• 1936
  • 1939
  • 1942
  • 1939 - 1945
  • 1947
  • 1980
  • 1984
  • 1986
  • 1996
  • 2012
  • 2012 - 2018
  • 2019...

1936

1936 Bambach Wire and Cable was Established

 

In 1932 Anthony Francis Bambach, an electrician by trade, joined Liverpool Electric Cable Co of the UK as a sales representative following his stint installing switch gear for the trains crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The next 4 years saw a large increase in demand for cables related to the rapid growth of radio manufacturing but the lead times from England meant sales often went begging.

In his typical “can do” attitude A.F. Bambach set about solving it. The company had ample supply of VIR single cores so he worked out a way to make multi-cores and did so using the company’s premises on the weekend. He had previously arranged with a local boot lace manufacturer that it would cotton braid these multi-cores in colours required and thereby satisfied his customers’ needs. This was very successful.

However repeated suggestions to management of Liverpool Electric that the company should set up its own small manufacturing plant were turned down so that in 1936 he set up on his own with the good will of the manager, Mr Alan Maugham.

1939

1939 saw the delivery of a small buncher for Litz wire. This was the start of manufacturing with less primitive but imaginative means of the previous methods This machine was much copied during the war as the cables produced were particularly well suited for high frequency installations such as radar. During this period fine wire braiding machines were installed for both over braid and flat battery strap.

1942

1942 saw a move to larger premises with Sales/Admin plus factory  set up in Stanmore in Sydney’s inner west. The product range now included silk covered enamelled wires, paper and cotton covered conductors and strip.

1939 - 1945

Bambach supported Allied Forces “behind-the-scenes” in WWII

17 November, 1945

The Manager,

A.F. Bambach,

Dear Sir:

The arrival of Peace and the ensuing conclusion of United States Army activities in Australia make this a fitting time to express our thanks to those who have shared with us the strain of that “behind-the-scenes” work which is so necessary in military operations and which, more often than not, goes unrecognized.

The United States Army is cognizant of and appreciates fully the services which have been rendered by you during the past trying years. Not only the actual concrete results from your production lines, but also your co-operation and willingness to assist the United States Army, have in no small measurecontributed towards the cessation of hostilities at this time.

I would like to convey to you and your staff our thanks for the help you have given in the many phases of supply, construction, and service, and to acknowledge that without such help, the task of the United States Forces in Australia of maintaining supply lines to Allied Forces in the Pacific would have been practically an impossibility.

Sincerely,

Wm.H.DONALDSON.Jr,

Brigadier General U.S.Army,

Commanding

 

1947

Bambach factory moves to Narabeen NSW

 

1947: The factory moved to Narrabeen, NSW, in order to accommodate growing demand. A fine wire drawing machine was made from drawings only to be followed shortly by the purchase of imported machines for standard sizes as well several Cook bunchers for bare and insulated wire.

1980

Bambach Expands

 

1980: Sales, administration and manufacturing were brought together in one place at 752 Old Pittwater Brookvale. New products included specialized cables for the Mining Industry. It also saw a growth in the ability to work with customers to develop cables for their specific use, often on a non repeat basis, where time and quantities were important, in other words competing strongly with imports.

1984

Bill Gale joins the team

 

1984:  Bill Gale, a graduate engineer, joined the company to support the then General Manager who was unfortunately unwell. Bill’s input was to continue the drive of product and machinery development that was already underway to become an ongoing way of doing business

1986

Bambach becomes QA endorsed 

 

1986: The company became a fully QA endorsed company and thereby one of the first 500 to be so qualified in Australia.

1996

Bambach move to 102 Old Pitwatter Road Brookvale

 

1996: The innovations mentioned meant that the 50% of sales were now import replacement so a move was made to 102 Old Pittwater Road where the layout was more efficient.

By this time products involved a wide stock of standard cables plus unique items for manufacturers as diverse as mining, defence, transformers, rail systems, communications, waste water treatment, electricity supply and airport lighting.

2012

Product range is expanded

 

2012: 1996-2012 brought improvements in equipment with upgrades to the extrusion and wire drawing sections. Faster more modern machines combined with greater emphasis on engineering and technical capabilities enabled the company to manufacture a more diverse range of products such as cables insulated or sheathed in complex compounds such as polyolefins, polyurethanes, nylon, and polyethylene’s  and other various compounds.

2012 - 2018

Energy Technologies Limited purchased Bambach Wire and Cables in July 2012. Following acquisition and the mining downturn focus turned to developing new products to meet perceived high growth markets in the areas of Rail, Road and by 2015, Defence.  The decision was made to brand all these newly developed cables with brands such as SafeX, NautX, RailX and SearX denoting low smoke zero halogen cables for use in different applications in  the high growth sectors as well as Variflex- EMC Cables,  Traffi-Cab and Detecta-Cab-traffic cables, TrackSure and TrackSafe Rail Power and Signalling cables, ImmerseX pump Cables and so on. Focus was also brought to improving manufacturing efficiency and important equipment was identified and purchased including a large extruder, single twist buncher and winding equipment. As a result of these activities business revenues grew substantially but were constrained by factory capacity.

2019...

In mid 2018 Bambach Wire and Cables was awarded a Federal Government Regional Jobs and Investment Program (RJIP) Grant to relocate its factory to Rosedale in Gippsland,  Victoria. To take advantage of the grant Energy Technologies was required to restructure and raise capital to fund its portion of the project to relocate and establish a new factory. During this phase the opportunity arose for Bambach to purchase the assets of another cable business, Advance Cables  located in Dandenong Victoria. The purchase of the equipment and its Intellectual property allowed Bambach to increase its production capacity from 30 tonnes to 250 tonnes of finished product per month and to significantly reduce labour cost due to faster more efficient machines. Over the course of 2019 Bambach has refurbished the factory building located in Rosedale to which it has moved and installed  the acquired Advance  Cables Equipment. When completed Bambach will have significantly lower rental overhead costs, 10 times the production capacity and 3-5 times the machine speeds of its factory at 102 Old Pittwater Rd.