Our history
1930's - The origins —
Impa was established as a craftsman’s workshop in the late 1930s and its history has always been intertwined with that of the Bianciotti family, the industrious, foresighted, and committed people who created it and made it grow, and, while always retaining its family-run status, transformed it into an industrial reality, a veritable benchmark in its sector.
In the late 1930s, in the city of Turin, the cradle of Italy’s metalworking industry, Alessandro Bianciotti opened an engraving laboratory, where he made marking punches for industrial use. He was soon joined by his brother Francesco (who went by Mario), who remained at the helm of the company after Alessandro’s untimely death.
High quality products soon brought success, but with the outbreak of the World War II the workshop was left momentarily without a male presence, and it was thanks to the resourcefulness of Mario’s wife Gina that the company managed to stay in business. During those years of hardship, the district where the workshop was situated was heavily bombed and the facility was totally destroyed. Against all odds, Mario and Gina managed to retrieve what little could be recovered from the rubble and opened a new workshop in the same district.
1945 - 1955 —
The war had taken a harsh toll on the family, but as Italy rose from the ashes of the conflict the demand for marking punches soared, mostly thanks to the metalworking industries engaged in the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructures.
The 1960s
In the 1960s Italy saw the post-war economic boom accompanied by the stunning rise of the auto industry. The legendary Vespa scooters manufactured by Piaggio, the Fiat 600 and 500 car models, just to mention a few examples, became part of people’s lives and kept the entire country “moving”. Punches, an indispensable tool to produce identification marks - such as frame, engine or parts numbers - on mechanical components, were in great demand. During these years, the Bianciotti family proved able to keep abreast of the country’s economic and industrial development, manufacturing ever greater quantities of punches to increasingly high standards of quality.
Mario and Gina were happy to see their son Alessandro join the family business and help them ride the wave of an extremely rapid industrial growth and the ensuing demand for better means to identify, catalogue, trace, mark out one’s products and, at the same time, safeguard the health of consumers.
During this period, in fact, rules were passed to impose expiry dates on pharmaceuticals and cosmetics and, eventually, on food products too.
In this context, punches acquired ever greater importance and the Bianciottis conceived ways to make increasingly small marking tools featuring unmatched precision and impeccable quality, while working to shorter lead times. This is how the company made its successful entry in the packaging sector.
The 1970s
In 1975, once its good results in terms of sales revenue and number of people employed had become well-established, the enterprise, founded with the name Officina Bianciotti, increased its scale of operation from artisanal to industrial level, and in the course of this transition changed its name to IMPA, an acronym formed from the words Incisione Meccanica Punzoni Acciaio (Mechanical Engraving Steel Punches). Nowadays, its name is perceived as a historic brand name synonymous with top quality punch tools.
The 1990s
In the 1990s, advanced technologies and computers took on a primary role in many production sectors and CNC pantographs began to be used alongside traditional hand-operated engraving systems.
In 1993, the company staff was joined by Alessandro’s son Andrea and his wife Irene. A young man, raised in the digital era, and open to the new technologies, Andrea brought about a rapid acceleration in the pace of innovation, without losing sight of the precious heritage of experience, knowledge and tradition handed over by his father and grandfather.
Today
Today IMPA is a company that can boast a great success story: over the span of nearly a century it was established, grew, overcame incredible difficulties and always managed to remain competitive and to keep pace with the times, in step with the technological changes taking place through the years. A company closely intertwined with the history of the Bianciotti family and that of its recent generations, each of which made its human and professional contribution with passion and dedication.