What’s in a name?

Established in 1927, Cheltenham-based Delapena has long been recognised as a leading manufacturer of honing machines, but a recent expansion programme has not only seen the company enhance its product and service offering significantly – it has also inspired a name change. Dave Tudor reports.

Companies change their names for a variety of reasons: a change in ownership; a merger with another business; or perhaps a simple rebranding process, but in Delapena's case, the metamorphosis from Delapena Honing Equipment to the Delapena Group represents a total re-evaluation and enhancement of the products and services the company offers.
Honing still takes centre stage – we're talking 87 years in the business after all – but now this is complemented by three additional sub-divisions that form part of the Delapena Group: Abrasives; Oils; and the Webshop.

Delapena is something of a rare breed in the UK because it designs, manufactures and assembles all its honing machines in Cheltenham, plus all tooling, fixtures and ancillary equipment. However the company is much more than simply a machine builder – it offers total honing solutions tailored to individual customer requirements, from the machine itself through to applications support, consumables and aftersales. Delapena's tooling incidentally is also compatible with other manufacturers' machines such as Gehring and Sunnen.

So in Delepena's well-equipped machine shop you'll not only see parts being manufactured for its own machines, but also real life components and processes being developed on behalf of its customers.

“We have around 4,000 customers on our books and these vary from tier ones and OEMs to one man band companies,” reveals managing director Martin Elliott. “Some customers come to us just to buy a machine whilst others need us to develop all-encompassing honing solutions. Because we keep stocks of all our machines here, we can produce components and develop processes on behalf of the customer that we know will work in a production environment.”

Global support

Delapena's customer base is certainly impressive, but equally commendable, according to Mr Elliott, is the fact that new customers are arriving at a rate of three to four a week at the moment. Company chairman David Arthur recalls a recent solution developed for a global tooling manufacturer site in the US that clearly illustrates that it's not only local customers that are able to benefit from Delapena's services.

The customer bought a machine from us via our Webshop,” he explains, “but they also had a challenging small hole honing requirement on a particular component that they asked us to take a look at. We engineered the process, optimised the machining cycle and provided the solution. We delivered the machine to the customer's site in Central America and sent one of our engineers to commission it. The customer is now using the machine with our process successfully and the only time we hear from them is when they need to order consumables.

“It was a similar story with a premium UK sports car manufacturer,” he continues. “They had issues with the honing process on a car axle component that was resulting in quality problems so they came to us to see if we could help and gave us 20 components to experiment with. We discovered that it wasn't only the honing process that was at fault but also the preceding machining operation. We developed a repeatable new process that provided the quality required and the customer bought a machine from us. They've not had any quality problems with the part since.”

Banishing the black art

In terms of its honing machines, a significant development over the past four or five years is that Siemens controls are now used on all models. With Delapena's aspirations to become a truly global supplier (it already has a worldwide distribution network serving 24 countries) it was important to partner with a company that could offer support on a global basis.

“We've been working with Siemens for some time now on the controls for our machines,” Mr Elliott reveals. “Our five E series models – ProductionHone Mini and Maxi, PrecisionHone E3000S, SpeedHone EAS and CalibreHone E2000XL – for example have been designed from the ground up to operate electronically rather than mechanically and whilst that's partially due to health and safety requirements, it's mainly because we want our machines to be simple to operate at the push of a button.

“We've worked very closely with Siemens over several years to develop a bespoke, exclusive control that is very user friendly and intuitive at the front end using conversational programming, but highly complex and powerful underneath,” he affirms. “Our ultimate aim is to demystify honing as a black art and make it accessible to all manufacturing companies irrespective of skill levels. We want to make honing an integral part of the production process and via the Siemens control we believe we've achieved that objective. We've de-skilled the operation without detracting from the precision of the process. After entering the basic parameters and pushing the button, the operator doesn't have to touch anything else. The control makes the process totally self-compensating.”

All bases covered

In the E series range there really is a machine for any application. The SpeedHone EAS is ideal for small batches and can hone diameters from 1mm to 80mm to 1µm tolerances whilst the ProductionHone Mini and Maxi are for small to medium batch quantities. The former can handle diameters of 1.14mm to 25mm and the latter 1.14mm to 80mm.

The CalibreHone E2000-XL is a long bore precision honing machine designed to hone straight and tapered bores to lengths of up to 800mm within 2µm tolerances. The PrecisionHone E3000S on the other hand is a vertical honing machine able to accommodate small scale to heavy components within a 1.14mm to 80mm diameter range. Accuracy is 1µm with sub-micron adjustment.

“All our machines are high accuracy but with a project we're working on at the moment with a customer we're really pushing the boundaries and working towards 0.5µm accuracies,” Mr Elliott enthuses. “Currently he's taking two and a half to three hours to lap a valve; using our process it'll take about 10 minutes. This will be a significant development because it negates the need for a lapping process entirely.”

New developments

Delapena is always looking to penetrate different market sectors and is currently developing a brand new machine designed mainly for the oil and gas sector. According to Mr Arthur, the first TubeHone is about five weeks away from completion and will offer a 2m depth/25mm to 600mm diameter capacity. The first machine has just been sold to a customer in the mining industry and the scope is there to build much larger machines that can handle depths of 10m or more.

“Because we design, manufacture and build everything in house, this is a very cost-competitive machine,” he asserts. “We were up against a competitor – but once the customer visited our facility and saw how we operate first hand, he placed the order straightaway.”

Also hot off the press is the news that Delapena has launched a subcontract honing service. Ray Wilton has been recruited to head up the department and work is already starting to come in. “Until, now, offering a subcontract honing capability was the one part of the jigsaw that we didn't offer,” Mr Elliott advises. “Not all companies with a honing requirement are in a position to buy their own machines and we're often asked if we offer a subcontract service. We now have that capability and we'll be formally announcing it imminently.”

Synergistically speaking

The other constituent elements of the Group are the Oils and Abrasives divisions. With the former, the synergy between honing machines and processes is obvious which is why Delapena offers a wide range of honing oils, neat oils, water-soluble oils, hydraulic oils, machine tool oils and rust prevention oils.

With the Abrasives division – set up in February this year – there is also a synergy with honing, albeit perhaps less obvious. “We found that a large proportion of customers on our database also carried out grinding operations so it made sense to offer abrasives as part of our product portfolio,” Mr Elliott says.

“Again it's not just about the products – it's the technical expertise we can offer in terms of application support that provides the real added value,” he adds. “Although we sell standard grinding wheels and abrasives, the vast majority of products are bespoke and highly customised for specific customer applications – a recent centreless grinding wheel we've supplied to a customer in Poland for example will remove 4mm of round black bar material per side. With some of our customers, we're really pushing the boundaries in terms of grinding technology, and through our Oils division, we also provide an extensive range of grinding oils and coolants.

“We have two dedicated members of staff working in the Abrasives Division and I have to say the response from customers so far has been phenomenal, so much so in fact that it's distinctly possible that within three or four years, sales of abrasive products will surpass those of honing machines,” he concludes. “We're seeing growth across a number of industry sectors – steel, glass and also automotive for crankshafts, valve stems, piston rings and CV joints.” Pic: Delapena's managing director Martin Elliott (left) with company chairman David Arthur

Delapena
www.delapena.co.uk