A 'thread pick-up' facility developed by Keighley-based DSG Lathes is bringing the company a boom in business from the world's oil industry. Orders for the new DSG 25P and 30P hollow-spindle centre lathes from domestic and export oil markets are expected to top well over £1 million this year.

The pick up device, unique to DSG, makes it possible to re-cut existing threads by aligning the tool with the thread flank before the process starts. It is one of the many features which have made the DSG lathes popular for oil field work, where rigidity and very high tolerances of accuracy are demanded. This is essential when turning complex components, especially when machining the API threads which are widely used in the industry.

DSG have been supplying these lathes to the oilfield industry for many years, and they have gained a reputation for long life and are now affectionately known as "Oil Country Lathes". A used DSG 25P lathe about 25 years old and in average condition will still sell for around £50,000 as the demand is so high, even on the second-hand market.

DSG Lathes was formed in April 1993 and has buoyant order books, with business up more than 50 per cent in the past year. Much of this is repeat business. The company attributes its success largely to a policy of continual innovation - a trend which increased when it bought the stock and intellectual rights of Dean, Smith and Grace.

Aerovac Systems has become the first company in the district to open a Euro account with NatWest - the first UK bank to provide them. Firms opening the new accounts will be able to deal in euros with their customers and suppliers well in advance of the introduction of the single currency. Business in the rest of Europe is, in the main, conducted through electronic inter account payments.

NatWest's Bradford corporate manager John Long says: "With EMU due to start very soon it is vital that all businesses make sure they will be able to rise to the challenge which the single currency presents. The euro will become a major currency for UK business."

Aerovac financial controller David Smith says: "Many of the international companies we deal with have already expressed a wish to deal in euros."

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