Underground

CIFA designs and manufactures machines for tunnels and mines, such as shotcrete pumps and small concrete mixers for narrow spaces. The first shotcrete pump built by CIFA dates back more than four decades, and since then the range has been extended to include different models, until today with a real ecosystem. In fact, the underground division is “inspired by nature”. It refers to more than just the names of machines, it also describes our goals and aspirations when designing this range. We aim to make these CIFA machines as eco-friendly as possible, respectful of the environment and people, and able to transform the (notoriously unhealthy) underground construction site into a sustainable ecosystem.

Manufacturers of tunnelling machinery need to work together to create a sustainable construction site in what is already a very challenging environment: an enclosed space with poor ventilation. We need to design intelligent machines, harnessing data to increase efficiency, using electricity to cut emissions and technology to simplify the work of operators. CIFA Underground is a company division with a dedicated team of professionals, focused on designing automated and full-electric machines.

The underground market operates in a completely different way from the normal construction sector, because it involves large contracts. The demand very often comes from the contractors, and so the equipment they require must be adaptable to individual projects; the same sales cycle can involve long timescales, and the product support service needs to ensure that the machinery is always wholly reliable. Our creation of a specific business unit therefore means we have a specialist team for the development, sale and after-sales of a new generation of products, which can also draw on CIFA's forty years of experience in designing and servicing machinery for tunnels and mines.