News

Like every year, the one that is rapidly ending has brought us many things, and as usual some of these have been good, while others we can count among the "less good", with some ill-concealed discretion. Certainly, some of the things that happened will remain firm in our memory for a long time because of what they represented and the effects they may have on our future. Others, on the other hand, which may even have given us satisfaction or pain, will be less present in our future thoughts and will soon fade away within the folds of our memory.

As we are heading toward the end of this somewhat problematic year in many respects, let us try to take a little stock of what has happened in order to fix well all those that have nevertheless been important experiences, perhaps precisely because they were consequent to difficult moments and from which, however, we can also begin to plan and build a part of our future.

 

In extreme summary, with an evaluation that is certainly still sketchy and incomplete, we can say that for CATAS this 2022 has been a positive year, with testing activities remaining at the levels of previous years, with a growth in product certifications, with an interesting start of LCA studies, and with a significant growth in the demand for testing machines to our engineering department. But the first thought about what has most characterized our 2022 is certainly the resumption of human contacts, we are talking about those moments when we met and shook hands again, the first times with some fear - "may it be done?" - but then more firmly until we got to the hugs with those dear people we have known for so many years, certainly as clients, as collaborators, as consultants, but often also became friends in a relationship based on esteem and trust and that in "work" talks leads to mixing standards, mechanics and chemistry with family, with affections, with our lives.

All this we missed and missed so much, it was certainly a loss in so many ways.

But over the course of 2022 things have fortunately changed and some moments of meeting have been there and here we want to briefly mention them precisely because their importance, after the long period of effective but sad video calls, was really felt.

The meeting of WG3 of the 207 Furniture technical committee.
The first meeting of WG3 of TC 207 was held at Catas in September. Attendance was "massive" with delegates arriving in San Giovanni al Natisone from all corners of Europe (France, Germany, UK, Belgium, Denmark...).
At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, September 20, the Catas meeting room had all the appearance of a chaotic classroom where students gathered on the first day of school at the end of the long summer vacation. Constant exchanges of greetings, handshakes, smiles, groups of people talking to each other, toasts with coffee...and the poor coordinator repeatedly trying to call everyone to order to start the meeting.
Yes, then work was done also discussing some details of the tests on the agenda with real simulations carried out with the machines provided by Catas. It was a positive experience that was confirmed in the following days with the meetings of the other working groups, WG9 "Test Methods" and WG6 "School Furniture," which discussed comments for the revision of EN 1022 regarding stability of seating and also performed practical surveys for the revision of EN 1729 Part 1 regarding dimensional requirements for chairs and tables for school use.

We really wanted to, and on October 6 we finally managed to meet many companies from the Pesaro area, one of the most important districts of the Italian furniture industry, in a dedicated workshop that Catas organized together with Biesse.

The event, which took place inside Biesse's demonstration room right in front of the edgebanding machines, brought us face to face with local companies on the problems and needs of those who deal with these processes every day.

We started with defects and arrived at solutions....

The workshop also served us to reason together with the companies present on the contents of the next events that CATAS will organize in this area in the coming year and where, from 2021, we have created a Catas Point precisely to be closer to the needs and requirements of local realities.

CATAS presence at Xylexpo and Sicam exhibitions
A double presence of Catas at two important industry exhibitions, Xylexpo in Milan and Sicam in Pordenone. The Catas team was really numerous inside our stands where we received the welcome visit of many companies, but not only that, we were also present in a series of important seminars, carried out in collaboration with Federchimica in Pordenone and together with Acimall in the important Milanese event.

What about 2023?
This buoyancy full of humanity and enthusiasm that we have experienced during 2022 will take on even more vigor in the new year for which we have already scheduled more appointments with companies, in our three locations (Veneto-Friuli, Brianza and Pesarese).
They will be more opportunities to meet, to exchange experiences, ideas, solutions, to continue to grow in comparisons and collaboration.