High quality engineering, focused attention to customers’ needs, a wide range of equipment, and the availability of tailor-made solutions; these are the ingredients to O+P’s recipe for success. Celebrating its 40th year in business, 2021 marks a significant milestone for the Italian manufacturer of hydraulic hose and tube processing equipment. With a wide range of innovative products including hose crimpers, saws, test benches, and all kinds of hydraulic hose processing equipment, O+P has established itself as one of the international leaders in the hose industry.
By Vanessa Moreschi and Angelica Pajkovic
Humble Beginnings
In October 1981, O+P opened its doors as a small mechanical workshop based in a little village near Brescia, Northern Italy. Its founder, Mr. Vittorio Piantoni, dedicated his workshop to projecting, manufacturing, and servicing hydraulic cylinders. After only a few years in business, Mr. Piantoni chose to seize an interesting market opportunity. Using the knowledge he had gained in the field as building blocks, he laid the groundwork for his company’s new direction: designing and manufacturing equipment for hydraulic hose and tube processing. Now, 40 years later, O+P is headed by CEO, Daniele Piantoni, and is well recognized for its dynamic product range and innovative solutions. With over 70 employees worldwide, the company has grown significantly from a small workshop to a large manufacturing facility, located in Brescia, Northern Italy.
Passion, Precision, and Quality Driven
Built on a foundation of firmly set values, O+P continues to offer customers top notch quality equipment, manufactured in compliance with the strictest and most common international standards. All O+P equipment is EC and CSA/UL certified, and made by dedicated professionals who approach every project with passion. The company’s devotion to upholding these values not only inspires its employees to continuously improve their processes, but also creates a familiar environment in which everyone feels their work is appreciated.
From the beginning, O+P stood out from its competitors due to its clear business proposition. The ability to offer safe and flexible products that combine strength and power with user friendliness and intuitiveness showed costumers that O+P could be counted on to satisfy any of their hydraulic hose, or rigid tube processing, needs. Its diverse range of quality products also made O+P the first choice for reliable solutions. In fact, the product lines that were offered in the company’s very first catalogue are still offered today. This catalogue consisted of machines for crimping, cutting, skiving, marking, washing, and testing hydraulic hoses, as well as a line of complimentary accessories and equipment for bending, flaring (37° and 90°), deburring, and pre-assembling rigid tubes. O+P’s ability to grow these product lines over the years, with the addition of several new models, is a testimony to the fact that the company is always working to adapt to the changing market and, whenever possible, to anticipate these changes.
Innovative Products
As the recently adopted slogan #TheCrimperMaster suggests, one of the O+P’s primary focuses is on hose crimpers. Now available in a great variety of different models, O+P can satisfy even the most unique requests. Starting with its compact, lightweight, and portable manual crimpers, these devices are perfect for on-site service interventions. Workshop crimpers can be used for medium-scale production factories and can be personalized with a complete set of accessories. There are currently two versions available: the EL, which has a simple and intuitive electro-mechanical control, and the ES, which comes equipped with an ES3 touchscreen control panel, and sophisticated options that automate and simplify the operators’ daily job.
Alternatively, O+P crimpers also come in high-volume production versions. These versions are huge machines that can work with the largest industrial and hydraulic hoses. They can process a high number of hoses a day and are therefore ideal for any company that needs to set-up massive production lines. Among its other equipment, O+P has a range of nuts and cable crimpers, which allow the company to diversify its services.
Special applications are another key aspect of O+P’s business. The most recent R&D project undertaken by O+P has been the advancement of the ES4 color touch-screen panel. The focus of the project has been to provide the panel with new functions, such as: an industrial hose crimp calculator (a feature that requires the operator to input a few simple parameters so that the system can calculate the ideal crimping diameter of the hose to be processed), and the industry 4.0 kit. The 4.0 kit offers several different crimping options and allows the machine to connect to the company’s network; it includes a digital caliper and software that can import crimping parameters into a company’s system. By incorporating the latest technological advancements into its products and digitizing its processes, O+P is able to efficiently and effectively evolve with the ever-changing industry. The acceleration of application digitization in industrial sectors over the past twelve months has been one of O+P’s primary focuses, and the company has been very proactive to ensure it stays ahead of its competitors.
Custom Made Solutions
With passion and customer satisfaction as the driving forces behind all its decisions, O+P is dedicated to optimizing each of its clients’ experiences. It achieves this goal by being responsive to the customers’ needs and offering them custom solutions for their projects. Not only are these solutions more advanced and tailored to meet specific requirements, they are also backed by the strong synergy between the sales and technical departments. It is this synergy that ensures customers receive the fast, competent, and accurate responses needed to complete their projects.
Progressive Growth
Since its inception, O+P has made significant strides in its effort to widen its reach. In 2012, this reach extended across Italy’s national border and has since successfully taken root in three foreign branches.
OP (Shanghai) Hydraulic Tubing Processing Equipment Co. Ltd., located in Shanghai, China, was established in 2012 and now services the entire Chinese market. With the aim to promptly respond to the demands of the Chinese market, this O+P branch produces many of its O+P products internally.
The expansion of O+P continued in 2014, with the opening of OP USA Inc. in Acton, Massachusetts. This branch is dedicated to serving the Northern American, Canadian, and Mexican markets and ensures that all the products it sells are CSA/UL certified. With a large stock of inventory, all of which are manufactured in Italy, OP USA is able to deliver high quality products with little to no lead times. Each employee’s extensive hands-on technical training from the Italian headquarters also ensures that each client has access to knowledgeable and supportive service staff, who are readily available for any product related inquires.
In 2016, O+P founded OP India Pvt. Ltd., based in New Delhi, to serve the Indian market with a ready-for-delivery stock of machines. The company had a great start and is planning to move to a bigger building in 2021 to continue its expansion.
Customer Care
One of the many perks of being an O+P customer is the constant attention to technical training and service support the company offers. O+P’s service team can be reached in many different ways, and is able to offer its support with remote assistance sessions or with on-site interventions, in situations that require more invasive actions. O+P also invests a lot in training for its customers and distributors. In its Italian headquarters there is a show room, where the most popular pieces of equipment are gathered to be used for training purposes. These challenging times have changed the way these sessions are offered, and in the last year O+P salesmen organized several remote training and DEMO sessions, to be able to stay as close as possible to its customers.
Final Thoughts
It is the passion, commitment, and special bond its employees have with the company they work for that has made O+P so successful in its first 40 years of business. The loyalty, ethics, and transparency, which are the hallmarks of the O+P team, are what will continue to help it to push technological boundaries and achieve new innovative products for the hose industry.
