. "Noventa Vicentina"@en . . . "FAI"@en . "Giovanni Bettanin founded FAI (Fabbrica Attrezzature Industriali) on 2-10-1963, after experience in a dealership of Ford farm tractors, thanks to his father Antonio, and his experience as salesman of some brands of earth-moving machines like Merton and Bendini e Frascaroli. There were 3 factories: Noventa Vicentina, the oldest establishment; Este near Padua from 1986; and from 1979 to 1986, Salara (Rovigo) where the compact line machines were built. The first models produced by FAI were 64-SL loaders based on Ford chassis with rear excavator as optional and 1000 excavator with crawler or wheeled chassis and front or rear bucket and a small range of rigid wheeled loaders. In 1973 FAI was the first company to produce 4WD backhoe loaders built on Same chassis, and in 1979, was the first European producer of skid steer loaders based on Owatonna models. The biggest excavator produced was the 2000 at 43,5 tons. For a small period of time Fai sold basically Mailam dozer and tracked loader and basically Sambron forklifts. These products has been sold on very small quantities. Later some FAI models were marketed in Britain in the 1980s by Hymac / Brown Group before Brown Group went bust. The late model Hymacs are FAI machines just badged up. In parts of Germany some FAI machines were marketed as Schutler. In Italy backhoe loaders and skid steer loaders were marketed as CGT (Compagnia Generale Trattori) who were also the most important Caterpillar dealer in North Italy before the production of Backhoe Loaders by Caterpillar. For International Harvester Fai manifactured the 262 backhoe loader model with Leyland engine. The engines for wheeled and crawler excavators were Perkins or Iveco. In 1988 Fai begin to built Komatsu mini excavators under licence. From september 1989 Komatsu became a small shareholder in Fai and Fai started to produce mini excavators directly for Komatsu. Then Komatsu took full control in Sept 1995 and the company was renamed FKI FAI Komatsu SpA. The machines were then sold as FAI Komatsu products and painted in the Komatsu yellow until 1997 when the FAI name was dropped and all products were branded just as Komatsu. The UK Komatsu dealer Mareubeni-Komatsu Ltd used to sell FAI products in the UK."@en . "Giovanni Bettanin founded FAI (Fabbrica Attrezzature Industriali) on 2-10-1963, after experience in a dealership of Ford farm tractors, thanks to his father Antonio, and his experience as salesman of some brands of earth-moving machines like Merton and Bendini e Frascaroli. There were 3 factories: Noventa Vicentina, the oldest establishment; Este near Padua from 1986; and from 1979 to 1986, Salara (Rovigo) where the compact line machines were built. The biggest excavator produced was the 2000 at 43,5 tons. The UK Komatsu dealer Mareubeni-Komatsu Ltd used to sell FAI products in the UK."@en . . . . . . "Giovanni Bettanin"@en . . . "150"^^ . . . . . "1963"^^ . . . "2000"^^ . "FAI"@en . . . .