EN4 was founded in 2006 as an Academic Spin-off of the University of Perugia, and is now a partner of important companies in Italy and abroad for the development of solutions testing for R&D and End of Line of production.
The company develops test benches for various sectors (Automotive, Aerospace, Railway, Industrial Machinery & Automation, Home Appliance) and among others, EN4 works with companies like Marelli, Brembo, Bonfiglioli, Lamborghini, HSD, etc. The experience EN4 gained from the basic research at the University continuously supports their business.
Interview with Gianluca Franchi, Partner, Sales and Marketing Director at EN4.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Gianluca Franchi: Our products are highly technologic system that allow customers to obtain a complete mechanical, electrical, thermal and fluid dynamic characterization of components such as: Electric Motors, Actuators, Batteries, Inverters, Valves, Pumps, Components for Hydrogen, Fuel cells and many others.
EN4 follows the entire product development process, from hardware design, to small-scale prototyping, software development, to the production of the final solution. Each product is designed and built to meet the needs of the customer who can get an easy-to-use software for system data acquisition, control and results analysis.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
G.F: Working a lot with R&D departments of such a big companies, we come into contact with new market demands and technological developments well in advance.
All this means that our new products must evolve as much as our customers’ products.
Among the most significant trends we certainly have the revolutions in the field of mobility, which is changing the paradigms of new products, between the development of electric vehicles and the new challenges launched by other technologies such as hydrogen and fuel cells. EN4 can follow these trends with test systems for various kind of products, for example electric motors, inverters, batteries, on-board charger, hydrogen components and many more.
Important news can also be seen in other sectors, for example in some innovative projects in the Industrial Machinery. For example, we are working with our customer HSD S.p.a and other institutional and academic partners in one of the most interesting projects in this field, developing a brand new smart electrospindle, using technologies like IoT, Edge computing, Cloud, Machine learning, AI, Digital twin, making it possible to create a completely new product for the markets of the future
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
G.F: Our systems can test products of size and performance over a wide range of variability. For example, as regards electric motors in the automotive field, we work both on products for auxiliary components, small motors of a few hundred watts, up to motors used for traction, motors of hundreds of kilowatts and with speed that are growing in speed, also above 20.000 Rpm. The common point between these applications is our approach to measurement and testing, regardless of the size of the products.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
G.F: We are active both in the R&D, at the very beginning of the product life, and in the End of Line test, that is the final stage in the production, just before the product being placed on the market
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
G.F: The most innovative systems that we are those dedicated to new market trends, to date I would therefore say test systems for batteries, test benches for high performance electric motors, test systems for fuel cells, and so on.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?
G.F: Although the global situation is extremely uncertain, and the development of new projects is severely tested by the supply chain crisis, we now see a strong push in the development of new products, and we are confident that we will continue to support our customers through our test systems, overcoming together the technological challenges of the future.
