For more than six decades, Delba Electrical has been the name South African industry trusts when critical rotating machinery must keep turning. Founded in 1963 as a modest motor-repair shop, the company has grown into a 230-plus-person, family-owned operation that rewinds generators up to 960 MW, operates Africa’s largest Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) facility, and delivers 24/7 field support across the continent. This is the story of how precision, continuous investment, and an uncompromising focus on quality turned a Springs workshop into the country’s leading rewinder.

From Two Partners to an Industry Benchmark

Delba was established in 1963 by Isidoro Del Piccolo and Armando Balocco as a small private repair shop specialising in electric motor repairs. The name itself reflects the founders’ partnership. In 1978 Isidoro Del Piccolo retired, leaving Armando Balocco as sole director. The company continued its steady expansion, and in 1981 it moved into new premises in Nuffield, Springs—the site that remains its headquarters today. At that stage it employed around 60 people.

Further growth followed. A dedicated fan-and-pump workshop with a performance-testing station opened in 1988. In 1990 Armando’s son, David (Dave) Balocco, joined as a director; the company achieved ISO 9000 certification in 1992. The father-and-son partnership steered the business through subsequent decades of expansion, including major workshop additions that marked the 50th anniversary around 2013. By its 60th anniversary in 2023, Delba was widely recognised as one of the most trusted repairers of rotating electrical machines in South Africa. Today, under CEO Dave Balocco, the company employs more than 230 people and continues to set the standard.

How Delba Became the Leading Rewinders

Delba’s rise rests on three consistent choices: investing in world-class facilities, developing deep technical expertise, and treating every repair as if the customer’s plant depends on it—because it does.

Generator specialists with an average of 20 years’ experience, many trained in the Eskom environment since the early 1980s, give the company unmatched depth in power-generation work. Delba is an official authorised service partner for ABB, WEG, SKF, GE, Toshiba, TECO Westinghouse, Innomotics and TMEIC. It holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certifications and has repeatedly earned SKF Certified Electrical Rebuilder status—becoming the first company to receive the certification and later achieving multiple recertifications.

The company has never stopped expanding capability. Africa’s largest VPI tank (4 m diameter by 4.5 m deep), 50 t and 100 t overhead cranes, continuous copper-conductor extrusion lines, a positive-pressure clean room for coil and Roebel-bar manufacture, advanced burn-off and curing ovens, and dynamic balancing capacity up to 18 tons are all in-house. These investments allow Delba to handle everything from small low-voltage motors to the largest industrial machines and generators, reducing reliance on external suppliers and shortening lead times.

Services and Capabilities

Delba’s work is organised around specialised divisions that together cover the full spectrum of rotating electrical equipment:

• Power Generation: Complete rewinds and repairs of generators up to 960 MW, including stator and rotor overhauls, insulation upgrades, cooling-system improvements, exciter work, and design modifications. Specialists bring decades of Eskom-trained experience to every job.
• Large Machines (MV, HV and DC): Medium- and high-voltage AC motors (squirrel-cage, wound-rotor, synchronous), DC machines up to 30 MW, traction and wheel motors, mill, crusher, winder, fan, pump and compressor drives, industrial alternators, and special-purpose machines. The division can also reverse-engineer machines that have no drawings or OEM support.
• AC High-Voltage Motor Repairs: Dedicated capability for motors up to 50 MW at 11 000 V, covering diagnostics, rewinding, mechanical repair, assembly and testing.
• Small Machines: Low-voltage motors up to 1 000 V, including classified and hazardous-area units, vibrator motors, and geared units. A purpose-built two-shop layout (mechanical and electrical) with dedicated cranes ensures efficient handling.
• Field Services: 24/7 national and continental support. Teams travel in fully equipped vehicles to perform laser alignment, vibration analysis, condition monitoring, on-site balancing, electrical testing and emergency repairs. Because the field team is backed by the full workshop capability, machines that need deeper work can be removed, repaired and recommissioned by the same organisation.
• Manufacturing and Supporting Services: In-house copper extrusion, conductor covering, coil and Roebel-bar production in a clean room; full machine and boiler shop for precision parts and fabrication; rotor balancing; testing bays; and large-capacity spray-painting. The VPI process impregnates windings under vacuum and pressure with epoxy resin, eliminating voids, improving dielectric strength, thermal management and mechanical durability.

The consistent promise across every division is simple: a machine that leaves the workshop performs better and lasts longer than when it arrived.

Facilities That Match the Reputation

Headquarters are at 91 Butler Road, Nuffield, Springs, with a second major facility in Alrode, Alberton. Together they house the continent’s largest VPI system, heavy lifting capacity, specialised ovens, clean-room coil manufacture, balancing equipment and comprehensive test bays. These resources allow Delba to take on projects that few other South African companies can handle—such as the complete rewind of a 19.7 MW squirrel-cage motor—while still delivering reliable turnaround on everyday industrial motors.

Sixty-Three Years, Still Setting the Standard

From a two-partner repair shop in 1963 to a 230-person organisation trusted with some of the largest generators in Africa, Delba Electrical’s story is one of quiet, continuous excellence. The company has never chased headlines; it has earned its position by keeping plants running, extending asset life, and delivering work that meets or exceeds OEM standards.

In mining, manufacturing, power generation, petrochemicals and heavy industry across South Africa and the wider continent, when the machine must turn again—and turn reliably—Delba remains the rewinder of choice. Quality in every rotation, since 1963.