Burial services for one of the founders of extrusion unit manufacturer Gruppo Colines (Nibbia / Italy; www.colines.it), Francesco Lombardini, were held in the small town of Cameri in Italy's Piedmont region on 15 January. Lombardini, who was 73, had been working for the company as a technical consultant prior to his death.

Colines was established in 1973 by Lombardini and his partner, Mario Zorloni, in Novara – about 50 km west of Milan – under the company name of Colinex. Three years later, the company relocated operations to its current location in nearby Nibbia and changed the name to Colines Engineering. With the arrival of a third business partner to the entity, Eraldo Peccetti, who is still active in the company, Colines added an additional production facility in Azzate and laid the foundation for today's family-owned machinery group.