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News

www.casagrandegroup.com 01/12/2013

CASAGRANDE: OUR FIRST 50 YEARS

Going through a 50 years long story in foundation engineering.

One leit-motiv: performance, reliability, values.

The year 2013 is an important anniversary for Casagrande.

1963-2013. Firstly, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company that helped to write

the history of foundation engineering in Italy and worldwide. These 50 years represent the

bedrock that makes Casagrande strong, a heritage that consists of experience,

knowledge and efficiency. But not only that, the intellectual and human capital is the

driving force that, in the past as well as today, has made us successful and keeps

Casagrande at the forefront of the industry.

A unique place in history

50 years, as we all know, deserves to be celebrated. There aren't too many companies

who have been at the forefront of their industry for as long as Casagrande has.

Casagrande was among the first manufacturers to produce hydraulic crawler drills

1971 - The Hydraulic rotary by Casagrande is launched 1971 - Hydraulic drilling rig working in Vienna

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1980 - The C6 Hydraulic drilling rig will prove the longest lived equipment of the world

(including the

legendary C6),

hydraulic cranes and

hydraulic rotary piling

rigs. Here we must also

pay credit to our

longstanding

customers, many of

whom helped us to

develop our machines,

using their own

experience in the field

to assist us in making

our equipment

increasingly productive

and efficient.

That relationship of mutual trust continues today and marks the bond that Casagrande

has created with its customers.

Those initial pioneering years were first overseen by Casagrande’s founder, Bruno

Casagrande. Born in the Veneto region of northern Italy, he helped to write a very

important chapter in the history of Italian industrial development.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

In 1963, Bruno Casagrande was 31 years old.

Already armed with the experience from

managing large construction sites across the

country, he founded Casagrande & C. The first

step that made the company famous was the

design, construction and installation of

machinery and plants for the production of

reinforced concrete pipes.

In 1971, Casagrande introduced a ground

breaking new product, the IRC120 hydraulic

rotary rig, a machine that revolutionized the

field of foundation construction. The next

important step was the invention of the GC,

the first hydraulic casing oscillator. A year later,

another innovation, the first hydraulic

clamshell bucket for digging diaphragm walls,

the K hydraulic grab.

1963 - Bruno Casagrande in front of the first large grab built

in his new company

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At the end of 1970s the first hydraulic

crawler drill was launched onto the

market, made by Casagrande and

called the C6, a name that started the

history of small diameter drilling rigs. Ù

The C6, in fact, has proved to be the

longest lived models of foundation drilling

rig in continuous production in the world.

In the early '80s other unique technical

developments from Casagrande

appeared, the C40 hydraulic crawler

crane, with an entirely new concept for a

crawler crane, designed for the

application of all types of foundation

equipment.

In 1983, a stunning technical and operational innovation was launched, the first hydraulic

cutter for diaphragm walls in hard soil, the K3 Hydromill, and used a few years later for the

vital construction of the impermeable containment structure at Chernobyl, where

Casagrande also supplied the KRC-2/45 kelly guided diaphragm wall rig, all machines

being produced in record time.

1979 -

The

first

C6

1979-Crawlers equipped

with hydraulic clamshell

grab at work in the Lybian

desert

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The '90s were further years of great

technological advancements. The

hydraulic torque multiplier was designed,

and the first range of hydraulic self-

erecting rotary piling rigs also appeared.

This was the B series, a complete range of

machines used for excavating foundation

piles using rotary kelly methods, compatible

with casing oscillators, and capable of

constructing piles using the continuous

flight auger method.

State of the art technology and efficiency

have always been characteristics of the

Casagrande company and, in 2006, the

NG series of piling rigs was introduced,

machinery that reached new heights in

terms of accuracy, power efficiency and

productivity in the field, thanks to the latest

electronic management technology. This

series was topped by the giant C900 and

with this model, Casagrande produced

their largest ever machine.

In 2010 Casagrande engineered and applied the new SMP energy-saving system to all its

machines: with the XP Series package, Casagrande changed the parameters for

foundation machinery yet again. This new line of products is designed for constructing

large foundations with high productivity, the latest management technology and

maximum efficiency.

1998. A large hydraulic cutter is introduced to some workers

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CASAGRANDE ALWAYS LOOKING TO

THE FUTURE

In the last 50 years, the perspective of the

company has never changed and nor will it

change. Casagrande has been able to

become an industrial group which markets it’s

equipment to the whole world by virtue of

always looking to the future. That vision was

always the common feature of the pioneers of

Italian industry, destinations often unknown,

subject to risk and on roads that no one had

ever traveled before, goals to be achieved

with no small measure of talent and the ability

to manage extraordinary risk.

Always focusing on it’s future, on its

fiftieth anniversary, Casagrande

faces a new challenge, a challenge

of uncertainty dictated by the global

crisis in the financial markets. The

global crisis is not an external

variable, detached from the

company, as it affects the natural

entrepreneurial tendency to grow.

That's why Casagrande interprets this

milestone as a "step into the future", a

step towards a future where the

journey is to be planned and made.