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Personal Profile
of Luigi Bagnato
Founder of Paper Industry Web
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Luigi Bagnato has been in the pulp & paper industry for 45 years. His first association with the paper industry was at the International Paper Mill at Corinth, NY in the late 1950s as a "job shopper" while employed by Albany Design Company, a contract engineering company out of Albany NY.See:http://www.hudsonrivermillproject.org/pages/theme06.htm
From there he went to Black Clawson at both Watertown and Fulton, NY. While there he heard Beloit Iron Works was starting a new finishing machinery division at Downingtown, PA. He was eager to join Beloit Iron Works. From what he knew and heard, they were not only the largest and most successful paper machinery builder in the U. S. he observed that people held BIW in high respect. He applied for a position with Beloit Eastern Corporation in Downingtown and was accepted.
That started a 32 year relationship with Beloit Iron Works. After retiring from Beloit in 1989, he continued working with Beloit as a corporate consultant, principally involved in winder productivity issues. His major consultant projects included involvement in the HTC Duplex Winder (high torque centerwind) installed at Bowater, Catawba, SC and the then new revolutionary TNT reel as a winding technology advisor to the TNT project team.
A few career highpoints were the TAPPI Finishing & Converting Division Award, the Thomas W. Busch Prize in Finishing and the development and promotion of the "Electronic Winder Spreadsheet." The EWSS is a computerized analytic approach to optimize winder operation and predict the productive capability of winders. EWWS was instrumental in designing the Active "X" paper calculators and download paper industry programs available on his Internet websites. His tongue-in-check invention of the mythical Tree Machine (The BelClaim) brought many requests for his presentation of "tree making" and became a staple in his technical presentations at TAPPI, CPPA, The Pulp Chemicals Association and paper mills. He also was awarded a major patent related to the Beloit TNT reel.
Through the years his work with Beloit took him to all 5 continents and many countries around the world. In a retirement interview he said he had the good fortune to work for a great company, BIW and a great number of fine people in the paper industry including coworkers at Beloit and it's many worldwide divisions, paper makers and worthy competitors.
He founded The Winder Home Page website in 1995, which evolved to the Finishingnet.com website and later became the Paper Industry Web website. While involved in the websites he met and became associated with Oyvind Haugen of Norway. He and Oyvind had a mutual interest in the paper industry and all things of a historical nature. They jointly founded The Paper History Channel website which is mirrored in Norway.
Biographical Footnote:
Luigi was born June 1, 1924 at Albany, NY. He is the son of Nazzareno Gaetano Bagnato of Melicucca Reggio di Calabria, Italy and Mary Stewart of Albany, NY. Although his birth name is Luigi Giuseppe Bagnato, during much of his working career he was known as Louis J. Bagnato. On the death of his father in 1985 he reverted to his given name of Luigi Bagnato.
Luigi presently maintains the Paper Industry Web website at http://paperindustryweb.com/
Luigi Bagnato can be contacted by E-mail at lbagnato@tampabay.rr.com