The move into defense is a natural extension of Galperti’s industrial model. The Group controls much of the production chain internally, including forging, rolling, heat treatment, machining, induction hardening, gear cutting and grinding, non-destructive testing, assembly and final inspection. GTFP’s wider portfolio includes slewing bearings, geared rings, pinions and shafts, special forgings and welded overlays, allowing it to supply both individual parts and engineered components tailored to specific loads and customer requirements.
Photos: Galperti Group
From agricultural tools and railway components to advanced forged products
Galperti traces its origins to 1921, when Officine Nicola Galperti was established in Bellano, northern Italy, producing agricultural tools and railway components. In the 1950s, the company moved to Dervio and shifted toward flanges for the chemical and petrochemical industries, beginning its transition toward components for increasingly demanding applications.
Expansion accelerated in the 1990s. In 1994, Galperti increased flange production capacity in Gera Lario and established Galperti Engineering and Flow Control to manufacture valves for the oil and gas industry. In 1995, Galperti Inc. was established in Houston, providing the Group with a manufacturing base in the United States.
A key step for today’s defense activities came in 2002, when production of large-diameter bearings and special forged products was concentrated within Galperti Tech Forged Products. Further investments expanded the Group’s industrial footprint to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, alongside a second Italian forging plant in Cercino. Additional production capacity was added in Italy and Saudi Arabia in 2024.
Today, Galperti is a global producer of forged steel products and engineered solutions, including industrial flanges, forged valves, clamp connectors, slewing rings and bearings and special forgings. Its markets include oil and gas, petrochemicals, power generation, renewables, steelmaking, marine and offshore, earthmoving, aerospace and defense.
This diversification is important because defense production is not an isolated technological branch. It draws on engineering, metallurgy and manufacturing processes already proven in industries where large components operate under high mechanical loads for extended periods.
Heavy industry as the technological foundation
Galperti Tech Forged Products’ portfolio includes single- and double-row ball bearings, three-row roller bearings, cross-roller, combined and split bearings, as well as pinions, shafts, integral and segmented gears and rings, special forgings and welded overlays. It also manufactures large segmented rings, large-module pinions and racks, bearing wheels, balance bogies and swivel joints.These products are used where large structures must rotate accurately while carrying substantial static and dynamic loads. Galperti states that forged slewing rings and geared rings can be manufactured with diameters from 200 to 7,000 mm, serving sectors including offshore, marine, lifting, forestry, off-highway, mining, steelmaking, energy and defense.
Vertical integration is equally important. GTFP’s production process covers steel cutting, heating, forging, rolling, heat treatment and material qualification, followed by turning, induction hardening, non-destructive testing, gear cutting and grinding, boring, tapping and finishing. Assembly can include zinc spraying or painting, lubrication, dimensional inspection, performance testing, corrosion protection and packing.
For defense customers, this reduces reliance on outsourced critical processes and allows components to be tailored to specific dimensions, loads and materials rather than being limited to standard catalogue products.
Galperti defense production: from turret bearings to cannon forgings
GTFP defines its defense activity around three principal groups: special forgings, bearings and toothed rings. According to the company’s defense presentation, special forgings are intended for armored vehicles and weapon systems, while lightweight integral bearings can be used in turret and radar applications. Precision-forged toothed rings provide the mechanical interface required for controlled rotation. The company identifies land, naval and aerospace systems as relevant defence sectors.
Armored fighting vehicles represent one of the clearest applications. In a tank turret or IFV’s RWCS, the connection between the rotating turret and the hull requires a large-diameter azimuth slewing bearing capable of transferring substantial loads while maintaining precise movement. The gun installation requires a separate elevation bearing allowing the weapon to move in the vertical plane. Galperti therefore identifies both azimuth and elevation bearings as products applicable to tank and weapon turret systems. At the client’s request, Galperti can provide lightweight aluminum solutions with steel wiring; however, it recommends its steel-based products, which are only 30-40% heavier but offer greater durability.
The company’s scope extends beyond bearings. Its defense portfolio includes forgings for gun barrels and barrel housings, as well as breechblocks and bolts, for both medium (30 or 35 mm) and large calibers such as 120 or 155 mm. This gives GTFP access to a different segment of the defense supply chain: high-strength forged components forming part of the weapon itself rather than only its supporting structure.
The company also lists applications for armored land vehicles, naval gun turrets, rocket launchers, remotely controlled weapon stations and rotational radar assemblies. The common denominator is the requirement for precise rotational control under loads that can be considerably more severe than those encountered in conventional industrial machinery.
This is particularly important for military vehicles. A turret bearing must withstand not only the weight and dynamic forces generated by the turret and weapon but also shocks transmitted through the vehicle. These can result from firing, off-road movement or explosive effects. GTFP’s proposed solution therefore focuses not simply on reducing bearing mass but on doing so without compromising structural resistance.
Integral lightweight bearings for armored vehicles
One of the more distinctive elements of Galperti’s defense offer is its Integral Lightweight bearing concept. The company compares this design with wire-race bearings using an aluminum alloy ring with a stainless-steel race.
