IMA Brake Systems and Friction Material Industry

Who we are

In IMA there is - in name and in fact - the authentic essence of its founders.

This is the story of Italo Martelli and his mother Armelinda, who in 1966 opened a small workshop in Florence to carry out machining and repairs of brakes and other car accessories. The Martelli family began its journey in the safety sector and from that moment on - without ever stopping - gradually specialized in friction materials and braking components.

The range of action is widened, the strategic importance of building partnerships with customers and suppliers, manufacturers of industrial machinery equipped with brakes is understood. The laboratory expands to become a real company, where, in addition to overhauling, braking parts are produced to drawing or to measure.

From this moment, the company begins to specialize with professionalism and awareness in the industrial market. Thanks to various collaborations with suppliers and customers, IMA establishes itself in the field of friction materials for industry and definitely leaves the Florentine context to become a good reality of national prestige. In 2010 the company obtains the DASA REGISTER certification for quality 9001:2010.

2016 is the year in which the team is enriched with a technician specialized in production and an employee to support the commercial department. It was the moment of real take-off of the company, we developed many important projects and began to interface with companies even outside the European Union.

Today, thanks to the collaboration with specialized chemists, we have more than 30 types of friction material compounds, suitable for many industrial applications and a laboratory specialized in the construction of custom made parts, made possible by constant investments in updating the techniques of revision and regeneration performed internally by skilled workers.

In the midst of the 2020 covid crisis, we have invested in digital transformation and global commercial development, characterizing our brand with a 100% green vision.

The economy of regeneration, reuse and recycling, totally carried out in-house by skilled workers and the development of new skills to strengthen the R&D area: these are the two drivers on which IMA is constantly repositioning its brand.

From workshop-laboratory for the production of brakes and clutches, to a real research and innovation center for the production of advanced braking systems and high performance friction materials.

This choice allows us today to be a reliable technical partner

for all industrial sectors that need this type of product and service, in any country in the world.

The customer and his needs are our core-business.

We are really proud that our work has been appreciated by the most prestigious Italian and foreign specialized mechanical workshops

and by highly qualified engineers and chemists

with whom we study and design customized solutions.

The market is constantly evolving and requires more and more attention and care for details and the creation of customized products and materials.

Thanks to our in-house laboratory and the excellence of our workforce, we are always able to satisfy our customers, whether we are asked for a repair or overhaul, or when we have to design, prototype, test and put into production a material or a braking system from scratch.

IMA Advanced Products, Materials and Services

Our company manufactures standard items:

-tapes in roll

-rigid flat sheets

-Friction rings/disks

-industrial brake pads

-industrial pliers

-Combined brakes and clutches

Articles to measure of the customer, or by drawing such as:

-brake pads

- automations

-toothing disks

-blocks and sectors

- centrifugal clutches

Our services

-development of the project together with the customer to confirm feasibility

-Identification of the suitable material according to technical specifications of the customer/project

-building of samples to test

-construction to measure of moulds/equipment useful to engineer the processing in the laboratory

- revision/regeneration of brake blocks and parts

- construction of supports in steel or other alloys and vulcanization of friction material

- recovery of friction material flatness

- mechanical fixing by riveting

All these items and services can be produced with about 30 friction compounds, for example:

MI 00 601 standard mold mix

MI 00 301 mould-made conglomerate renformed from copper fibres

MI 00 604 conglomerate without metal particles inside created from a mold

MI 00 201 reinforced conglomerate with high metallic charge and great mechanical resistance, made from a mould

- SWR fiber material with cotton and copper braid impregnated in phenolic resins created in tape in rolls

- TAM 01 standard semi-flexible conglomerate material created in tape in rolls

-RCI 21 conglomerate material reinforced with metal charges to give greater mechanical strength created in tape in rolls

R&D Ima, our unique and customized solutions

We never tire of putting all our passion and expertise into creating innovative solutions

innovative solutions based on the requests of our customers,

or on drawings designed for them by our professionals.

With us there are no pre-established solutions and each time is a story in itself.

We follow every phase of the process with precision and care,

up to the realization of prototypes that go into production only after being

approved and tested with great care.

In the last years we have realized braking solutions on demand for :

-Wind turbines

- Oil&Gas drilling machinery

- People/ goods lifting

- Presses and pressing machines

- Hydroelectric power stations

And many others...

And we prepare very sophisticated materials, the result of an advanced research that requires an increasing chemical and engineering specialization.

Ima Green: regeneration, reuse and recycling for a sustainable future

For us, attention to the environment and to future generations is not a fashion or a trend to follow.

We have always believed in a circular economy where reuse and recycling can allow not only a cost efficiency, but above all a modern idea of society and market,

which has at its center the attention for people and nature.

In our laboratory, thanks to an expertise acquired in over 50 years of activity, we regenerate braking parts with worn material.

Thanks to this good practice, we are able to reduce the amount of waste materials by an increasingly significant percentage, 20-30%, reducing their disposal.

Re-Generation IMA!

Our values

We never get tired of putting all our passion and expertise to create innovative