Company

The Company Today

EXPERTISE
A Fincantieri Company, Isotta Fraschini : a name that has always been synonymous with advanced technology in the history of Italian industry. A past of excellence, of quality and of International renown that has led to specialisation in the production of diesel engines, putting the Company in the forefront for the level of technology adopted and for the combination of high performances with extremely limited size and weight.

COMPETENCE
The brand is of very old date. Since 1904 Isotta Fraschini has produced engines for various applications: from the marine and aeronautic to the automotive which in 1920 made the Company known and admired throughout the world. Different applications at different times, aiming always at the same goals: quality and product reliability.

SOLUTIONS
Recent years have seen applied to the Isotta Fraschini brand the maximum commitment of men and resources for the adoption of avant-garde production processes and to meet the present day requirements of the market. The strategic choice of accepting the new challenges presented by the market, in terms of reliability and concern for the environment with limited costs and excellence of performance, have led the Company to develop a modern and full range of engines, with outputs from 200 to 3,600 hp for marine, industrial and rail traction applications, based on the 1300 and 1700 engine families. As well as offering its customers technical support for any type of installation whatever, the Company is provided with centres for the distribution of spare parts and for technical assistance able to guarantee after sales service appropriate to the most diversified of requirements.

INTEGRATED ENGINEERING
Last but not least being part of FINCANTIERI MARINE SYSTEMS has allowed many customers to appreciate the know-how built up in the years as to the fact that today Isotta Fraschini Motori S.p.A. is always more a Diesel Systems provider rather than only a Diesel engine supplier. FINCANTIERI Marine Systems must be considered a customers problem solving supplier as is able to supply fully integrated engineering for naval, marine and power generation applications.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

For the Department of Research and Development of the Isotta Fraschini Motori the main goal is to address the need to design a modular and compact engine, with a favourable weight / power, that is reliable and easy to maintain, as required by the needs of the growing high speed diesel engine market.

The intrinsic research is to confirm the high reliability of the product, during the evolution processes of the single products that must be constantly confronted with the increasingly restrictive regulations respecting the environment.

THE FACTORY

The Company has recently implemented new initiatives in terms of organization, commercial product development and plant efficiency. The implementation of this policy has allowed the re-organization of production, significant investments in new product development in order to improve reliability and performance, reduce emissions and allow the use of bio-fuels. The new production facility, which includes the area to complete and test the gensets up to 3000 kW, will aim to meet the requests of an increasingly demanding market.

History

Isotta Fraschini was founded in 1900 as "Isotta Fraschini & C. by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo Oreste Antonio Fraschini.
Initially the company dealt with assembling parts and components of vehicles of foreign origin, assembly on frames of its own design and construction, the sale of the cars thus obtained and the marketing of foreign cars.
Soon the company began to design and produce all the parts on its own and in 1904 it became "Isotta Fraschini S.p.A. Milano".
For many years Isotta Fraschini designed and produced exceptional engines for aeronautical, naval, civil, military and vehicle use both for civil and military use.
In the 1930s the factory moved some of its factories to the Saronno area and also later due to the bombing of facilities in Via Monterosa in Milan during the war.
Thus creating an important industrial reality in Saronno.
At the end of the war, however, the conversion of the company from military to civil failed and the company was placed in liquidation.
In 1955 the company merged with the "Breda Motori" of Milan and the "F.A. Isotta Fraschini and Motori Breda" was born with plants in via Milano in Saronno.
Important products were designed and manufactured in the railway, shipbuilding and industrial sectors.
At the beginning of the 1960s a plant for the production of highly successful Diesel engines was founded in Bari -
Towards the end of the 1970s the company changed its name first to "Isotta Fraschini" and then to "Isotta Fraschini Motori" and ceased its activity in Saronno at the end of the 1980s with the transfer of production to the factories of Trieste of the soc. Fincantieri, which joined the production that never ceased at the Bari plant.
Today in Bari , research and development, production continues and is the only world headquarters of the Isotta Fraschini Motori brand.