"We had to search every corner of Europe to find a company that could mill the segments of the central ring with such accuracy. In the north of Italy we found CLP, a family business in a small village"
Such amusing imagery. When you think of small villages in Italy you tend not to think of them having companies with the ability to do such cutting edge engineering.
Italians were fine machinists through their history. Da Vince, etc - long line of mechanics and precision millwork.
A lot of aerospace companies making satellites, rockets, parts for ESA are in Northern Italy. Three of the ISS modules[1] were made near Turin.
Also, Ferraris and Lambos are made in Northern Italy (in relatively small towns, ex. Maranello is 17,000 people). High performance and precision engineering.
The best Dutch machinists that I'm aware of (when it comes to precision) are located in a tiny little village in the south of Groningen, about 2 km from the German border. It's as out-of-the-way as it gets.
The problem why they searched all over Europe is that it wasn't just the accuracy, it was the part size combined with the accuracy. Making small parts with a lot of precision is relatively easy if you're willing to discard a whole pile of them after QA. Making big parts with any precision at all is tremendously hard (because the piece warms up as it is being worked and large pieces will expand quite a bit as they warm up) and discarding a single piece is going to be ridiculously expensive.
Such amusing imagery. When you think of small villages in Italy you tend not to think of them having companies with the ability to do such cutting edge engineering.