Subject: Re: Hardinge Brothers and Subsidiaries

From: [email-masked] (Drew Diamond)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 06:00:21 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (f.w.kerfoot..iii) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (f.w.kerfoot..iii)
>Subject: Hardinge Brothers and Subsidiaries
>Keywords: lathe, Hardinge
>Date: 24 Nov 93 18:23:05 GMT
>Still unable to kick the habit, I did some more research on the issue
>which arose when Hardinge lathes were identified which were apparently
>built in both the US and the UK. The parent company is in fact Hardinge
>Brothers, Inc., of Horseheads NY, USA. Someone (Gary?) previously mentioned
>Elmira NY. Horseheads is a few miles West, as anyone who has visited
>the race track at nearby Watkins' Glen would know (but I didn't know
>that Hardinge was located there).
>
>I found 3 subsidiaries, all owned by Hardinge Brothers in the USA.
>They are Hardinge Brothers GMBH in Germany, Hardinge Machine tools, in
>France, and Hardinge Machine Tools Ltd. in Exeter, England. The latter
>is, if memory serves, the reference found on the Hardinge lathe which
>led to the assumption they were an English compnay. Another reference
>indicated that Hardinge Machine Tools Ltd. is a distributor, which
>would seem to make sense, in that it would be difficult to support
>multiple factories in what is a relatively small business. I assume
>therefore that the label on the English Hardinge was a distributor's
>label of some sort, as opposed to something cast into the machine
>itself.  The English subsidiary was established in 1937.
>
>Frank Kerfoot
>[email-masked]

Thank-you Frank. This has been a most interesting discussion. The only thing 
I have to go on here is the lathe itself; a Hardinge model HLV-H, and the 
extensive operator's handbook/manual. It is a beautiful machine, with dove 
tail bed, powered slide and carriage, and continuous speed control via cone 
pulleys- a pleasure to use. But it reeks Englishness, the wiring is English 
style ("mains etc."), everything about it is English, and it it clearly, 
and proudly marked; "Hardinge, Feltham, Middlesex, England" no mention of 
any part or component being made in the USA.

Kind Regards, Drew.

---

From: [email-masked] (David Jenkins)
Date: 30 Nov 1993 08:36:29 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Drew Diamond) writes:
|> 
|> Thank-you Frank. This has been a most interesting discussion. The
|> only thing 
|> I have to go on here is the lathe itself; a Hardinge model HLV-H, and
|> the 
|> extensive operator's handbook/manual. It is a beautiful machine, with
|> dove 
|> tail bed, powered slide and carriage, and continuous speed control
|> via cone 
|> pulleys- a pleasure to use. But it reeks Englishness, the wiring is
|> English 
|> style ("mains etc."), everything about it is English, and it it
|> clearly, 
|> and proudly marked; "Hardinge, Feltham, Middlesex, England" no
|> mention of 
|> any part or component being made in the USA.
|> 
|> Kind Regards, Drew.
|>  

I have read an article in Model Engineer (The UK model engineering
mag.) about one of their reporters going to the Hardinge factory in
the UK (Feltham?) and drooling over the bits of lathe which were in
the _reject_ box!  He reckoned that they were better than the parts
issued by other companies!

This article does show that Hardinge do/did make their own lathes in
the UK, although they might have used a USA design, modified to suit.

-- 

David Jenkins

* I'd rather be steaming... *

---

From: [email-masked] (f.w.kerfoot..iii)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 14:13:14 GMT

>From article <[email-masked]>, by [email-masked] (David Jenkins):

It is interesting that Drew's address in Middlesex differs from the
address in the reference to the US company's subsidiary in Exeter, Devon.
However, it also seems quite odd that Hardinge would have 2 operations
in the UK, one importing the US version, and the other, totally
independent in the sense of corporate affiliation from what I can tell,
who makes a UK-manufactured copy (based on Drew's description, especially
of the dovetailed ways). It may be possible that the UK manufacturing
entity existed earlier, also as a Hardinge Brothers (USA) subsidiary,
but that the company has since consolidated to one manufacturing site
(in the US) and marketing outlets overseas. By the way, Drew, does the
Hardinge lathe you have access to have metric leadscrews? This might
explain a separate manufacturing operation some time ago when there
was little or no demand for metric lathes in the US.

Does anyone located in the UK (or elsewhere) have the UK equivalent
to Dunn and Bradstreet's (sp?) book of corporate affiliations in
the company library, and would they be interested in doing 10 minutes
of research?

Frank Kerfoot
[email-masked]