The company, “H.V.Hampton Engineer etc” was founded in 1871 at 500 Elizabeth Street Melbourne by Herbert Vaughan Hampton.

A wide variety of machinery was made in the early years for various industries such as wood processing, confectionary, soap making, fruit pulping, jam making, canning, soldering, poultry feed, rabbit extermination and earthenware pipe, bricks, tiles & pots.

In the late 1890’s to approximately 1912, Gas and Oil Engines were manufactured under the brand name of Victory to supplement the existing range of equipment. These engines were widely used for agricultural purposes in driving a variety of apparatus’ such as water pumping, electricity generation, chaff cutting, grain processing etc. Some industrial utilization for these power plants were for ore crushing, saw milling, printing, hair teasing, power generation and various ‘line shaft’ applications.

1930s AND '40s

Plaster processing machinery was a major part of manufacture during the 30’s and 40’s. Also during this period, we manufactured peanut processing equipment, mainly around the Kingaroy district. Many forms of peanut processing machinery were evolved such as blanchers, shellers, roasters and packaging machines.

Some diversion into doughnut making machinery was a sideline during this period. Our wood-working range of machinery included routers, thicknessers, moulders and radial arm saw benches.

During the second world war period we were ‘man-powered’ into brown coal briquette mould manufacture. Constant supply of ‘mould’ equipment to the SECV, Energy Brix, and lately Macrus, is mainstream manufacture for H.V.Hampton to the present day.

An involvement in the Clay Working Industry was maintained right from the early days to the present time. A 1950’s emphasis on clay brick extrusion equipment faded in favour of clay pipe making machinery. For the next three decades we concentrated in the main on the production of clay pipe making machines and their automatic handling in sizes from 100 mm dia right up to 750 mm dia. Plastic pipe gradually encroached on the clay pipe industry until clay pipe’s total demise (in Australia) during the mid 1990’s. We still service the clay pipe industry in Malaysia, which has a buoyant clay pipe industry to this day. Currently we provide service and parts to some ‘smaller’ clay brick manufacturers who still use our machinery.

RECENT HISTORY

The 1980’s were spent in part, servicing the declining clay pipe making market. Focus was directed toward clay pot making machines along with clay crucible making machinery for precious metal assaying.

The early 1990’s were devoted to production of our largest ever clay pipe making plant in Malaysia.

‘Equipment’ manufacturing subsided and jobbing became the main staple during the rest of the 90’s. Sheet metal products were tried briefly with a line of room convection heaters. Imports cruelled this market.

Concrete ‘form work fabrication’ for high-rise buildings proved a winner during the past couple of years.

Acquisition of Dunham Welding Engineering in 2001...
...Launched H.V.Hampton into full-on pulley drum construction. This has now become our ‘core’ line of business. Combined with our existing machining capability, the fabrication and assembly of the complete pulley drum has ensured our position in the ‘conveying’ market place. We service many diverse industries from coal & ore conveying to grain & sugar elevation.

General fabrication and machining is still performed of a ‘jobbing’ nature.

Plate rolling up to 20 mm thick x 2.4 metres wide is achievable.
Thicker plate x shorter lengths aren’t a problem, eg. 50 mm Plate x 300 wide, approximately 400 mm in diameter.

Automatic straight line and circular submerged arc welding is a speciality.

Our drum turning capacity is up to 2 metres in diameter. Shaft machining up to 4 metres long is achievable.

Our CNC Milling capacity is up to 1500 mm long x 500 mm wide x 500 mm high.

Drilling is performed on a 5 foot Radial Arm Drill.

Although the consensus of our work these days is for the ‘conveying’ industry, we are still open to perform jobbing type work both in mild steel fabrication and in machining.