“Tau Group has found this emerging pain point for clients, that’s why we invested in them.”
For many years, Paola Accati wanted to find a way to remove harmful solvents from a process to insulate electrical wires that was used by her family business. But the cost of research was too high.
“I had some good ideas and always wanted to find a way to do this, but I didn’t manage,” says Accati, who is retired from a former paint and wire insulation factory located on the outskirts of Turin.
A part of her family did find a solution eventually. Her nephew, Filippo Veglia, and two engineer friends, Francesco Taiariol and Piero Degasperi, invented ecofficient wire coating technology and process, which enable the production of sustainable, solvent-free, high-performance magnet wires and founded Tau Group to manufacture it.
These advances make motors for electric vehicles as compact and efficient as possible, enabling and accelerating the transition to electrification and lower carbon emissions.
“The solution these guys invented is innovative, they address an emerging market need and a lack of good solutions from current producers,” says Alberto Casorati, the European Investment Bank loan officer who has worked on the Bank’s €20 million loan to Tau Group, signed in December 2024. “Tau Group has found this emerging pain point for clients, that’s why we invested in them.”
The financing, backed by the InvestEU programme, will help Tau Group expand electrical wire production from 2 000 tons a year to as much as 12 000 tons. The money also will be used to research better wires for the automotive and renewable energy sectors.
Tau Group
The legacy of a multi-generational business
After working for large corporations, Taiariol, Degasperi, and Veglia started a consulting firm in Turin in 2008, focusing on research and development in automation and robotics. A few years later, they realized that while they were good at coming up with new ideas, they also wanted to turn them into reality, taking full control of the process.
“On one hand, we had a strong desire to create something meaningful,” says Francesco Taiariol, Tau Group’s chief executive. “On the other hand, we inherited the legacy of this multi-generational business.”
That multigenerational business is Siva or Società Industriale Vernici e Affini, founded in 1945 by Federico Accati. Originally a paint company, it made products to coat and insulate magnet wires. Siva is probably best-known as the employer for thirty years of Primo Levi, the Jewish-Italian chemist who won fame for his Holocaust memoir “If This Is a Man”. Levi worked with Paola Accati, a chemistry graduate and daughter of the founder, Federico, whom she succeeded as chief executive in 1989.
At the very core of electrification
Magnet wire is a generic name for the electrical wire with a thin layer of insulation which confines electricity flowing through it to convert electrical energy to magnetic to mechanical energy and vice versa in electrical machines like motor, generators, and transformers. “As electric motors get more powerful, wires without proper insulation risk experiencing accelerated degradation and eventually short-circuiting,” explains the European Investment Bank loan officer Casorati.
The materials used in magnet wires haven’t changed much in the last sixty years, despite the fast-changing nature of electric machines. “This has become a problem, as these wires start to fail at 800 Volts, which is crucial for many applications in electric motors,” says Taiariol.
Tau Group’s DryCycle technology coats magnet wires with strong, flexible technopolymers with better chemical resistance, electrical insulation and thermal stability.
As a result, car manufacturers and electric motor designers can break the 800-Volt barrier and potentially reach 1 000 Volts.
Without solvents, less energy and carbon emissions
Traditional polymer coatings for wire are typically applied as liquid solvent-based varnishes.
However, these solvents evaporate during production, which releases harmful particles. They also need to be burned, causing emission of millions of tons of carbon emissions from wire production around the world.
DryCycle’s innovative approach avoids the use of solvents and additives. It applies very thin coatings of polymer in one layer during a single passage, which simplifies production, reduces costs, and improves the wire's performance. This new way of insulating wire enables customers to create more compact motors, saving on copper, magnets, and steel.
This solvent-free process uses about 80% less energy, compared to solvent-based methods. “Tau is all about using energy efficiently,” says Taiariol. This creates a multiplier effect: less energy means a more efficient electric motor which, in turn, has a big impact over the lifespan of the motor or generator.
When he talks about the firm’s technology, Taiariol’s eyes spark, as they must have done when he was five years old and learning about mechanics from his grandfather’s tractors. Growing up in San Giusto Canavese, a village north of Turin, gave Taiariol a lot of freedom. “Unlike in a flat, where space is tight, I could explore my interests without limits,” he says. By 14, he was making his motorcycle faster with all sorts of upgrades. At 16, he built his own go-kart.
“One of our dreams is to see a mass-produced car using our wire,” says Taiariol. “When that moment comes, it will be amazing to know we played a part in it.”
Tau Group
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TAU GROUP (IEU GT2)
The project concerns the scale-up of capacity of the existing production facility from the current 2,000 tons of wire/year to an annual capacity in the range of 8,000 to 12,000 tons of magnet wire used in all types of powertrain motors in automotive, renewable energy and consumer applications. The Project includes also Promoter's RDI including R&D facility and equipment capex, for the development of new wire solutions in automotive and adjacent markets. The investments are located in in Turin, Italy, for the period 2024-2027."
