Steelfab[HY-MAC] of Cardiff, in Wales, was an engineering firm that built the "Steelfab Digger", a competitor to J. C. Bamford excavators in the 1960s. The company also built loaders for fitting to Tractors.
Rhymney Engineering was an organisation that manufactured equipment for the South Wales coal field. Owned by Powell Duffryn, as the demand for mining equipment decreased, the organisation diversified. In 1949 it negotiated an import license with Horn Brothers of the United States, to manufacture and market agricultural hydraulic loaders attachments. Well over 100,000 "Horndraulic" loaders were sold.
Steel Fabricators Limited was founded in Birmingham in 1935 to manufacture Pressed and Sheet Metal work. During the 1939 to 1945 period the company was solely engaged on Government Contracts, and the factory occupied an area of 5,000 square feet (460 m2), and there were some 50 employees.
In 1946, to meet expansion plans, the company relocated to Pengam Road, Cardiff and won large contracts, including supplying the frames for the BISF house project and Rigid Form beams for the then Ministry of Works.
Following the merger of Rhymney Engineering and Steelfab, the company began constructing kit-form Hy-Mac's. In the early 'fifties' it was decided to go into the Backhoe market, which resulted in the introduction of the "Scout" Digger, manufactured under licence to the Shawnee Manufacturing Company of the USA. Many hundreds of "Scout" Diggers were sold, but the unit did have its limitations and the "Shawnee Warrior" Digger was designed to supersede the Scout.
In 1952 a subsidiary Company was formed in Australia and this Company had a modern plant on the Moorabbin Industrial Estate near Melbourne, Victoria.
In 1954 a licence was finalized with the Shawnee Company, U.S.A., to manufacture and market "Shawnee" industrial loaders and diggers and those products formed a major part of the Company's range.
In 1958 a licence agreement was made with H.G. Poole Limited to manufacture and market Shawnee Poole Rear Dump Haulers, which enjoyed considerable success throughout the world and were leaders in the articulated dumper field.
In 1959 Steel Fabricators (Cardiff) Ltd., was taken over by the Adamant & Western Group and became a member of the Adwest Group.
Later that year Steelfab carried a market survey was carried out with a view to introducing a Combination Unit as opposed to the Shawnee Warrior type attachment digger. The Steelfab project started in 1960 and the Unit was designed to fall between the JCB4 and Massey Ferguson Backhoe loaders models.
When Hy-Hoe ceased manufacture in 1962, the newly named Hymac Ltd recommenced manufacturing the whole product range in South Wales.
Several hundred 160/180 combinations units were build but the early models were built on the light weight Fordson Dexta skid unit which was not strong enough to carry the stresses produced by a backhoe loader and units started to fail. This proved futial in the success of the product and although the larger International Harvester B2275 skid was introduced as a replacement it was too late for its reputation.
A larger 170/180 model was launced in the late 1960s with a much stronger and more powerful Ford 5000 skid but sales were limited and only around 60 units were sold and production ceased in approximately 1972
The Horndraulic '800' Digger was first produced during the latter part of 1965 and received considerable acceptance on the market and a larger 900 was later produced.[citation needed] This machine mounted on the rear of tractors
The designer of the 800 and 900 digger who had joined Steelfab from the Hymac Company later went on to design a scissor design tipper trailer known as the Power X System and later left Steelfab and set up business building mini excavators known as Powerfab.
The Steelfab SF 122 loader was used to build the "Roadless 700" Tractor loader in 1968. This machine based on the roadless Plougemaster 65 and 75 tractors. Six were supplied to Israel between 1969 and 1972.[1] The original prototype is believed to be the only one in existence. This were unusual machines as the had a Brockhouse torque converter transmission.
At this time the market was very competitive with several firms offering alternatives to the JCB excavators. Other firms being HyMac who latter took over Whitlock Bros. of Great Yealdham in Essex.
Today the HY-MAC trade mark and intellectual property is owned by Anthony O Gorman. HY-MAC have now developed a new servo control which incorporates the undercarriage movement, and is seen as the next generation of servo control.