TRAFILTUBI srl - about us: Trafiltubi history

This is followed by a long series of creations that have established the Firm's work in the field of design and architecture.
From 2004 onwards, Marco Colombo personally takes over the running of the company, along side his work as architect and together with Serena Omodeo (also his partner in the Architecture's Firm), with the common goal of steering the company's policy towards maximum evaluation of its original vocation: innovation, quality and high technology for highly demanding niches.
At Trafiltubi, the GILCODESIGN laboratory is the centre of research and historical archive that is still trustee of the Gilco label and heir to Gilberto Colombo's projectual heritage.

TRAFILTUBI's life began in 1919, when Angelo Colombo founded a workshop for the production of pipes that was to become the A.L. COLOMBO company, specialising in precision steel tubes.

In the Twenties and Thirties, with the Columbus label, the company becomes one of the most important Italian producers of rationalist furniture made to design by architects like Bottoni, Breuer, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe; in the meantime the production of pipes in manganese chrome and Molybdenum chrome steel for the aeronautical industry, continues.

In the racing sector, the bicycles created with their frames achieve success and this quickly brings international renown to the Columbus label.
At the end of the Thirties, during his early years at the Engineering Faculty, Gilberto Colombo, Angelo's son, concentrates on his research into the technical specifications of special steel pipes: it is here that he was to consolidate his projectual passion that would develop with increasing success the potential of special pipes to the most varied of applications.

In 1946, the GILCO label was founded (by GILberto and COlombo), that was to distinguish all his projects, and with this label, Gilberto created a re-elaboration of the The Maserati Formula 1 for the Ruggeri Brother's Milan Racing Team.

In the same year, with a meeting between Gilberto Colombo and Enzo Ferrari, a long lasting collaboration for the design of sports cars begins. In fact, when Enzo Ferrari decided to go it alone and build cars that would bear his name, he called in Gilberto Colombo for the design and production of the frames; he created a frame for a Formula One car with section pipes that were oval, rigid and lightweight all at the same time. From this project stemmed the 125 frame designed by Gioachino Colombo, a 12 cylinder 1500 HP with spring suspension, houdaille shock absorbers, to which the new frame would owe its lightweightness: in fact, the car weighed only 650kg as opposed to the 720kg of the Maserati 2000. In the same year, with Cortese, the 125 won its first competition on the Caracalla track in Rome. The Gilco and the Ferrari, therefore, were created together, and the FERRARI started racing in 1947, with the Gilco frames, that as late as 1955 were being commissioned on a three monthly basis to the order of 25-30 pieces, with an average delivery time of 15 days, for the Ferrari team cars that, for many years, were raced by drivers like Fangio, Ascari, Villoresi.

One of Enzo Ferrari and Gilberto Colombo's acknowledgements was a trophy with a small horse and a bronze plaque with the writing "To Gilco with gratitude", created in thanks and in commemoration of the World Championship victory in 1953.

In the Fifties-Sixties, however, Gilberto Colombo also started taking an interest in sailing boats, to the extend that in 1966 he set up a small boatyard in Lierna on Lake Como where he produced around twenty crafts designed by him. These included the Star Roberta II and Roberta III, with which Marco Colombo, Gilberto's son, would later compete, winning the Italian championships four times, when he took first place in 1973 and 1975. Colombo also designed the Stars from the Folli and Lillia Boatyards, one of which played a key role in the 1982 World Championships. In 1986, ten of the eleven places in the world championships were won by boats from the Folli and Lillia boatyards designed by Gilberto Colombo.

In 1966, Gilberto Colombo rendered his laboratory, that had always operated within the channel of its father company, autonomous: like a rib from the A.L. COLOMBO, TRAFILTUBI was finally founded and transferred its work to the headquarters in Novegro where it is still operational today. From then onwards, the company continued along the road it had always followed, searching from ever greater specialisation in the production of special profiles, designed for the most sophisticated applications.

It is within this framework that the exclusive agreement was signed in 1986 with the prestigious French steelworks, Aubert & Duval, to develop the technology for the production of drawn pipes in Italy "starting exclusively from the Aubert & Duval steels in the special nuances for the Aeronautical, Car, Motorbike and Bicycle Industry".

Among these nuances, particularly reference is made to the famous special SCV steel, otherwise known as 15CDV6, whose treatment Trafiltubi became the indisputable leader of, producing top performance drawn pipes.

In the Eighties, Gilberto Colombo once again became interested in the design of frames for racing bicycles, and this is how he created inventions that revolutionised the concept of the bicycle itself.

Patent no. 203553 is his invention: "Part for the stable connection of tubular components with different angles from each other".

Patent no. 203593 is his invention: "Series of tubular components with differentiated profile sections for the construction of bicycle frames".

Some of Gilberto Colombo's most famous projects over the years:

Apart from the first MASTER frame with star-shaped section (produced in 1983 by Colnago), there was the Master Pista (in 1985) and the Master Dual (an idea that in 1987 Colnago would later develop to create the Carbitubo series, with double carbon fibre pipe).

This original Gilco project was the inspiration for the design of thefamous T40 Gilco 2006/2007 frame.

For Columbus, the series for the Multishape frame, created from a project in 1986 and produced by Columbus in 1989.

For Cinelli, the Laser from 1985, that in 1991, after the death of Gilberto, would win the Compasso d'Oro.

With inventions as the foundation of these historical projects, Gilberto introduces innovations to the concept of the bicycle itself that would greatly contribute to establishing the Italian labels around the world, and legendary cycling products such as the Colnago bicycle.

The technical importance of its projects, created with TRAFILTUBI technology, is confirmed by the fact that even today, long after they have been overtaken by others, they are still appreciated and used in the production of bicycles that still represent the highest quality regarding the use of steel in the field of racing bicycles.

In the meantime, Gilberto's son, Marco Colombo, starts working as an architect with an independent Firm and, following in his father's footsteps, not only dedicates his time to architecture but also to industrial design, carefully analysing projectual opportunities that can stem from the family business's special profiles. In 1985, in fact, his first project, the DOVE lamp, (from "dove", English for "colomba"), used special thin TRAFILTUBI pipes that acted as conductors to give the lamp the exclusive design that made it famous throughout the world.