Precision tubing for luggage, telescopic handles and travel accessories
The technical challenge of travel equipment
Weight is a selling point, not a technical figure
In no other sector does the end user literally weigh the product before using it. Every gram the tubular structure does not spend is a gram the traveller can pack. But saving weight by reducing wall thickness only works if the tubing keeps the formability to bend without cracking and the strength to take the treatment luggage really receives.
Play is something you feel with your hands
The telescopic handle is the first physical contact with the product in the shop. If the tubes that slide one inside the other are not precisely calibrated, the assembly wobbles: that lateral play is the number one complaint about mid-range luggage, and it is a tolerance problem, not a design one.
The handling is brutal and nobody controls it
Baggage belts, drops, stacking, aircraft holds. The product is not used: it is subjected. And even so, the buyer of a premium suitcase expects the exposed tubing to still look good after fifty trips.
Applications where you will find us
Telescopic handles and sliding guides
- Simultaneous control of bore and outer diameter The OPTIM range controls both diameters and the wall thickness at the same time, with an internal weld bead ≤ 0.15 mm. That bead, which in other sectors makes noise, is what makes a handle jam halfway through its travel here.
- A bore free of roughness When the sliding action has to be smooth and repeatable thousands of times, the PRECISE range provides a mirror-finish bore to EN 10305-2.
- Non-circular profiles Many telescopic handles use an oval or flat oval section precisely to stop the inner section from rotating. We manufacture non-circular profiles to EN 10305-5, across all three ranges.
Luggage wheels and axles
- Wheel axles and spinner systems Four wheels turning in every direction across airport floors. With the OPTIM range, the axle is calibrated to a hundredth of a millimetre and fits with exactly the clearance specified in the drawing: no play, no parasitic friction, none of the squeaking that gives away badly calibrated tubing.
- Wheel housings and forks Thin walls with the formability for tight bends without cracking or ovalisation.
Baggage trolleys and travel accessories
- Light structure and silent rolling The same pairing as always: where there is a wheel, there is an axle; where there is an axle, there is OPTIM.
- Exposed tubing with a finish PREMIUM range with a bright outer surface ready for direct chrome, zinc or brass plating, with no prior polishing.
- Screen printing and decorative finishes, when the brand has to be present on the metal structure itself.
The right range for equipamiento de viaje
OPTIMWheel axles, pivots and telescopic sections where bore and outer diameter both matter. Internal weld bead ≤ 0.15 mm
PRECISESliding guides and handle sections that demand smoothness. Mirror bore. An alternative to seamless tubing at 40% to 80% lower cost
PREMIUMExposed tubing and structures with a direct electroplated finish
Not just the tubing: the finished part
- Coil format or cut-to-lengthCoil supply eliminates end-of-bar scrap on automated lines. Cut-to-length delivers the tubing at exactly the length specified in the drawing, ready to load into the machine.
- Tubing transformed into a component ready to assembleWhen the customer needs it, we do not deliver tubing: we deliver the finished part. Cutting, bending, punching, end forming, threading, machining and surface finishing —to drawing— so that it reaches the assembly line ready to fit. Fewer suppliers to manage, less intermediate handling, fewer errors.
- Documentary certification with every deliveryWe issue certification to EN 10204-2.2 (declaration of conformity with non-specific inspection results) or EN 10204-3.1 (inspection certificate with specific results for the batch supplied), depending on what the customer's quality system requires. In-house laboratory at the plant.
Why luggage manufacturers trust Delmàs
A family-owned business in La Roca del Vallès, specialising exclusively in small-diameter welded and calibrated steel tubing (⌀ 3–25 mm).
Below 8 mm, the supply of precision calibrated tubing all but disappears. And that is exactly where your wheel axle sits.
It is what a telescopic assembly demands and what very few tubing manufacturers can guarantee simultaneously.
Manufacturing powered 100% by renewable energy since 2006, with two photovoltaic self-consumption installations at the plant.
Questions we hear every week
Why does the telescopic handle of a suitcase wobble?
Because of play between the sections that slide one inside the other. It is a tolerance problem: if the bore of one tube and the outer diameter of the next are not precisely calibrated, lateral play appears. The OPTIM range controls bore, outer diameter and wall thickness simultaneously, with an internal weld bead ≤ 0.15 mm.
Can you manufacture oval or flat oval tubing?
Yes. We manufacture non-circular profiles to EN 10305-5 across all three ranges: oval, flat oval, square or whatever section the drawing requires.
How do you make a luggage frame lighter without it breaking?
With thin walls and the right formability to bend without cracking or ovalising. Reducing wall thickness without controlling the behaviour of the material is what causes cracking during bending.
Do you manufacture the tubing or distribute it?
We manufacture it. Delmàs has been a manufacturer of welded and calibrated tubing since 1956, at its plant in La Roca del Vallès (Barcelona). We work from the customer's drawing, not from a standard catalogue.
Do you deliver the finished component or just the tubing?
Both. As well as tubing in coil or cut to length, we transform the tubing into a finished component ready to assemble: bent, punched, end formed, machined and with whatever surface finish the drawing requires.