Locatelli Macchine: a small company known worldwide

11/02/2026

The work of Locatelli Macchine has not been easy. Their specialization is one that, perhaps more than others, has suffered from the forceful rise of the CNC machining center, capable of doing practically everything, including those operations for which their machines were once virtually the only viable option.
So there was nothing left to do but to look for a “niche within the niche”: extremely specialized productions in which to present themselves as the perfect problem solvers. And it worked: when it comes to small wooden parts – for example bottle stoppers, furniture components or wooden toys, sofa feet, baseball bats, or elegant wooden handles for beer and beverage taps – Locatelli Macchine of Treviolo, in the province of Bergamo, founded in 1962, turns from Cinderella into the most beautiful of princesses.
A story, we admit, for which we have a soft spot. Not only because Fulvia and Domenico Locatelli, sister and brother, have poured their hearts into this mechanical workshop, but because they represent so much of Italian industry: small companies run with passion, workshops always kept spotless, a factory experienced like the living room at home — perhaps even more so…

“We build special machines, often extremely special ones”, Fulvia Locatelli tells us. “We could say that we are specialists in cnc wood turning, a vocation that is undoubtedly rooted in our DNA but that we have developed in every direction, precisely in order to offer absolutely ‘tailor-made’ machines, capable of managing specific machining cycles in an intelligent and fast way, often very fast”.

And it truly is a sight to behold watching these machines at work, seeing a more or less large wooden cylinder transformed at great speed — for many models in less than a minute — into a baseball bat. And this is no random example, because one of the “niches within the niche” they have successfully identified is precisely the production of this sporting item, so beloved and widespread in certain parts of the world.
“More than 70 percent of the bats produced in the United States come off our machines,” Fulvia Locatelli continues. “An idea that dates back to 2002 and led us to modify one of our solutions, eventually defining what is now our most significant machine, the ‘Multimatik CNC V.1’, a four-axis machine that — thanks to gouges, milling and sanding units — turns out a baseball bat in a few dozen seconds. And consider that we are talking about a product far more sophisticated than one might think: in recent years, for example, new models have emerged, such as the ‘Torpedo Bats’, particularly appreciated by players, or special angled grips, the “ProXR”, which make the bat decidedly ergonomic. A ‘piece of wood’ that must be made from specific wood species and have a very precise weight, as well as withstand a flex that can reach up to ten centimeters at the moment it strikes the ball.
We have even designed and built a special unit thanks to which, using steel rollers, we apply pressure to the finished bat, compressing the wood fibers in the impact area and making it even more resistant. And yet, you have no idea how many bats still break… luckily for us!”.

…but Locatelli Macchine does not live on baseball alone…
“Absolutely not. While producing equipment for this sport has given us great satisfaction, thanks to a good number of machines installed throughout the United States, we do build quality machines that do not break easily and require virtually no maintenance: just take care of the tools and little else. In any case, we are always ready to intervene anywhere without problems, also thanks to our choice to keep spare parts in stock even for machines built in the 1990s: sometimes customers still ask for them…
Returning to your question, baseball is certainly an important chapter of our work, but the driving technology is undoubtedly the machines for the production of stoppers, or rather that part of the stopper to which the cork section is then applied. For some time now, plastic has no longer been used, but rather the more elegant and certainly “green” wood: with our machines it is possible to produce more than 1,500 pieces per hour. The machine you see behind you will be used to transform small wooden blocks into the body of a pepper mill, carrying out all the required operations: loading, unloading, turning, sanding, milling, drilling, and machining for inserting the mechanism… just a few seconds and it’s done! The same machine can be equipped to produce sofa feet: a major distribution group has purchased several of them, and each one can produce 600 to 700 pieces per hour…”.

Yet difficulties are not lacking…
“Industrial turning has certainly lost ground, due to new trends, changing tastes compared to the past, not to mention increasingly strong competition from production in certain countries, China above all. And if we also consider that many productions can be carried out — with obviously very different times and quantities compared to what our machines can achieve — even with a cnc machining center that, on top of that, can do many other things…
Fortunately, there are still those who need the speed and above all the quality that can be obtained with highly specific solutions like ours, through which we give shape to studies, innovations, and research that anyone who buys a Locatelli Macchine has pursued in order to stay one step ahead of their competitors. It is not uncommon for us to develop not only the mechanics, but also custom programming to carry out all the steps required by our client — solutions and software that we jealously protect in respect of the relationship of trust and collaboration with our customers.”

And the future?
“We are optimistic, even though I believe it is clear to everyone that solid wood is progressively “retreating” from many aspects of our lives. We are talking about a material that is becoming increasingly “precious”, replaced by other, less noble and certainly much less sustainable materials”.

by Luca Rossetti