Home / Makers
The makers behind the machine
Open any Italian espresso machine and you find the same handful of names on the parts: a pump from Pavia, a shower screen from Torre d'Isola, a gasket from Brianza. Nobody tells their story to the person holding the screwdriver. We do.
Why we name them
A repair guide that says "replace the pump" is half a guide. One that says which pump, who makes it, which versions exist and which fits your machine saves you a wrong order and a week of waiting. Naming the maker is also our way of taking sides: the parts worth keeping alive are the ones made by people who still answer the phone in Italian.
IMS – Industria Materiali Stampati
What they make
Filter baskets and shower screens, from the standard mesh screens in millions of bar machines to the laser-perforated "competition" series.
The Monti family has been punching holes in steel for coffee since before the war: the founder worked with the first espresso-machine builders as a consultant on filters, and in 1946 set up the company in Pavia. The timeline on their site reads like a history of the espresso machine itself: stainless 430 in 1953, welded-mesh screens in 1961, AISI 304 in 1973, conical perforation in 1998. The fourth generation runs it today, about 40,000 pieces a day.
Where you find it
Shower screen and basket of your Rancilio, Gaggia, Lelit, Rocket or ECM: the OEM part is very often theirs, and the precision upgrade almost always is. Our guide on the Silvia shower screen is the first place we show it.
Sources:
CEME / Ulka
What they make
Vibration pumps (the Ulka E and EX series), solenoid valves, pressure switches and flow meters for coffee machines and household appliances.
The hum you hear when a home espresso machine pulls a shot is almost always an Ulka pump: a piston driven by a coil at mains frequency, no motor, no brushes. Ulka was a Pavia pump maker; CEME, founded in Trivolzio in 1974, grew into the world leader for this kind of pump and for the small solenoid valves that open and close the water in the group. The group now runs eight plants, four of them in Italy, and the Ulka pump in a Rancilio Silvia or a Gaggia Classic still comes from Pavia.
Where you find it
The pump (EX5 in the Silvia, EP5 in the Gaggia Classic) and the 3-way solenoid valve on the group of most single-boiler machines. Two of our first guides are about exactly these parts.
Sources:
DVG De Vecchi
What they make
Machined brass and steel components for professional machines (group parts, fittings, steam-valve parts), gaskets, and a catalogue of 40,000+ spare parts with exploded diagrams for most Italian brands.
Giuseppe and Rina De Vecchi opened a mechanical workshop in 1965 to make parts for espresso-machine builders. Sixty years later the company, now run by the next generation, still machines its own components in Brianza and sells to the two people who matter to us: the factories that build the machines and the technicians who repair them. Their catalogue, with an exploded drawing for every machine family, is the closest thing the trade has to a shared manual.
Where you find it
Group gaskets, portafilter gaskets, steam-valve seals and the brass bits that wear on a lever machine. When we say "gasket 73 × 57 × 8 mm", this is the kind of place it comes from.
Sources: