Mechanographical processing, in 1971, meant punched cards and cumbersome processors with computing capabilities that today are outclassed by the smartphones we carry in our pockets. In 1971 mechanographic processing also meant ELMEC, the company that Clemente Ballerio and Cesare Corti founded in Varese.
Collaborations with IBM in the early 1980s, Steve Jobs' Macintosh and the début of the CD-ROM led to the birth of Elmec Informatica Srl in 1983, where, just three years later, a group of five very young developers gave life to the PcCall, the first device that was used to transfer files from one computer to another and to access remote assistance. The growth of the company in the fifteen years that separate it from the beginning of the new millennium were tumultuous. Elmec was ready for years of acquisitions and new IT infrastructures for data storage and connectivity. Innovation is in the DNA of the company that over the years has been exploring what many people anticipate to be one of the ingredients of the 4th industrial revolution, in which we are immersed: additive manufacturing.