Galperti’s integral version uses 42CrMo4 quenched-and-tempered steel. The company identifies greater stiffness, a higher yield point and a broader possible contact-angle range between the race and the rolling elements among its advantages. The design also requires fewer sealing interfaces: according to the presentation, a ball-bearing configuration can be isolated from the external environment using only two principal sealing points, an attribute considered useful when protection against nuclear, biological or chemical contamination is required.
There is a trade-off. The steel construction is inherently heavier than the aluminum-based wire-race alternative. GTFP therefore uses finite element analysis (FEA) and targeted machining to remove material where it is not structurally necessary. The resulting concept aims to combine the mechanical characteristics of an integral steel bearing with a reduced overall mass.
Galperti also argues that the integral configuration provides longer bearing life and permits an internal or external gear to be manufactured as part of the bearing ring itself. A wire-race configuration may instead require a separate bolted gear ring, adding another component and additional machining and interfaces. The company additionally points to the greater availability of steel as a manufacturing material under wartime supply conditions.
Impact resistance is central to the concept. GTFP specifies 42CrMo4 Q+T steel for defense applications and states that its design is intended to survive impact loads of up to 50 g. Finite element analysis is used to verify stress and strain in the bearing structure. According to the company’s own comparison, wire-race bearings are substantially more sensitive to impact loading, while precisely these loads can occur in military applications.
The result is an engineering approach in which weight reduction is not pursued through a simple substitution of steel with a lighter alloy. Instead, Galperti seeks to optimize the geometry of a high-strength steel structure while retaining its resistance to shock and fatigue.
Naval guns, ammunition systems and radar applications
Galperti’s defence portfolio also extends to naval applications. For a naval gun turret, GTFP identifies the azimuth bearing connecting the turret to the ship structure as one of the principal components it can provide. Its proposed scope of supply additionally includes barrel and barrel-housing forgings, breechblocks and bolts.
Less obvious, but potentially equally important, are components for ammunition handling. The company lists bearings for the main ammunition carousel and secondary revolvers as well as mechanical elements associated with a screw elevator used to move rounds within the naval weapon system. In this case, GTFP’s role can therefore extend from the rotating turret structure through the gun itself to parts of its ammunition feed and storage system.
Naval installations create an additional materials problem: corrosion. Among the technologies identified by Galperti are superalloy cladding for carbon-steel components intended to provide galvanic-corrosion protection in seawater, zinc spray coatings, yellow zinc coating, customized galvanic coatings and painting according to customer requirements.
The same bearing technology can support naval radar systems. GTFP specifically identifies azimuth and elevation bearings for rotating radar installations. Although the loading regime differs from that of a tank turret or naval gun, radar systems likewise require precise, repeatable motion and high structural rigidity, often combined with exposure to demanding maritime environmental conditions.
This ability to address very different military subsystems with a common technological base is one of Galperti’s principal strengths. A large-diameter bearing for a radar antenna, an azimuth ring for an armored-vehicle turret and a bearing for a naval gun mount are not identical products, but they rely on the same underlying competencies in metallurgy, forging, heat treatment, gearing, precision machining and mechanical design.
From industrial forging specialist to defense supplier
Galperti’s defense expansion should therefore be viewed less as an entry into an entirely new technological field than as the adaptation of an established industrial capability to military requirements. GTFP already manufactures highly loaded rotating components and special forgings for demanding civilian markets and controls most of the relevant production processes internally. Its defense program applies that experience to systems where shock resistance, reliability, corrosion protection, reduced weight and supply-chain resilience become particularly important.
The breadth of the proposed applications is notable. Galperti components can potentially be incorporated into main battle tanks and other armored vehicles, remotely controlled weapon stations, rocket launchers, naval gun mounts, naval winches, ammunition handling systems and rotating radar installations. At component level, the portfolio ranges from azimuth and elevation bearings to gears, barrel and housing forgings, breechblocks and bolts.
The company is now presenting defense as a distinct strategic market: Galperti will exhibit at MSPO 2026 in Kielce on 8–11 September, describing its presence as focused on engineering solutions for critical defense applications.
For European defense manufacturers seeking to increase production while strengthening regional supply chains, the significance of companies such as Galperti lies precisely at this lower, less visible level of the industrial base. Tanks, artillery systems, naval guns and radars depend on comparatively small numbers of highly specialized mechanical components whose production requires heavy industrial infrastructure and accumulated metallurgical expertise. Galperti’s proposition is to transfer capabilities developed during more than a century of forging into that defense supply chain, combining customized design with vertically integrated production of critical forged and rotating components.
Galperti’s Defense products have already created reliable, proven combat systems of world-class European companies, which are already serving the Polish Defense now. All Galperti Defence-oriented products are manufatured now entirely in EU without any technological influence from abroad. The Company is ready to provide tailor-made solutions, systems and components for any contemporary and further Polish Defence Product. Both for land naval and air force.
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