Del West Europe Measures up to Formula 1 Standards

It is a paradox that Del West Europe SA, a world leader in supplying valve train components to virtually all Formula 1 engine manufacturers,
is located in Switzerland, a country that manufactures no cars. “It was a deliberate decision,” says Bruno Engelric, Del West Europe’s managing director, ”For one thing, Switzerland is centrally located within Europe giving us easy access to our automotive customers in France, Germany and Italy. For another, the Swiss-made label is synonymous with precision and quality.”

Del West Europe SA, which started with just one employee in 1996, now has more than 90 employees handling everything from design and process planning to manufacturing and final inspection in a 3,000 square metre facility in Roche.

The company specializes in the design and manufacture of valve train systems for racing car engines. Its goal is to use the latest material technologies for making lightweight but highly rigid components that operate with minimal reciprocating mass in high-speed car engines. For this reason, titanium and aluminium alloys are used to make valve train components such as valves, valve guides, camshafts, keepers and pneumatic spring systems.

By optimizing the design of matching components, Del West engineers can improve the performance of valve trains to enable ever higher engine speeds without the loss of valve control. This results in an improved torque curve over the entire engine RPM range - crucial for the performance of racing engines.  Thus, through its focused concentration on valve train development, Del West has acquired an intimate understanding of the influence of this critical system on engine performance.

To remain at the forefront of technological innovation, Del West is constantly investing to improve product design and manufacturing
control processes. B&S Messtech SA, today Hexagon Metrology Switzerland, has partnered with Del West since its inception and supplied a Leitz PMM-C 700 coordinate measuring machine (CMM), three DEA CMMs and two non-contact measuring systems. An interesting aspect of the Leitz PMM-C 700 is that this machine works with PC-DMIS as well as . . . . . .