Celli, sixty years under the hallmark of innovation

Alfredo Celli gave up his original job as a technical designer to dedicate himself to agricultural mechanization by establishing a company headquartered in Forlì in 1955 which now turns out 6,000 units annually ranging from mulchers, harrows and tillers to spading machines, harrow and accessories

Alfredo Celli, a businessman who has always devoted passion to his activities, watched his paternal and maternal grandparents at work with a huge threshing machine as a child and went on to receive, in 2011, an award from the Italian Association of Agrarian Engineering “for his commitment at various levels which has contributed to the growth of agricultural mechanization in our country” to crown his work begun more than fifty years ago. The story of the entrepreneur who founded Celli SpA in Forlì opens with his original occupation as a technical designer who set up a shop and began building his first implements in 1955 and followed with six more models one year on. It was here that Celli perfected his first 03 tiller, a model which is so study the machine still works perfectly after a half-century of an honorable career. “I left my work as a technical designer after a friend gave me the chance to examine a British tiller for fruit orchards, the Rotovator, and right then I decided to dedicate my energies to building agricultural machinery with the objective of setting new standards of reference for the market,” Alfredo Celli recalled. It was by no chance that the Forlì manufacturer has always looked to the future and today can claim credit for a large number of technical and construction innovations in the tiller sector.

These include the adoption of clean-cut seals to lengthen the work cycle of the machine, the introduction of highly resistant Hardox and Weldox steel, coming up with inter-row automatic side shift tillers, designing folding models which cover an entire work area and eliminating the so-called shadow cone in the center of a tiller. Research and the development of advanced technological solutions combined with an ability to personalize any model on the basis of customer requests is also behind Celli's success at home and abroad with standings on markets in forty-five countries, including South Korea with its branch.

At present, the Romagnola company produces some 6,000 units annually rolling out of a 30,000 m² plant. With the growth of sales over the years also the Celli range has been expanded. Tillers were joined by rotary harrows built on a special single piece welded frame, mulchers and spading machines, implements designed for a power range from 15 hp to 320 hp and with work widths from 65 cm to 7 meters. The most recent arrival is the Formula tiller designed for operations on all types on all types of soil without risk of clogging thanks to a chamber with electro-hydraulic regulation allowing the operator to work for fine soil tillage or for coping with the wettest soil without risk of jamming.

Celli also manufacturers a wide range of accessories led by Rapido, a device which enables the operator to quickly remove and replace tiller blades. Among the new features coming along in the near future is the completion of the Bioflash Project aimed at the development of a machine for the biological treatment of the soil resulting from ten years of collaboration with university research institutes. Bioflash exploits the work of steam combined with such ingredients with low impact on the environment as potassium hydroxide, calcium oxide and zeolites to eliminate parasites and sterilize the soil as well as to correct some chemical-physical characteristics such as pH content and enrich the soil with components essential for the growth of plants.