North, to be closer to customers and to the pace of industry. That is not a biographical detail: a company that moves a thousand kilometers to shorten the distance to its customers has already decided what kind of supplier it wants to be.
And that is where the awareness matured that everything else revolves around: waiting times are the real bottleneck, for him and for his customers.
When the laser becomes indispensable
At first the laser was for internal use only: outside suppliers could not deliver on schedules compatible with production. “The laser shops had absurd lead times. If I was going to do this work, I had to be fast.”
That need drove the first investment. Then, almost naturally, cutting also became a service for others: demand grew, and the machine stopped being a support to become the heart of production. We have seen this path before, but usually the other way around: here it is not the subcontractor buying a laser, it is the laser turning the company into a subcontractor.
A product of their own: containers for industrial vibrators
Alongside the subcontract work there is a product of their own, sold in Italy and abroad: containers for industrial vibrators. The idea came from the founder, who used to make them in Germany: “in Italy not many people made a product like this, so we went for it.”
One number gives the measure of the warehouse: 280 types of sheet metal, from 0.5 mm stainless steel up to 40 mm, through mild steel and special materials. A subcontractor with that variety in stock can answer almost any request without waiting for material.
Big machines, high power: why Cutlite Penta
Today Orlando Srl works exclusively with Cutlite Penta systems, after years of experience with other builders. The criterion has always been the same: “we have always aimed to buy big machines, so they could be faster.”
The first machine arrived in 2021: a 20 kW PLUS. A second system followed at 15 kW, with the decisive move to bevel cutting. The machines are split by use: one cuts thin sheet, mostly stainless steel; the other cuts thicker plate and mild steel.
And there is the effect this strategy has on the area, the most unusual fact in the interview: “jobs come to us from others nearby who own very small lasers and entrust us with the bigger work. There is collaboration among many of us.” In a market always described as a price war, competitors here split the work by format: the parts that do not fit the others' machines end up on his.
The role of Alessio Venturini
The relationship with Alessio Venturini, Cutlite Penta Area Manager for Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, weighed heavily in the choice of builder. The way Francesco describes it needs no comment:
I call Alessio in the evening, at night, on Sunday. And he answers.
An ongoing conversation about production needs, schedules and technical solutions that goes beyond the sale. That is how the machine gets chosen not from a catalog, but from real use: first you understand how the shop works, then you configure the system.
Bevel: one more service for the customer
The move to bevel cutting came from concrete requests: “there were customers asking me for the chamfer. I had to offer one more service.”
Bevel cutting makes it possible to eliminate downstream operations, cut lead times and deliver a part that is ready for the next stage, typically welding. It is not a cosmetic option: it is the difference between delivering a cut part and delivering a finished-to-spec one.
From plasma to laser: a final choice
On the comparison with plasma, Francesco does not hedge: “plasma today cannot keep up.” With high-power fiber laser the company gets:
- higher precision on the part
- fewer reworks downstream
- faster delivery times
- consistent quality, job after job
It is the same conclusion reached, with different numbers, by customers who had used plasma for decades: we lined up the conditions where the comparison tips one way or the other on the plasma or laser page, and the most extreme case remains Iron SpA, four plasma heads replaced by one 40 kW laser.
Service, reliability, continuity
Over the years there have been a few surprises, and we report Francesco's summary as it is: “we have never had big problems, except one machine stop that was resolved promptly. I am lucky to have an excellent relationship with Alessio, who helps me even before I need to contact service.”
For a shop running tight schedules and tight deliveries, the point is not that the machine never stops: it is how fast it restarts, and having someone who answers before the case even becomes a ticket.
The Libellula software
If the machines are the productive muscle, Libellula is what makes it governable. The software entered the company even before Cutlite Penta, almost by chance, with a second-hand machine. It has never been replaced since. “I still draw with Libellula. I am a traditionalist.”
What arrives at Orlando Srl is CAD files, sketches, cardboard templates, improvised drawings: Libellula turns all of it into real production. The flow is simple and continuous, drawing, checking, bending, nesting and cutting, with custom macros and nesting strategies that drastically reduce scrap, especially on complex work like spirals and multi-part jobs. Francesco's summary: “you draw and you cut. You draw and you cut.”
The integration between Libellula and our systems has made the step from the technical office to the machine fast and stable. And over time the company has built increasingly solid in-house skills, above all thanks to Maurizio, who at Orlando Srl mainly handles technical drawing: less dependence on outside support, more operational autonomy. “Now the software works for us, not the other way around.”
Growing step by step
No blind race toward total digitalization: each step is taken only when the company is ready to absorb it. “Things have to be done gradually. If you start big without experience, you embarrass yourself and the customer does not come back.”
It is the same logic that brought the machines in: first the 20 kW, then bevel when customers started asking for it. Technology follows the work, never the other way around.
When the machine makes the difference
The Orlando Srl story says something precise: the right machine does not just cut, it redefines what the company can accept. Formats others cannot handle, heavy thicknesses, the chamfer already done, real emergencies: each of those capabilities is an order that previously could not even be quoted.
Francesco says it plainly: he has recommended the brand to many people he knows, including in Southern Italy. From a subcontractor in a crowded market, that is the reference worth the most.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Orlando Srl?
A company born in Enna, Sicily, as a welding shop and later relocated to Northern Italy, led by Francesco Orlando. Alongside subcontract laser cutting it makes a product of its own, containers for industrial vibrators, sold in Italy and abroad. It works exclusively with Cutlite Penta systems.
What machines does Orlando Srl use?
Two Cutlite Penta PLUS systems, split by use: a 20 kW machine that arrived in 2021, dedicated mostly to thicker plate and mild steel, and a 15 kW machine with bevel cutting. The company stocks 280 types of sheet metal, from 0.5 mm stainless steel to 40 mm.
What is bevel cutting worth to a subcontractor?
It means delivering a part already chamfered and ready for the next stage, typically welding. The customer eliminates a downstream operation and shortens lead times: for a subcontractor it is an extra service that differentiates the offer, not a cosmetic option.
What software does Orlando Srl use for drawing and nesting?
Libellula, which entered the company even before the Cutlite Penta machines and has never been replaced. It manages the flow from drawing to nesting to cutting, with custom macros and nesting strategies that reduce scrap; the integration with Cutlite Penta systems keeps the step from the technical office to the machine stable.
Have your customers started asking for the chamfer?
Bring us your parts and your formats: bevel cutting gets tested in our DEMO area in Prato. And as Francesco Orlando says, if you do what everyone else does, you are dead before you start.
