From passion to sustainable business – Jenvey Dynamics invests for the future

Back in 1987 when Richard Jenvey decided to turn his knowledge of motor racing into a business he quickly realised that long-term sustainability of that business would lie in manufacturing. His first product, a throttle body, was the initial step to Jenvey Dynamics becoming a leader in the design and manufacture of a wide range of fuel induction systems, such as manifolds, fuel rails and fittings, air horns, linkages and other associated parts.

Now managed by Richard’s son, Mike, who took over in 2007, the company has consolidated its in-house manufacturing capability and is now rightly proud of the fact that over 90 per cent of what the company sells is manufactured at its Bridgnorth facility. This extends to having its own foundry on-site, which is undergoing major investment this year. “By having virtually everything under our direct control we are able to react much more effectively to customer demand, it also adds a degree of confidentiality to what we do, which is important to some of the OEM automotive companies that we work for, who are becoming an increasing part of our business,” says Mike Jenvey.

The ease of use and capability of the XYZ Compact Turn 52, especially with the bar feed fitted is a good addition to our in-house machining capability

Jenvey Dynamics’ typical customers are niche automotive manufacturers, such as Norton Motorcycles and Radical Sportscars as well as specialist engine builders and tuners. In addition, the company is now developing good business with Tier 1 automotive suppliers, providing them with research, development and prototype production capacity, where it makes its in-house 3D design, patternmaking, and machining capabilities available to them in order to deliver rapid response times.

As part of this development Jenvey Dynamics is investing in new machining capabilities. The most recent evidence of this is an XYZ Compact Turn 52 CNC lathe. “We looked at a number of options in our quest to improve accuracy and efficiency on typically small to medium batch sizes. The ease of use and capability of the XYZ Compact Turn 52, especially with the bar feed fitted is a good addition to our in-house machining capability and is performing extremely reliably. The reliability and accuracy we get from the Compact Turn 52 ensures that we can be confident that every product that leaves our factory is ready to bolt on to our customers’ engines and win races,” says Mike Jenvey. The XYZ Compact Turn 52 packs a powerful punch for a machine with a footprint of just 1700 by 1780mm, it has a 20hp/5000rpm spindle with a 52 mm bar capacity to take advantage of the optional bar feed unit. For chucking work the maximum turned diameter is 220mm with a maximum turned length of 280mm, while the 12 position, 30 VDI, turret gives lots of options for external/internal tooling combinations. For those looking for added versatility there is a y-axis version, the XYZ Compact Turn 52 LTY that offers slightly larger capacity as well as 12 live tooling positions.

The reliability and accuracy we get from the Compact Turn 52 ensures that we can be confident that every product that leaves our factory is ready to bolt on to our customers’ engines and win races

The XYZ Compact Turn 52 isn’t the first machine purchased by Jenvey Dynamics from XYZ Machine Tools. Part of the justification for this new machine’s purchase was the fact that they already had experience of the reliability of XYZ machines through having had an XYZ MiniMill 560 for over 12 years. For the first ten years of its life this compact machining centre produced every throttle body sold by Jenvey Dynamics. More recently the company has turned its capabilities to machining, small batch runs and maximises every bit of available space on its 610mm by 370mm table, with multiple fixtures and a fourth axis unit all in-situ simultaneously.

The new XYZ Compact Turn 52 is playing an important role in allowing us to manage this growing customer demand

“Business is extremely buoyant at the moment and much of this is due to the impact of our new management team over the past twelve months, which has seen new business opportunities being transformed into strong sales, a trend that we envisage will continue for the foreseeable future,” says Mike Jenvey. “The new XYZ Compact Turn 52 is playing an important role in allowing us to manage this growing customer demand and also the development of new products. We fully expect a second new XYZ machine to be installed in the very near future with a third following by the end of the year bringing our total number of machining centres to nine. This third machine will be dedicated to patternmaking for our foundry.”