Alfred Herbert Ltd

In 1889, Alfred Herbert established his machine tool business in Coventry. The company grew steadily, soon outgrowing its premises at the Butts. Eventually Herbert concentrated all development and production at a thirty-seven acre site in Edgwick. Despite two world wars and the economic slump of the inter-war period, the company flourished through the first half of the 20th century.

At the core of Herbert's success was a desire to continually improve his products through cutting-edge innovation. Alfred Herbert Ltd had a reputation for high quality products and excellent after-sales service. He also held his workers' welfare in high regard and was a pioneer of industrial safety.

Until the early 1980s, Alfred Herbert Ltd continued to supply machine tools and components to cycle, motor vehicle, aircraft and engineering firms all over the world.

What is it?

The object shown here is a machine tool called a 2D capstan lathe, produced in 1974 by Alfred Herbert Ltd. This lathe was a very successful Herbert product. It was reliable, easy to use and many apprentices learned the trade on a 2D lathe.

What does it do and how does it work?

A machine tool is a piece of equipment which shapes metal by a process called machining - this is the removal of certain parts of a larger metal piece. The lathe pictured here has a chuck which holds a spinning a block of metal. Smaller component tools are applied to the spinning block and, as it turns, metal is selectively scraped away to create a precise and symmetrical shape.

One of the advantages of this lathe is the revolving turret or capstan (visible just in front of the white safety sign). The turret holds different tools, which shift in sequence to complete the next stage of machining the metal. This eliminates the need to manually change tools between each step. Therefore, the resulting machined piece is created quickly and accurately.