From LounY to the whole world
Accordion production in Louny has more than a one-hundred-year-old history. In 1894, the first Czech Heligon accordions playing with Dix gera reeds started to be manufactured by Josef Hlaváček. Reeds that were used especially for school instruments, started to be produced in Louny in 1949. Reeds for higher quality instruments were imported from Italian manufacturers. In 1984, a brand-new factory was built in which reeds for the total production of accordions and harmonicas were produced by Delicia company from Hořovice.
In 1999, there is a fundamental change. The Titlbach family takes over the whole company into its ownership and changes the entire production programme. With the new know-how in technology of precise cutting, profile grinding, electroerosive wire machining, semi-automatic tuning, research and development. Especially, with experience and expertise of the while staff, everything is headed to one objective, namely, to the reeds production for all harmonicas and accordions, and particularly, in all the price lines and qualitative categories.
Reeds
Voice plates are made of dural aluminum sheet with a hardness of 160 HB. The channels are cut using electroerosion technology. The surface of the voice plate is ground. The sides of the voice plates are grooved to create better adhesion of the wax to the voice plate and bridge. Reeds are made from 2000N/mm2 Swedish steel with T3 tolerance, ground to -20 cents from base tone, 7-9mm head width at rivet, with corrosion protection. The voices are manually riveted to achieve a perfect connection with the voice plate and exact centering of the reed in the canal. The air gap between the wall of the channel and the tab on each side is 0.03 mm at the rivet and 0.04 mm at the tip of the tab. The lower side of the channel is widened compared to the upper layer. A characteristic feature for the first class is the end of manual riveting in a polygonal pyramid. The voices are hand-tuned with an emery cloth, keeping the basic reed profile to within +/- 5 cents.
Bellows
The production of accordions in Louny has more than a hundred years of history. In 1894, Mr. Josef Hlaváček began to produce the first Czech heligons, in which the voices of Dix Gera played. In 1949, voices were produced in Louny, which were mainly used for school instruments. For higher quality instruments, voices were imported from Italian manufacturers. In 1984, a completely new plant was built, in which voices were produced for the entire production of accordions and accordions, manufactured by the company Delicia in Hořovice.