Large Scale Engineering

[kevin the chicken]

We, that is our retained fire station and one from a neighbouring town had a tip to one of our local engineering firms as part of our ongoing process to keep abreast of local risks.

I have been there before but had forgotten the sheer scale of some of the jobs they do and the machinery they operate. They work mainly in stainless steel, hence their name Stainless Metalcraft but there other jobs with different materials ongoing too.

They have lathes, turning and milling machines the size of small houses and everything seems to be on a massive scale. At least one of their machines is salvaged from a defunct shipyard and although a lot of it is some years old it has been adapted to computer run systems.

One job on the go was a stainless flask about five foot high for waste nuclear fuel with side walls about 50 mm thick and another a circular thing made of stainless and mild steel for the RAF of which nobody knew the purpose.

On of their bread and butter jobs is components for MRI scanners of which one part alone commands 230 hours work, 80 of that on one machine.

Bet there can't be many companies left in the UK that can do this sort of job

[fry61]

Unfortunately we spend far too long saying " We led the world in Engineering" & far too little time trying to be leaders today --- too many brown field engineering works/ship-yards/docks become housing developments.

[Guest mower man]

Sheffield used to be full of places like that ,some are left but they have mainly gone it's rather sad mick

[Guest Ian Maycock]

A walk around Sheffield Forge Masters is a real eye opener. They have vertical boreer set in a pit that you could fit a double decker bus on and roughing lathes that can turn over 4 meters in diameter

[Guest mower man]

But there are two words you must not say in there ---- , --p-r or g-- or you may be asked to leave! mick

Edited April 17, 2015 by mower man

[Guest Ian Maycock]

The one with the spiral barrel used as oil pipes, may be

[HAWKNORTH]

I used to work at British Steel River Don site in Sheffield, now a much smaller company called Sheffield Forgemasters. One of the lathes in the South Machine shop was called the "100 foot". This based on the fact that the lathe bed was indeed 100 foot long. It had a drive motor at each end and the chucks were 10 feet in diameter. It may well be still there, it going on 30 years since I moved on.

[Bob Tucker]

It may well be still there

 

Can't see it moving very far.....

[HAWKNORTH]

Good point!

[femster87]

Well, as a relatively young lad (29). I started my career at Corus ( British Steel). The size of everything was just crazy. I left last year and everything seems so small and not dangerous to me now in my new job. My favourite were shunting loco's on site. The steam train still runs tours round site in summer.

Edited April 18, 2015 by femster

[Guest Ian Maycock]

Sheffield Forge Master is the largest machine shop I have been around in the UK. However, in Brasov in Romania I had the opportunity to visit an engineering works that made all sorts of machinery and equipment. In one shop they were making ball bearings almost as big as footballs. In another they were fabricating jack legs for offshore drilling platforms. Very big stuff!