The History of Banyard

Banyard have been amongst the world leaders in the manufacture of non-ferrous low frequency induction heaters for well over 50 years.

We can trace the roots of Banyard Induction Heaters back to Loewy Engineering Ltd, which was founded by Mr. Ludwig Loewy in 1936.

Mr. Ludwig Loewy

Mr. Loewy graduated at the Technical School in Vienna and in the following the years he worked at electrical firms and ship-yards; in 1913 he joined a firm of hydraulic engineers, who under his management added the building of rolling mills to their programme of work Mr. Loewy was elected a member of the Institute of Metals in 1929.

In 1936 Mr. Loewy severed his connections on the European continent and established himself in England as a designer and supplier of hydraulic presses and rolling mills and Loewy Engineering was born. It was Mr Lowey’s aim to contribute to making British industry independent of imports, and this policy proved its value at the outbreak of the war.

During the war Mr. Loewy invested ever more energy into his work to develop new and improved designs and to obtain improved production capacity to aid the increase in demand.

Mr. Loewy was accepted as an engineer of outstanding qualifications and became a British subject in the early part of 1942.

Loewy Engineering

Loewy Engineering manufactured ferrous and non-ferrous extrusion presses and many of these are still in operation today. The main horizontal 40MN Loewy press at Sandvik in Sweden was recently refurbished after 50 years in service.

To complement their extrusion press Loewy Engineering manufactured mains frequency induction heaters at a factory in Bournemouth in the South of England.

Banyard Metalheat

In 1968 Harry Banyard acquired the Loewy induction heater business and rebranded the new heaters Banyard Metalheat.

It was also during this period that Banyard engineers and the United Kingdom Electricity Council developed the multi-layer induction coil which significantly increased the energy efficiency compared with the traditional single layer coils for low frequency heating. Especially as the power source moved from line frequency transformers to burst firing thyristors and subsequently the present day LFi IGBT technology. This then-new coil winding technology was also utilised by other system manufacturers.

Inductoheat Acquires Banyard Metalheat

In 1984 Inductoheat part of the larger Inductotherm Group  based in the USA acquired Banyard Metalheat and rebranded the business as Inductoheat Banyard and the factory re-located to Poole in the South of England.

Inductotherm Heating and Welding

In 2006 Inductoheat Banyard was re-located and amalgamated with a number of other Induction companies into the Inductotherm Heating and Welding as we know today, based in Basingstoke, UK, who continue the development of advanced low frequency multi-zone power supplies and induction coils for horizontal non-ferrous and vertical steel alloy billet heating.

Whilst Banyard as a separate entity ceased to exist, the Banyard brand remains a strong and universally recognised name in the industry today. Several of the original staff and many of the innovations were retained and staff still work in at Inductotherm Heating & Welding today.

The Banyard Brand

Banyard products are still at the forefront of innovation and quality with several patented induction applications unique to the brand. Most notably the zero friction multi zone induction billet heater that applies multiple heating zones across the length of a metal billet. This allows for tapered heating of aluminium billets where one end of the billet is hotter than the other, allowing for better quality extrusion as the billet is pushed through the extrusion die.

The different zones allow for the heat that is naturally generated as the billet is squeezed through the much smaller opening without compromising the integrity or composition of the metal. The multi-zone capability also allows linear temperature correction of pre-heated billets.

This advanced technology is installed in several world-class extrusion companies worldwide and is recognised as being the most efficient and highly controllable equipment on the market. To understand this process further please view our animation below.

The Banyard brand offer a range of induction equipment including tube annealing, vertical steel billet heating, brass and copper billet heating and light alloy billet heating for a wide range of industries.

The Banyard team are committed to the continued strength of the brand and have shared their knowledge to specialist partners in the Inductotherm Group to further expand the brand globally. Thousands of Banyard induction products are still working in the field some 30+ years later which continue to be maintained and supported through Inductotherm Heating & Welding.

For more information on our Banyard products please click the linkbelow