NAA Event Review: Helical Technology
Our most recent event saw us visit Helical Technology at both the company’s Warton Technical Centre and its Lytham production facility.
We were welcomed by Managing Director, Alistair Morris and Operations Manager, Chris Waddington.
Delegates were given an overview of the Helical business by Global Sales Manager, Johann Bustin, from its beginnings in 1962 as a spring manufacturer to the £40m turnover business that it is today, producing a range of valve rotators, actuators and other exhaust system-related components for a variety of global OEMs in the passenger car, HGV and off-highway sectors.
Technical Centre Manager Deborah Morris gave attendees a tour of the Warton site’s extensive test and development facilities, including semi anechoic chambers and dynamometer test cells, with capacities up to 2MW, which is probably unique in the UK.
There was also the opportunity to view the TR Supercar Project, the brief being to engineer an elegant interpretation of the TVR Speed 12, maintaining its raw power and deep-rooted best of British DNA, utilising former TVR engineers. The car is planned to be available for sale in both right and left-hand drive configurations in very limited volumes.
Delegates were then transported to the Lytham production site, where in addition to viewing the extensive machining and assembly areas for valve rotator and actuator production, there was an opportunity to view the air source heat pump production site, operating as Global Energy Systems.
