He passed away in recent weeks, Vittorio Tieghi, last and youngest of the three Tieghi brothers founders of FAS, pioneers of measurement and process regulation instrumentation for Italian industrial production, with Vittorio also a great expert in thermometry. In the mid-50s, from the time he entered the age of little more than XNUMX years old FAS “Scientific Equipment Factory”, founded already during the Second War by brothers Eraldo and Giulio Tieghi (the latter sadly died in a plane crash in December 1956), contributed with his innovations to the growth of the "new" FAS Automation and Tools, a historic Milanese company which, with its instruments, was among the most authoritative suppliers of Italian technology in the field of automation and process control in the renascent Italian post-war industry and in the years of the economic boom that followed, between 1960 and up to the second half of the 70s. Some examples of instruments FAS are still functioning on industrial plants, and others are visible on display also al National Museum of Science and Technology “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan.
In FAS, ahead of its time, Vittorio renews the range (up until then predominantly analogue) with new process and laboratory control instruments, introducing new technologies in those tumultuous years, with integrated circuits and digital electronics, which will also be used in various phases of the project Apollo of NASA.
Between 1975 and 1979, having exhausted the experience in FAS Automation Tools, Vittorio together with the brother Eraldo Here you go and to the children of the latter, gives life to new entrepreneurial initiatives, companies Fasinternational, ServiTecno e Thermophas, dedicating in particular in the latter the most significant experiences and knowledge acquired during his travels in the United States and Japan for the production of thermoelements for accurate temperature measurements (Thermocouples and Resistance Thermometers) of new generation and first of their kind in Italy, which will find use, in Italy and abroad, in many industrial sectors, even the most hostile and critical ones and in the most technologically advanced ones, such as power plants (including nuclear ones), passing from avionics to pharmaceuticals, to glass, precision electronics and semiconductors, steel and metals (including precious), food, plastic, paper, rubber, cement and many others.
In this period, with great vision and commitment, he designed and created one of the first in Milan SIT Metrology Laboratories (Italian Calibration Service, now Accredia) for the Calibration and Certification of Thermoelements for accurate temperature measurements, especially for sensors used in regulated sectors and industries with Quality systems.
To better describe the Vittorio Tieghi, man and entrepreneur, we can report a few lines of what is contained in a chapter of the book “Men and Instruments – 50 years of instrumentation in Italy" written by Girolamo Mezzalira a few years ago, on behalf of the GISI (Italian Instrumentation Business Group).
“… Meanwhile (we are at the end of the 50s, ed.) other process and laboratory instruments were designed and built: with the intervention of Vittorio the electronic part is transistorized, but still based on linear circuits and components. In the following years, with the advent of integrated circuits and digital electronics, the turning point occurred which also had a heavy influence on FAS, which began to suffer competition from low-priced oriental producers. Between the mid and late 70s, FAS then decided to stop the production of instruments with its own brands and concentrate on the distribution of sophisticated sensors and high-level instrumentation, coming from manufacturers in the USA and other European countries, with which Eraldo and Vittorio Tieghi, have over time established close relationships of commercial and technical collaboration. In 1977, as already mentioned, due to the need for diversification between the production part and the commercial import part, in place of the old “FAS Automation and Tools” Two new complementary and in close collaboration LLC companies are born: Termofas CTC entrusted to Vittorio Tieghi, (where Gianluigi Tieghi he becomes Chief Operating Officer, ed.), e FASinternational entrusted to Eraldo Tieghi (where Enzo M. Tieghi he became Director, and then passed the helm to his brother Gianluigi who in the meantime, having left Termofas, had acquired the shares, ed.) ..." In the years of professional maturity, up to the threshold of the new millennium, Vittorio Tieghi he has also participated in various technical committees both in Italy and internationally, bringing his expertise with the aim of disseminating culture and experience to improve the sensor and instrumentation industry for industrial processes.
In the late 70s Vittorio Tieghi with his brother Eraldo and they found ServiTecno, to provide technical services to the two "sister companies" and then, in the following years, also to the market: the company, founded in 1979, then taken over in 1981 by the son of Eraldo, Enzo M. Tieghi, will develop by offering prestigious software solutions for the factory automation and process control market.
Eraldo Tieghi , first president of ServiTecno, he passed away in 1997. And this year 2024, ServiTecno, whose claim reads “Industry4.0 for over 40 years”, celebrates the first with all his collaborators 45 years of business, an enviable achievement for a company that sells "advanced technological products for the industry": an achievement that would have made one proud Vittorio for his entrepreneurial vision and foresight. Passionate about his work and the knowledge he acquired, until a subtle illness that progressively consumed him, followed affectionately by his daughter Laura and from wife Anna, Vittorio Tieghi he passed away at the end of December 2023. He had recently turned 90.