COVER STORY — “Ironing system” by Trevil, from idea to product

16 May 2019

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In view of the upcoming Clean Show scheduled for 20-23 June in New Orleans, Trevil is going to propose their flagship products characterized by innovation, efficiency and reliability with an almost forty-year long, successful market presence in the USA

Almost halfway through 2019, Trevil based in Pozzo D’Adda near Milan, a producer of ironing machines, is preparing for the participation in the prestigious international showcase: The Clean Show, scheduled for 20-23 June in New Orleans. Only by briefly revisiting the history of Trevil can we fully understand the consolidation of the business and the future challenges it will have to face.
An important, prestigious and historically relevant expertise of Trevil starts in 1980 in Treviglio, Bergamo province. It is where the company name originated. Today, it translates to the recognized excellence of ironing equipment worldwide as it has been exporting its goods to more than 150 countries over the last forty years. The early stage of Trevil’s development can be defined as the policy of small steps with a clear company’s philosophy: to present itself as a constructor of the entire machine, a producer that designs, realizes and sells products oriented towards innovation thanks to the investment in both research and the constant improvement of products. In the market full of competitors, the business started distinguishing itself right away for the realization of single components, from stainless steel boilers (not only the assembling) of which Trevil was a real pioneer to an ad hoc development of an electronic level boilers’ control.
The initial target market (in the ’80s) of Trevil were mainly garments manufacturing plants and garment finishing. Those were the years when Italian fashion brands dominated every single latitude. Later on, however, in the ’90s, the phenomenon of delocalizing the production of garments began, and businesses moved it to the developing countries where, at that time, the cost of labor was very low. This is how, eventually, Trevil became interested in the laundry market. The change took place between the end of the ’90s and the beginning of 2000s, when the growing demand for automation in ironing started developing together with the concept of tensioning in ironing.
International vocation has always been in Trevil’s DNA. As a matter of fact, since the end of the ’80s, the business has been present in the USA market thanks to the partnership with an American distributor. Everything started developing rapidly with the initial, main focus on Europe and with time, also the southern-eastern Asian countries started to sign their first contracts: Thailand and India, and at the end of the’90s, China. Corinna Mapelli, an engineer and a co-owner of Trevil together with her father, Felice Mapelli, explains, “the idea of starting from already existing and known products on the market, and make them better, optimize and complete them, e.g. by developing a steaming ironing table that would be blowing and vacuuming at the same time or a cabinet that would incorporate all the functions of pre-spotting, post- spotting, cold and hot spotting, allowed us to introduce improvements and innovation to the existing standard of the sector. Over the years, we have tried to meet clients’ needs by putting Trevil’s expertise to the service of the market, and we will continue doing so”.
Trevil’s philosophy is to create products that would satisfy the client at 360 degrees through research that focuses on quality and products performance improvement in order to guarantee low operation costs and easy use to all the operators. “In some cases, we aim at a real co-development of a product that is possible thanks to a constant feedback coming from end users and the market itself, a real test on site that leads us to a continuous products evolution. In this way, products never stay the same but evolve”.
Today, the presence of Trevil in the dry-cleaning and laundry sectors amounts to 80%, while the remaining 20% is dedicated to garments production industry and to industrial steam generators for sectors such as metal washing, food, SPAs, etc. Working with numerous different countries, Trevil deals with a variety of requests that differ one from another. Given the different cultural features and ways of dressing abroad, the ironing proposals for each country and each order are shaped ad hoc accordingly.
Engineer Mapelli makes a point, “Trevil’s product range is extraordinarily extended. We work with developing countries that ask for simple products that often lack automation due to the low cost of labor there. However, some countries’ demands can translate to a very advanced technology applied to products as it is in case of the United States where any garment is usually just taken to a dry-cleaner’s and a domestic washing machine is perceived as a furnishing piece of the house. In Italy, we are facing a cultural evolution that leads to a decrease in the demand for ironing as women tend to be occupied more professionally and the number of single households is rising. Consequently, the new social dynamics contributes to the fact that today, garments are taken to a dry-cleaner’s more than in the past”.
As for the compatibility with international laws and regulations in terms of products realization, are there any issues?
Felice Mapelli, a co-owner of Trevil, explains, “due to the existence of homogeneity in laws and regulations in Europe everything is much easier today. Instead, in the ’80s and ’90s, when each country had their own set of laws, the companies were facing some real “manoeuvres” that then led to real, dedicated types of production”.
In June, Trevil will exhibit at The Clean Show, an exhibition held in the USA, where the business has been present regularly for years. The American market has always represented “a new frontier” to the producer from Pozzo d’Adda: a daily challenge that often sees the needs of a dry-cleaning business vary greatly. “The same business will ask us to provide a pressing finisher, widely used in the USA, together with machines that guarantee a thorough, high quality finishing typical of hand ironing”, underlines Corinna Mapelli. The standards requested by the US market are very high, especially in terms of reliability, and the attention to details has always made a difference. This is why Trevil and their products match the US market perfectly well.
One of the crown jewels of the wide product range by Trevil is PANTASTAR, a pants finisher. It is the only machine on the market that finishes a classic pair of trousers by just one single positioning; the advantage that the machine offers is that it can be operated by a non-specialized operator (usually presses require an operator with long experience) which reduces labor costs and solves the problem of operators availability or their replacement. The new version of PANTASTAR has been further improved in terms of mechanics which has led to its “top” levels performance. The integrated digital devices complete and refine the product even further. Simple and intuitive graphic interface contributes to an easy use of the machine while the built-in diagnostics module allows for prompt and clear notifications in case of anomalies.
As far as shirts finishing is concerned, TREVISTAR CR deserves special attention. The finisher allows a non-specialized operator to iron 50 shirts per hour and guarantees ironing results equal to the accuracy of manual ironing. The machine is available in two versions, which differ in the cuff finishing device: one of them provides a soft finish while the other one finishes the placket and the cuff pleats at the same time using a press.
Flexibility and easy use are the characteristic features of PRINCESS ULTRA, a utility tensioning finisher that provides a good finish of shirts and outerwear made of any type of fabric, both wet and dry, in a wide range of styles and sizes. It is the only tensioning form finisher equipped with a double unique Trevil rotating clamp that offers multiple functions. The flexibility of this machine makes it suitable for many sectors thanks to its capacity of finishing a wide range of garments.
Trevil’s research and innovation translate to a tensioning finisher TREVIFORM that represents the top-quality choice for jackets and coats. Thanks to its sophisticated tensioning system, Treviform reduces touch-ups to the minimum and allows to obtain high productivity without compromises on quality. Treviform can finish a wide range of sizes and lengths: from women’s fitted jackets to 140 cm long coats. The machine is simple for any operators to run at its maximum level of productivity.
Finally, PRESTO FC completes the presentation of (some) Trevil’s products. It is a hot plate unit for shirts finishing that can iron 60/70 shirts per hour offering excellent quality. The full-size rear plate guarantees an even finish of the entire rear of the shirt. The clamps for the sleeves have been designed for fast set-up and quality finish of both long and short sleeves. The machine’s configuration allows for fast loading in a single movement and the operator does not have to change the position nor be interrupted, which optimizes the loading time.
Meet us at The Clean Show to see the efficiency of the wide range of products by Trevil.