To date I have been lucky enough to always do a job that I was passionate about or to create opportunities to change when the passion faded, such as MTInnovation.
After earning my professional diploma as a lithographer forty years ago, I started working for what I had studied. By taking turns I could afford to cultivate the passion of the car stereo, which in the first cars (we are talking about the times of the Fiat 127 / Ritmo Alfa Romeo Giulietta and so on …) equipped with the most rudimentary predispositions was increasingly requested by friends.
What was previously a hobby has become a second job and in the fast evolution to the car stereo (which in the meantime had evolved with the first multi-amplification systems and calibrated with pink noise generators) I added the installation of alarms and a endless list of everything that was required in the after market. Cars once had nothing installed by the manufacturer.
Meanwhile, what was a second job became a full-time job devoted almost exclusively to new cars, before they were delivered to customers. I continue the evolution of my work with the assembly of air conditioners and then get to design systems for special vehicles.
As a convinced motorcyclist, the birth of his first child meant that he had to replace the motorbike with the camper. This beautiful world immediately fascinated me because it allowed me to travel the world with my little house and my family.
The Turn In 1999
After a few years as a camper, I intended to install an automatic pointing satellite antenna so that I could receive my TV channels from all over Europe. I call an important company that held the monopoly at that time but the lady on duty answered rudely. Inside of me I begin to mull over what happened and I am surprised at how they can afford to behave badly towards customers. So I started looking for other European companies that produced what I needed. After having “imported” and thoroughly tested a kit produced by a renowned German multinational, I decided to act as a distributor for Italy. In addition to distribution, I have always followed product assistance and technical training for installers.
The years pass by creating an interesting market, so much so that I become the manufacturer’s official distributor.
Following the technological evolutions and market demands in 2005 I began to request a universal product to meet European standards and cheaper because we understood the interest from customers but at the same time there was the doubt in spending large amounts for an accessory.
New Project In 2007
After having received more negative responses from my supplier, I try to turn myself into a producer and begin to carry out a project and a market analysis to understand if what was thought could centralize the objectives set.
At the beginning of 2007 the new project starts and we start producing the first molds. What was designed arrives on the shelves after almost two years and…. goal hit in full! Very high requests, so much so that for the first few years I could not meet the requests from abroad. I received another satisfaction when the great German manufacturer of which I was a distributor contacted me because he was interested in the automatic satellite antenna I had designed.
After the encouraging experience I continue to develop projects in the field of professional satellite reception and transmission and then start a new challenge … solving the problem of energy autonomy of recreational vehicles in a silent and ecological way.
After evaluating various technologies to produce electricity, I decide that the most suitable for my use is the Seebeck: so producing electricity from a temperature difference. System used for about forty years by NASA and still in use today to operate space probes and lunar Mars.
The adventure begins
How to design a product that never existed for consumer use? I start to read up, I meet CNR researchers who are experts in the technology concerned and the first approaches are not at all promising because the power I need, even if low, is not compatible with the modules dedicated to the production of current.
I don’t give up and after a period of dismay I change my approach. Rather than continuing with those who study the technology, I decide to introduce myself to those who produce it for NASA. I prepare the project and present it to the producer who contacts me (somewhat surprisingly) very interested. I agree to run a very spartan prototype just to understand if the goal was achievable and let’s start thinking. I care so much that I patent the device and start the procedure for submitting the project to the European SME Instrument call for Horizon 2020.
In 2015 the project is promoted in the first presentation (0.4% chance) and I get the funds to continue this important and complicated project. After completing the development of the project, I begin to prepare versions of dedicated generators for other important sectors.
The adventure continues
After Zeus150 (this is the name of the generator) has been placed on the market, I am invited by a company that produces refrigerators and air conditioners to demonstrate the operation of the innovative generator but we immediately understand that the power of our generators is not able to support the high consumption required. I understand that the problem to be solved to make it possible to use parking air conditioners for trucks and campers is electricity consumption. I wonder: are we really obliged to convert electricity to cool? can’t we convert anything else?
Very gassy, I start looking for ways to produce cold and heat with systems that use very little electricity. I conclude the research thinking of bringing the technology of absorption heat pumps to NH3 (water / ammonia, already successfully used in large industrial refrigeration and very advanced in recent years). After exchanging information with those who work with this technology and research institutions to understand if the mathematics conceived could be true and achievable, I file another patent which is then granted to me.
Evolution With MTInnovation
Understanding the opportunities that the new technology could create and having other ideas to put into practice, I decide to leave my job as an entrepreneur in my company and focus only on the design and implementation of projects and patents. The day is made up of 24 hours and it is therefore necessary to decide how to occupy them best and passionately.
Thus was born in 2019 MTInnovation SAS followed the following year by the innovative startup MT4 Innovation SRL.
From requests received and acknowledging that everything I had thought of doing was done successfully
I decide to make my experiences available also on behalf of third parties to collaborate with those who plan to do something new, to make mtInnovation grow.
To date, what was a bold idea that will change air conditioning in many sectors, has already turned into a project to be presented at European calls and which has gathered a partnership of multinationals. Only time will tell how it will end, but I am sure that I will arrive at the intended objectives.
The experiences I had led me to understand that the secret of completing projects as well as putting infinite passion and stubbornness into it is creating the right work team, such as creating the MTInnovation team.
Me with some of my MTInnovation creations
