Each pair of glasses that leaves Marcolin’s factories in the north of Italy has a story to tell – a story of creativity and craftsmanship.
That story began in 1961 in Cadore, the famed eyewear production region in the north of the country. Giovanni Marcolin established Fabbrica Artigiana to produce gold laminated temples, but just four years later, Marcolin opened a factory in Vallesella di Cadore and launched its first line of products.
Marcolin has a rich bloodline in Italian production and the Made in Italy moniker is something the company holds dear. Marcolin Group COO Massimo Stefanello says this signature goes far beyond an engraving on the inside of a frame. It’s also a guarantee for opticians against the quality of the materials and of the industrial process.
Underlining this pursuit of manufacturing excellence is the company’s latest acetate frame production facility in Fortogna, a few minutes away from Marcolin headquarters in Longarone.
Opened in 2015, the new factory allowed the company to effectively double acetate frame production output and increase agility, without diluting the Made in Italy ethos. The 3,500sqm site needed complete renovation before a raft of new production equipment was introduced.
Craftsmen know the intricacies of each frame
Production
With its focus on acetate frame production, the Fortogna factory has been tailor-made to allow for the nuances of storing the raw materials. Acetate is stored in an environment where the temperature and humidity can be monitored and controlled precisely, as fluctuations can have a detrimental effect on the large acetate sheets.
The acetate itself comes primarily from Mazzucchelli, but also from fellow acetate producer LA/ES. Marcolin works closely with both suppliers to develop exclusive colours and patterns for the Made in Italy products.
Of all the materials from which a pair glasses can be crafted, it’s acetate that remains closest to the heart of Marcolin. Stefanello believes acetate has remained so popular over the decades because of the rich colour and texture that can be achieved, but also because the touch and feel are particularly appealing for high end fashion products, with the weight of the acetate granting the final product a sense of luxury and high perceived quality.
Each acetate frame starts life as part of a large sheet, comparable in size to a household rug. The sheets are then cut down into more manageable pieces, otherwise known as plates. The plates then work their way into large, state of the art, five axis CNC machines. Marcolin overhauled the CNC technology when the plant was opened and has recently spent €3m on further modernisation, taking the total to €5.5m on CNC machinery alone. Computer controlled production is a necessity for large scale production, but their work is closely monitored by staff at the plant to ensure products are being milled to a high standard. There is notion that software and computers are infallible, but ultimately, the human eye is still needed, even if the human hand isn’t.
The dark art of tumbling can take up to four days
Craftsmanship
With the frame milled from the acetate plate, it now begins to look like a product that could adorn a patient’s face, but it’s at this point where Marcolin’s craftsmen can begin to have a real influence on the production of the frame.
Whether it’s counter boring, riveting, curving, or wet sanding, the frame is worked on manually using specially developed tooling. Each step has its own nuances that themselves can be influenced by the style of the frame, colour or even the brand. Wet sanding for example, is not a process that is carried out using the same approach every time. The workers will know that a Tom Ford frame requires a certain pressure against the sander.
Training staff for this type of intricate knowledge is a difficult task. Stefanello says maintaining this artisanal skill is a challenge for the industry, but that Marcolin’s approach is to make sure that knowledge is shared with new recruits, with old hands on the factory floor acting as mentors.
This knowledge is sometimes utilised in the production of tooling used during manufacturing, says Stefanello. The metal T logo in Tom Ford frames is challenging and time consuming because it requires perfect alignment on two separate parts – the front and the temple. After spending years repeating this procedure, one worker ingeniously developed his own tooling for the job, which was faster and more accurate. This was then rolled out elsewhere on the production line and has been patented by the company.
Another time-consuming part of the process is tumbling, that removes marks and scratches from the previous stages of machine cutting, by spending up to four days inside a rotating box filled with wood chips and abrasive balls of paste – think of how beach pebbles are smoothed by motion over other pebbles and sand. Each of the four stages can last up to 23 hours getting the exact ‘recipe’ of birch wood chips and pastes is a real dark art and will vary across different types of frame.
The final part of the process is assembly and quality control, two elements that require an expert eye to judge whether the frame meets the company’s strict standards of quality and fit. In the end, it’s these two factors that matter most to Marcolin.
