Ferranti Limited

In the U.K., marques of large-capacity lathebuilders are revived.

In the United Kingdom privately-owned Precision Technologies Group is revitalizing several British machine-tool builder brand names--Binns & Berry, Crawford Swift, Joshua Heap, and Hepworth Copy Systems.

The firm has set up a 38,000-sq.-ft. facility in Elland, Yorkshire, England, to re-engineer/remanufacture older machines and to design and build new ones under the Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift brands. The new company name is Jones and Shipman Remanufacture Ltd.

Yorkshire Machine Tools (Halifax, U.K.) originally had purchased the two family-owned companies--Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift in 2005.

Binns & Berry, established in 1898, lately built large, long-bed, center-type lathes and turning centers as well as specialized lathes and thread-whirling machines.

Crawford Swift, launched in 1872, built large lathes to order, for example, a 10-ft.-dia-capacity facing lathe. It also began building custom friction-stir-welding machines.

The recent history of both builders is complicated. In the early 1980s in its final years as a family-owned business, Binns & Berry acquired the historical Elland plant formerly operated by Crawford Swift. In doing so, the company acquired one of the largest remaining piano/milling machines--built by Swift--in the U.K. The machine has a 48-ft. bedway planing capacity. At the time, Binns & Berry was too late to save an even longer planer from being cut up.

Also at the Elland facility, Joshua Heap thread-cutting machines and Hepworth copy lathes were still being serviced.

One of the last owning family members on the Binns and Berry board of directors, Michael Berry, moved over to the U.K.'s 600 Group in 2002 as director of business development for Europe.

J & S Remanufacture joins CNC grinding-machine builders, Jones & Shipman and Hoiroyd, within the Precision Technologies Group, which is backed by Ferranti Capital (London, U.K.). PTG said that the new company and brands acquisitions would add valuable re-manufacture facilities within the group.

PTG's CEO Mark Franckel said that following the growth of PTG and increasing demand for its new products, the group had decided to exploit opportunities in the large capacity machine tool sector.

Note the use of "Jones & Shipman" in the name of the new remanufacturing company. Earlier the CEO of Ferranti Capital in London, Adrian de Ferranti, had told Metalworking Insiders Report that PTG's intention is to focus on Jones & Shipman as the main brand. He said that in March this year, Holroyd, Jones & Shipman, and Edgetek were reformed into one division. In keeping with that branding theme, the firm's main Web site is www. jonesshipman.com.

   In the USA, the J & S sales set-up has been
   reorganized. Formerly there were individual
   product sales teams, now there is one sales team
   covering all products. In the United Kingdom,
   J & S now has a research-and-development
   department. "Before, the J & S product had
   "evolved'," commented Franckel.

Franckel said that machine development will 'push' the Holroyd gear grinder--rebranded under J & S--in the North American automotive industry.

As regards production cylindrical grinding, Franckel said demand for the company's machines was rising in the US. Consequently, J 8,: S intend to bring out wide-wheel cylindrical grinders with, say, a 4-in. face for form grinding. As Franckel commented, "The U.S. likes big, heavy wheels." J & S is also developing more automation systems for its grinding products. Franckel commented: "We are now profitable, and we will go to the IMTS with precision."

The PTG is firmly on the acquisition trail. De Ferranti said that the group is looking to buy small- to medium-sized machine-tool companies currently operating--"uncomfortably"--within larger groups. Before the acquisition of Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift, the number of PTG employees had risen to 300. Franckel commented that lately the Holroyd turnover had: "Jumped dramatically".

From our European correspondent.