Spring associations
Springs, AI, and wire prices: the ANCCEM conference in Trieste confronts major industry shifts
On May 22 in Trieste, the ANCCEM annual assembly brought into focus some of the most significant transformations running through the sector: artificial intelligence, business ethics, and energy management. The day also featured a speech by Francesco Silvestri, the new ESF President, with a proposal set to spark debate.
AI as a tool to be governed, not just deployed
The theme ran as a thread through the entire day. Fabrizio Bertuletti, attending his first assembly as ANCCEM President, set the starting point: AI is neither a promise nor a threat, but a tool that — unlike previous technologies — operates at the level of decision-making, not just process. The association's answer is not a race to adoption, but a structured phase of study and governance.
On the practical side, the day saw the presentation of the ANCCEM AI Suite, developed by Mazzantini & Associati. The system is designed to make company knowledge queryable — procedures, resolved cases, accumulated experience. In spring manufacturing, this knowledge is often scattered across documents, devices, and people. The architecture is built around corporate knowledge bases, a retrieval and response generation engine, function-specific assistants, and a governance system with logs and granular permissions. The platform is model-agnostic — compatible with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and open-source solutions — and is conceived as shared infrastructure for the entire association community.
ESF: a European price index for spring wire?
Francesco Silvestri, past president of ANCCEM and, since April, President of the ESF — European Spring Federation, outlined his objectives for the term. Among the key ones: the creation of a European materials price index starting with wire — carbon steel and pre-tempered. The proposal — which Silvestri himself acknowledged is not without controversy — also runs alongside a study on global spring market flows and ongoing regulatory work, most notably the revision of EN 13906 on compression springs.
Energy: battery storage has come of age
The congress closed with a session by Repower on the energy market. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have reached a level of technological maturity that, under favorable conditions, can deliver payback periods of five to six years. Integration with existing or new photovoltaic systems makes it possible to capitalize on electricity price variability. Regulatory and fiscal aspects remain to be monitored.
Upcoming institutional events include: a new ANCCEM annual conference in 2027, venue still to be determined, and the ESF conference in Rome on September 24 of next year.
Cover photo by Carla Tonoli
