We have every facility required, an Application Centre, Tooling Refurbishment department, Reverse Engineering Tooling Centre. Subcontract Honing Department, Demonstration, and training showrooms, in addition to our state-of-the-art Sintering facility, delapena sintered products.
delapena sintered products offer a comprehensive approach to sintering, boasting world-class design, analysis, and testing services. We develop and produce super abrasives at our centre of excellence, UK production centre in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. With the capacity to manufacture over 250,000 honing sticks per year, we produce consistently high-quality results.
delapena group are proud to encourage and develop engineers of the future. For over 15 years our Apprenticeship Scheme has seen dozens of young people develop their skills both in engineering and life skills.
The company was founded in 1927 by Leslie delapena. delapena had many contacts in America, and he brought the world of honing to the UK and Europe.
Prior to delapena’s establishment, machinists were boring at very low tolerances; the honing process took surface finishing to a whole new level. During the second world war, delapena struggled to obtain the product supplies he required, and consequently set up his own manufacturing facility. He developed innovative honing machines that began to be utilised by OEMs and car companies throughout Europe.
delapena was the biggest honing company in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1970s was a difficult decade for the UK honing industry, due to excessive inflation – but delapena was still able to thrive during this time.
New CNC machines were introduced in the early 1980s, which decreased the need for honing. However, tolerances have now become much tighter and honing is more accurate than current CNC machines. With the introduction of new honing technology, delapena can now hone down to tolerances of one micron.
Over the last 10 years, delapena has designed an innovative range of honing machines – and will continue to do so. The next 10 years will see the introduction of Industry 4.0, with productivity being the key output. delapena will begin to design new automatic loading machines, incorporating smart technology which can “think for itself”.
