Here at Airedale Springs we are proud of the incredible work that we able to undertake as one of the country’s leading spring manufacturers. We know that the capabilities we have today did not simply appear out of the blue and the road towards this incredible technical age was paved by a long list of pioneers.
We think it is important that people are aware of these pioneers and exactly what their achievements mean for us today. In this blog we have chosen one of the true greats of engineering, Henry Maudslay. Now you may be reading this with absolutely no idea who this man was, but bear with us, as he really can be counted up there with the best. Maudslay (not to be confused with Maudsley) was a British engineer and inventor who invented, among many other things, the screw cutting lathe.
The screw cutting lathe
In 1800 Maudslay invented the first industrially practical screw cutting lathe and revolutionised the world of industrial production. This incredible invention was the first invention that could cut screws with incredible accuracy over and over again. Prior to this invention screws were all made by hand and were inordinately expensive, and the quality could never be guaranteed. Whilst you may be wondering how this one invention changed the world, it really cannot be overestimated.
Though the lathe was used only for cutting screws it was one of the first tools designed to accurately and consistently cut metal. The precision of this machine led other engineers to stand on the shoulders of this giant invention and adapt the technology to other uses and is widely acknowledged as the first step to the modern machining tools present in modern factories.
Hand powered and specialist machines based on the lathe have been used for many years for the production of compression springs, tension springs and torsion springs. Development over the years has seen these machines become fully CNC controlled.
Here at Airedale Springs we simply wouldn’t be able to maintain the high standard in manufacturing springs that our customers expect without inventors such as Maudslay. All the incredibly precise and advanced technology that is so vital to our everyday operations can all trace their history back to this one incredible invention.