Salpi is a renowned Italian company that work to the highest international standards in feathers and down and manufacturing products filled with such materials. For many years SALPI has organized an information campaign directed not only to the public but also to small and large companies in order to promote the image of feathers and down. The situation at that time was difficult. Products of this kind were hardly known in Italy and there was a lot of – unjustified – prejudice due to alleged hygiene problems.
In cooperation with the Italian health authorities (who were very open-minded in this matter), with Italian and foreign universities, research centers as well as with European and oversea associations, SALPI has been able to promote the introduction of special feather and down standards now applied by law to the processing of feathers and down.
The products now supplied to customers must therefore offer optimum hygiene and health characteristic. Such a high standard was indeed essential in order to gain public confidence, to grant a high-quality product the position it deserves in the market and to give our Company due recognition for its know-how, its achievements, its reliability.
SALPI manufactures all its products within its plant, conducting all operations from the purchase of the raw material (raw feathers and down) via various complex processing cycles incorporating advanced technologies all the way through to the finished product. Water is an important ingredient for obtaining an absolutely reliable product with a high standard of quality.
SALPI therefore uses large amounts of water to upgrade the feathers and down and enhance quality to a new unprecedented level. This again helps to ensure optimum hygiene to the full benefit of the user.
Following this introduction we would now like to briefly present the main production processes:
Sorting or classifying
This fully automated process serves to separate coarse from the fine feathers and from down.
Dedusting
Dust is removed to upgrade the standard of quality before the raw feathers and down are fed into the washing machines.
Washing
Application of an optimum washing process is the actual secret behind a genuine quality product. SALPI's automatic, continuous-operation washing machines each have a capacity of 3.500 litres (770 imp gals) of water plus special biodegradable detergents with anti-bacterial properties. The washing process is then supplemented by several rinsing processes. This phase of production is not concluded until the rinsing water is perfectly clear.
Centrifugation
The feathers and down are now transferred to water extractors for removing surplus water.
Drying
Feathers and down are then dried in special autoclaves.
Sterilization
After the feathers and down have been properly dried they are automatically sterilized at a temperature of +140°C (284°F).
This, however, does not conclude the productions process, because now the feathers and down are transferred to coolers and dust removers serving to restore a suitable degree of ambient moisture and remove any processing residue to the greatest possible extent. The feathers and down are fed into these units by automatic pneumatic fillers. Operating in a closed and continuous circuit, the SALPI production facilities cannot omit or skip any of these single processes.
