Hardy Spicer is a brand of automotive transmission or driveline equipment best known for its mechanical constant velocity universal joint originally manufactured in Britain by Hardy employing patents belonging to US-based Spicer Manufacturing. Hardy and Spicer soon became partners. Later Spicer became
Dana Holding Corporation
Dana Incorporated is an American supplier of axles, driveshafts, transmissions, and electrodynamic, thermal, sealing, and digital equipment for conventional, Hybrid vehicle, hybrid, and Electric vehicle, electric-powered vehicles. The company's ...
.
Since the commercial success of front wheel drive cars began in the 1960s the industry manufacturing universal joints has grown enormously.
The Hardy Spicer and
Laycock Engineering
The Laycock Engineering Company Limited of Archer Road, Millhouses, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England was an engineering business established in 1884 by W S Laycock which made small and major components for railway rolling stock.
Laycock died in 1 ...
group of businesses, later known as Birfield, have been part of the
GKN Driveline
GKN Automotive is a multinational manufacturer of driveline components, all-wheel drive systems and plug-in hybrid systems for the automotive industry. It employs around 27,500 people across 51 manufacturing facilities and 6 technology centres i ...
group since 1966.
History
Ed. J Hardy Limited was founded and later formed into a limited liability company by Birmingham-born cycle-parts manufacturer Edward John Hardy (1874–1950) in 1903 to import components for British motor manufacturers from France. The French industry was then dominant.
Bearings
Bound Brook Bearings of
Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, located along the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,402,Hardy flexible coupling'' in USA was granted to the Thermoid Rubber Company.Birfield Industries Limited. ''The Times'', Wednesday, Jan 24, 1945; pg. 8; Issue 50049.
Mechanical universal joint
More powerful engines and higher speeds required a mechanical universal joint. In USA, already with a link to Thermoid, Hardy established a contact with Spicer Manufacturing Corporation of Toledo, Ohio. Spicer took a share of Ed. J Hardy Limited in exchange for British patent rights and all engineering data of the Spicer mechanical joint and in 1926 the name of Ed. J Hardy & Co was changed to Hardy, Spicer and Co Limited.
Other businesses
The
Phosphor Bronze
Phosphor bronze is a member of the family of copper alloys. It is composed of copper that is alloyed with 0.5–11% of tin and 0.01–0.35% phosphorus, and may contain other elements to confer specific properties (e.g. lead at 0.5–3.0% to form ...
Company was bought in 1937 for its manufacture of high grade non-ferrous castings and the following year Hardy, Spicer elected to make their own forgings in their own forging plant. The plant's name was Forgings and Presswork (Birmingham) Limited. Sheffield's
Laycock Engineering
The Laycock Engineering Company Limited of Archer Road, Millhouses, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England was an engineering business established in 1884 by W S Laycock which made small and major components for railway rolling stock.
Laycock died in 1 ...
also made a flexible coupling known as Layrub as well as being a large manufacturer of garage and railway equipment.
Birfield Industries
In 1939 Hardy-Spicer joined with Laycock Engineering both becoming subsidiaries of a new holding company named Birfield Industries Limited incorporated by Laycock Engineering's chairman, Herbert Hill (1901–1987) for that purpose.
Constant velocity joints
Herbert Hill pushed his team to make continuous improvements to the basic Rzeppa
constant velocity joint
Constant-velocity joints (also known as homokinetic or CV joints) are mechanical joints which allow a drive shaft to transmit power through a variable angle, at constant rotational speed, without an appreciable increase in friction or play. They ...
and was rewarded in the 1960s when much of the world's motor industry switched to front wheel drive using Birfield joints, the CV joints now made by GKN Driveline and currently installed in more than one-third of all new cars worldwide.M.J. Nunney, ''Light and Heavy Vehicle Technology'', Fourth edition. Butterworth- Heinemann, Elsevier, Oxford UK 2007
Notable improvements to the original Rzeppa design have been the elimination of the need for a splined coupling and Birfield's modifications to the ball grooves and their track-steered ball cage introduced with BMC's
Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
s in 1959.
Rear axles
Salisbury Axle in USA was also part of the Spicer Group and in 1939 the Salisbury Transmission Company was formed in Britain to manufacture hypoid rear axles and, in the late 1950s, ''Powr-Lok''
limited-slip differential
A limited-slip differential (LSD) is a type of differential that allows its two output shafts to rotate at different speeds but limits the maximum difference between the two shafts. Limited-slip differentials are often known by the generic tr ...
s.
Automotive clutches
Laycock's principal product became spring diaphragm clutches.
From the late 1940s into the 1970s it made under de Normanville patents an add-on epicyclic overdrive unit which saved manufacturers from incorporating a 4th or 5th gear within their gearboxes.
Birfield multinational group 1964
;Group members included: Hardy Spicer; Laycock Engineering; Forgings & Presswork; Salisbury Transmission; Kent Alloys; Bound Brook; Felco Hoists; Hardy Spicer Walterscheid; John C Carlson; T B Ford; Shotton Bros; Felco Hoists; Birfield Filtration; R Jones & Co; Oddy Engineering; Birfield Machine Tools; Birfield Extrusions; Foundry Mechanisations (Baillot); A E Callaghan & Son; Micron Sprayers; Birfield Industries.
;Overseas group members: Bound Brook Bearing Corporation of America, Nordiska Kardan AB; Birfield (Ireland); Birfield (Nederland) Tranmissie; Felco France.
;Overseas interests: 37.5 per cent of Uni-Cardan AG, 21 per cent of France's Glaenzer-Spicer SA in any case controlled by Uni-Cardan, Birfield Transmissioni SpA in Italy jointly owned with Glaenzer-Spicer, an association with Toyo Bearing of Japan and lesser interests in businesses in many other industrialised countries.Andrew Lorenz, ''GKN, the making of a Business'', Wiley UK, 2009
GKN Driveline
In 1966 Guest Keen & Nettlefold seeing advantage in amalgamating with its local competition and wanting to pre-empt an expected bid from USA's
TRW Inc.
TRW Inc., was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, electronics, automotive, and credit reporting.http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/TRW-Inc-Company-History.html TRW Inc. It was a pionee ...
bought Birfield the sole UK supplier of CVJs.
There were also particular significant advantages in the amalgamation such as Hardy Spicer's strength in the EU and USA whereas GKN was weak in both those parts of the world.
As
GKN Driveline
GKN Automotive is a multinational manufacturer of driveline components, all-wheel drive systems and plug-in hybrid systems for the automotive industry. It employs around 27,500 people across 51 manufacturing facilities and 6 technology centres i ...
its constant velocity joints take near 50 per cent of the world market and Driveline employs about 22,000 people at 46 locations across 23 countries.GKN Driveline website accessed 27 July 2016