Italy-based metal finishing machine manufacturer, Surface Engineering, has recently established its first unit in India. Although in its early stages, the facility is already playing a vital supporting role in Surface Engineering’s major projects in collaboration with the Italian firm. The company also aims to boost its production output, while maintaining reasonable costs and ensuring consistent quality. In an exclusive interview with Tube & Pipe India, Mr. Massimo Sartorio, Sales Manager at Surface Engineering, discusses the company’s future plans to expand its local operations, increase production capacity, and develop tailored solutions, offering significant advantages to Indian customers.

Tube & Pipe India: Can you provide an overview of your company?

Massimo Sartorio: Surface Engineering S.r.l. is a manufacturer of metal finishing machines used for surface finishing, grinding, polishing of long products such as tubes, bars and shaped parts.

Located near Milan, Italy, the company was founded in 1994 by my father, an engineer with a background in sandblasting equipment. We design and manufacture advanced systems tailored for finishing welded and seamless pipes, bars, and other profiles, which are commonly used in demanding applications such as energy, structures, hydraulic cylinders, chrome-plated bars, and other high-precision components.

Our product range includes complete offline systems featuring handling, loading/unloading, packaging, and testing lines, as well as machines seamlessly integrated into production processes like bar mills and pipe mills.

We are an engineering-driven company with a team of 40 people. Everything—from mechanical design to software and electrical engineering—is developed in-house. We build, test, and install our machines worldwide.

TPI: What is your brand’s USP that sets you apart from the competition?

MS: Our work focuses on achieving three critical surface targets depending on the customer’s needs.

The first aspect is defect removal. Our systems ensure consistent material removal across all sides of the tubes, whether it is round or straight. This eliminates imperfections and prepares the product either for further processing or for direct sale.
At the same time, we help our customers achieve a specific final roughness essential for corrosion resistance and mechanical performance or durability. Finally, we improve the cosmetic appearance of the product, giving it a bright, mirror polished, and professional look, adding commercial value to the product and creating a strong visual impact.

All of this is done in a single operation called grinding or polishing, depending on the level of finishing. We customize every machine, based on the customers’ specifications, and performance goals.

TPI: Is there any other critical aspect for surface finishing?

MS: A critical aspect of our process is the filtration of powder or mud generated by the machine itself.

To address this, we have integrated a new filtration system into our machines, offering multiple levels of filtration. This upgrade ensures a significant reduction in waste, resulting in less media consumption, lower media weight for filtration, and a substantial improvement in the cleaning capacity of the coolant liquid or air utilized during the process, enhancing overall machinery performance.

TPI: Which markets do you primarily serve, and how much of your output is directed toward exports?

MS: Approximately 90% of our turnover comes from exports, with India being our leading market last year and likely again this year.

TPI: Can you tell us about your key customers in India?

MS: Our main customers in India include large players in stainless steel long products such as bars and seamless pipes manufacturers.

In general, our equipment is designed for producers of seamless pipes, bars, and tubes, as well as company wich use the same for their final products.

TPI: What is your outlook on Industry 4.0 trends and how it will impact your business?

MS: Industry 4.0 has been a hot topic in Europe for several years now. Therefore, it’s essential for us to collaborate with companies that are aligned with this approach, allowing seamless vertical integration of our machines to meet all Industry 4.0 requirements.

There are different solutions available to integrate our machines into the production systems—enabling the reception of orders, information flow, and productivity control. Even without Industry 4.0 compliance, our machines are capable of automatically generating reports which can be downloaded directly from the machine or sent to your office.
To sum it up, we deliver ready-to-use machines that are fully functional and serviceable, whether or not it has Industry 4.0 features.

TPI: What are the challenges in the Indian market as compared to the European market? How do you plan to increase your footprint in the Indian market?

MS: The European market remains the primary market for my products, but it is currently facing a lack of innovation. Supply in the market exceeds demand, creating a highly competitive environment. In contrast, rapidly growing countries like India require innovation in local production to remain competitive.

While in Europe the focus is often on renovating or upgrading existing machinery to improve plant quality, India presents far greater opportunities for entirely new projects and new machinery installations.

The developed technology is more likely to be sold in India as compared to Europe. India’s capacity and demand is growing, and consequently, we are focusing on supplying more advanced machineries to the country—like the ones we produce—to be installed there over the next decade.

Our solutions range from complete offline systems that include handling, loading/ unloading, packing, and testing lines, to machines integrated directly into production.

TPI: What is the current market scenario and how do you see it evolving in the future? Does the increasing tariffs have an impact on the market?

MS: From my perspective, in the machinery sector, local players are not so competitive in terms of technology relative to the pricing. Transforming the market in order to become more modern and capable of meeting the evolving demands of the steel industry will take many years.

We believe that the tariffs will still be present in the future but perhaps in more reasonable amounts, or may be lifted altogether, as the current tariffs don’t seem to offer a logical or sustainable solution.

At the moment, the market is stagnant. There is a need for more clarity in the future to understand the machinery market in a better way. We anticipate that the second half of the year will be steady.

Currently, our customers are unsure of what to purchase or how much to invest, as decisions need to be made for a medium to long-term. The economic policy and market landscape is shifting every month, making it an extremely uncertain environment for planning and investment.

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TPI: What are the recent innovations and developments adopted by your company?

MS: We are developing specialized applications in our machineries aimed at increasing productivity. We are specifically boosting our output in terms of meters per minute—while maintaining reasonable costs and ensuring consistent quality over time.

Another key application we’re working on involves preparation for non-destructive tests(NDT). We offer polishing solutions designed to prepare products for testing, and minimize the risk of fake defect detection or fake scrap identification.

Lately, our focus has also shifted toward automation. Automation is now a growing requirement not only in Europe but globally. It has become an essential factor for maintaining our machine productivity and reducing our operational costs.

TPI: What are your future plans in the coming times?

MS: We have recently established our first unit in India. While it is still in its early stages, it is already actively supporting our main project in collaboration with the Italian company Our future goal is to develop this company locally and to further increase its production capacity. We try to create localized solutions aligned with the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative and offer significant advantages to our customers.