CNC machining
The Norton name is synonymous with the golden age of British motorcycling that ran from the end of the 19th century to the second decade of the 21st. It’s a history that takes in Grand Prix wins in the 1930s to World Championships in the 50s. It includes innovations like the featherbed frame and the world’s first production ‘superbike’ that was unveiled at the 1967 Earls Court Motor Show. Alas, the decline of British motorbike manufacturing led the company to the brink of bankruptcy and it was only the intervention of Indian motorbike manufacturing giant, TVS, that saved it in 2020. TVS is renowned for producing quality bikes at affordable prices, but the new owner’s aim for Norton was very different and centred on making the brand its flagship, luxury line. “TVS make three million bikes every year in their Indian facilities, so they know manufacturing and they know how to make a product that is so reliable they can offer a 30,000-mile warranty on a 100cc bike,” says Adam Green, Senior Manufacturing Process Engineer at Norton Motorcycles. “Norton is a very different proposition for them. Norton is premium brand for TVS and as an owner, they want flawless paintwork, flawless polishing, reliability, component testing, the lot. Our brief is simple, make the finest bikes Norton have ever made.” TVS’ plans for the brand have included the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Solihull, West Midlands, that aims to build British bikes using a combination of traditional hand-crafted ways of working with modern manufacturing techniques to deliver consistently high quality. That willingness to embrace new ways of working led the company to critically examine how it made its bike frames in its fabricating facility. “Previously, we’d been hand-bending and hand- scalloping the bike frames because we didn’t know how to do anything different,” says Adam. “We could get the casts pre-machined but that would mean we had the welders controlling the tolerances. It’s difficult to hold a tight dimension while the component is moving around
One of the great names in British motorcycling is rising again under new ownership and with new state-of-the-art machining technology.
Machinery & Manufacturing 15
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