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RIGHETTI RIDOLFI: A 50-YEAR LONG HISTORY

Max Bernardi

11 April 2019

Righetti Ridolfi is amongst the most known karting brands. A leading company in the field of accessories, it offers a catalog with over 2700 items, mostly produced in-house. For its 50 year anniversary it moved to a new headquarter location. TKART went to visit it, to find out how a leading company in the world of karting is organized.

RIGHETTI RIDOLFI, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

The company founded by Enzo Righetti and continued by his two children Maurizio and Giampaolo, celebrates half a century of activity. From the first plastic accessories to historic brand karts like the Gold Kart, All Kart and Mac Minarelli, Righetti Ridolfi is a brand which has marked the history of karting and has been able to establish itself on a global level.

1969 – 1984

Righetti Ridolfi was founded in 1969 in Bussolengo, a small town in the province of Verona (Italy) as a family-run business in the molding of composite plastic products. The founder, Enzo Righetti, a great go-kart enthusiast, is among the pioneers of Italian karting and at the end of the 1970s, he combines work and passion by producing the first composite plastic accessories for karts. As the business grew, a larger factory was necessary, therefore the company moved to Sona in 1972. In 1984 the company expanded with Mrs. Ridolfi, wife of Enzo Righetti and the two sons Maurizio and Giampaolo joining the company, hence the double name Righetti Ridolfi.

The previous headquarters of Righetti Ridolfi, before the relocation in 2018

The previous headquarters of Righetti Ridolfi

1985 – 2017

In 1985 the articles produced for the karting industry were now over 200✚, now extended to the first assembly of accessories. In 1996, to satisfy the steady demand, in Italy and abroad, as well as to focus on research and development for an improved quality of the products, led the company to relocate to the new headquarters, which offered more a suitable space. From this moment all new items, no longer just in composite plastic but also in aluminum, were designed in-house with CAD CAM systems and, subsequently produced on numerically controlled machineries (C.N.C machines).

The Righetti Ridolfi logo at the entrance of the new headquarters

TODAY

In 2018, Righetti Ridolfi moved again to a new location, which features a covered area of over 5000 square meters. The space available allows them to better manage the continuously growing production and improve the layout of the machines. Presently, the company is led by the brothers Maurizio who plays a more technical role, following the design and production phases, and Giampaolo Righetti, who follows the business administration aspect of the business.

The new headquarters of Righetti Ridolfi in Sona, near Verona

BRAND NAMES

In addition to accessories, Righetti Ridolfi continues the production of chassis for brands owned by the company, that have marked the history of karting: Gold Kart, All Kart and Mac Minarelli.
With the Aviomac and Mac Marine brands, Righetti Ridolfi aims also at the aircraft modeling and nautical industries, utilizing the distinguished expertise developed in the many years of high-level production in Karting.

The brands of the chassis manufactured by Righetti Ridolfi.

PRODUCTION

As mentioned before, the historic core business of Righetti Ridolfi is the production of kart’s accessories, a field where it is renowned as one of the absolute leaders, this can never be contested. Presently, the company boasts over 1100 locations of sales in 87 countries spread across Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The catalog products have reached over 2700 different items and are primarily manufactured in-house.

A Gold Kart chassis, one of the “racing” brands by Righetti Ridolfi

CHASSIS ASSEMBLY AND ACCESSORIES

CHASSIS

The assembly department handles the assembly of rental and racing chassis. In general, every accessory is prepared ahead, in order to speed up the assembly phase on the chassis. First, the rear unit consisting of the axle, bearing housing, disc brake and the water pump O-ring are pre-assembled
The department has 6 assembly stations, each with all the necessary hardware and tools to facilitate the work of the operators.

Images of the Righetti Ridolfi chassis assembly department

The 6 stations for the assembly of the chassis

ACCESSORIES

The area of the department dedicated to the accessories is composed by some workbenches with seats. The products which require assembly before the sale are many: for example, the braking unit and or the water pump. In the department there are several small machines which implement operations such as laser engraving or the integration of various fittings on the aeronautical pipes of the brake system

PACKAGING

Within the same department, products are also packaged, an essential operation for shipping. Each accessory is boxed or bagged, then an operator takes care of affixing the right label with the bar code. From here, the products are transferred to their relative warehouse, depending on whether they are small parts or products of larger dimensions.

PLASTIC MATERIAL DEPARTMENT

MACHINERY

In the area dedicated to the composite plastic products, there are 5 machines which manufacture all the accessories produced by an injection molding system at Righetti Ridolfi. The production capacity starts from pieces which can weigh just 1 gram, up to 1 Kg.

One of the main and most extensive departments is the one for the manufacturing of composite plastic accessories

PRODUCTION

The production list is entrusted to a software which manages the average quantities of each product month by month, taking into account the historical data of the last two years of sales. In this way, the warehouse will be “fed” properly and optimally the exact amount of parts needed according to that period. The management supplies the production chart of the accessory to be produced, the operator identifies the necessary mold, equips the machinery and starts the manufacturing of the article taking into account the characteristics noted on the chart such as, the color and quantity.

ACCESSORIES

The catalog of the plastic accessories realized by Righetti Ridolfi is really wide, it starts from all the suction filters to the chain guards, water pump impeller, the details of the bumper hooking parts and the small parts used to produce other accessories.

A plastic chain guard produced by Righetti Ridolfi

A connection of the front bumper

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