Celebrating 105 Years Since Kawasaki Began Manufacturing Hele-Shaw Type Radial Piston Pumps And 64 Years Since The Birth Of The Staffa Motor

It is now just over 105 years since Kawasaki began manufacturing Hele-Shaw type radial piston pumps, and 64 years since the birth of the Staffa Motor. Way back in 1916, Kawasaki started to manufacture the innovative Hele-Shaw type radial piston pumps which were only the second product on the globe designed for use with hydraulic oil.

Since the development of this first pump, Kawasaki now leads the hydraulics industry in the sheer volume of production and capacity, manufacturing a wide range of products, including hydraulic motors, valves pumps, and various hydraulic components for mobile, industrial, and marine machinery, to name but a few key applications.

In 1957, George Hally junior, previously a Hercules radial aircraft engine designer, designed the first-ever hydraulic radial piston motor which he named “Staffa” Motor and now over 500,000 Staffa motors have been sold; many of which are still in use today after thousands of hours of trouble-free service.

Originally designed and manufactured to operate in the harsh environment of coal mines, the Staffa motor was quickly discovered to be a tough and reliable motor and it soon became extremely popular wherever a reliable direct drive solution was needed. In the years that have followed, Kawasaki Precision Machinery engineers have improved and refined the motor’s design and construction until the product is what you see today.

Today, modern techniques such as finite element analysis, advanced materials and coatings, computational fluid dynamics and state-of-the-art testing facilities enable us to continue to push the operating boundaries of this unique family of motors.

Kawasaki Staffa motors are all made at the manufacturing facility in Plymouth, here in the UK, where Kawasaki continues to invest millions of pounds in the latest production technology. This has enabled them to continually improve their manufacturing processes, maintaining the world-leading quality and reliability of Kawasaki Staffa Motors that our industry demands.