MOTORSPORTS
AEROSPACE
Why Del West -
What Del West Can Do -
Our Aerospace Heritage -
MEDICAL DEVICES
SWISS WATCHES
SERIES PRODUCTION
POWERSPORTS
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We are a Southern California-based manufacturing corporation with our origins in aerospace. |
| Our Aerospace Heritage Del West started life in 1973, with a contract for research in fracture mechanics for aerospace giant Grumman Corp.  When Al Sommer came on board a year later, he recalled that his previous employer, North American Rockwell, required all its subcontractors to perform fracture mechanics tests before delivery on a part could be considered complete. “I looked at this machine Del West had,” he said, “that was capable of doing this testing and I said, ‘I see what we can do here.’” The small consulting firm set up its own lab to do outsourced testing and to teach people in the industry how to use the fracture mechanics results so they could set proper requirements for the materials. Within a year they were consulting directly for the government as well, with two contracts from the Air Force and one from NASA to study the boosters on the space shuttle. One of the Air Force contracts was for the study of titanium, to research how it could be best processed to get the most out of what was then considered an exotic material. That line of research eventually led Del West into the production of titanium components for race car engines. Today, Al Sommer has been joined at Del West by numerous engineers who have come to the company from aerospace and aerospace-related firms. Together, they continue to perform materials research. But now, thanks to years of design and manufacturing experience, Del West takes the process one step further: applying that research to real world applications. Del West. Precisely.
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