Journey inside the Bersa spraying factory: it is the 9 millionth most sold in the country

"This has never happened and in the 50 years of the brand, we opened the factory to the press," he said. Luis Stella, president of Bersa Sociedad Anónima. Today, Bersa meets 60 years and Stella sees how many journalists and photographers they are traveling for the first time in the historic Magallanes Street factory in Ramos Mejía, with 110 workers and a production capacity of nearly 100,000 guns per year for markets around the world, after two million weapons sold in its history.

"It's a competitive market," says Stella looking at a table with her various models of their guns, centered in the TPR and Thunder seriesmainly with calibres of 9 millimeters and 380. The market demands, says Stella: Bersa is getting ready a new model every two years.

The last, the Thunder 9 XT Pro, was created in 2016, a film 9 mm wide, almost cinematic, it's heavy at your fingertips, with nearly a kilo of aluminum. Symbolism weighs too. Bersa today is the only brand in the country that makes a firearm from scratch, unlike Military Manufacturing Assemblies. Its 9 millimeters are essentially synonymous with guns in the country and its commercial position is favored for State of direct purchasesbut their products lead to a paradox: in the hands of security forces or in the hands of criminals, with homicides committed by both.

Produce a bersa, withecios for the retail trade from 10 thousand to 24 thousand pesosThis is not cheap. Stella estimates an investment of 18 million pesos in the last two years modernize its machines. The 70-75 aluminum to manufacture his weapons, a metal of sufficient quality to be used in the aviation industry and in the satellites, is not bought in the country, Bersa alternates at monetary value between South American and European suppliers to produce their handles, slides and loaders, a firearm may have more than 90 components in total.

Among the first basic steps, for example, is the machining parts: Okuma computerized production machines take and correct about 150 internal measurements of the handles. Then the measurements are corroborated by a second device with its corresponding operator.

So, the devices reach the badembly sector. The slides are polished not by hand but by a robot inside from a cell designed by the Argentine company EK Roboter Industrial Automation. They also go through a blue area to enhance the metal.

An operator is responsible for Place the serial number by hand. So after painting the main parts -with pink pistols including a series of workers bademble the guns and examine the pieces until they are deemed appropriate for the last evaluation: Each weapon is tested in its own polygon within the plant itself by two operators pulling a complete magazine with the pistol, with another who fills the chargers.

They are tested 300 pods a day, the pods fill the consortium bags in an adjacent corridor. Approved weapons are sent in packages, with destinations such as civilian market of the United States armories The main commercial niche of Bersa is Poland, Uruguay, Peru or the national security forces.