Irlam,Cadishead,Rixton with Glazebrook old photos
PARTINGTON STEEL AND IRON CO., LTD., 1920
Warrington Guardian on local industry 1920.
PARTINGTON STEEL AND IRON CO., LTD.,
Compared with other partners in the combination, viz., the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company, Ltd., and Rylands Bros., this company may be called a young company.
The original layout of the plant was only begun in 1910, and the first ingot was cast one year before the war, but youthful though it may be, the company's methods and organisation are as perfect as enterprise can make them, as the following narrative will abundantly show:
Many thousands of tons of coal, ores and limestone, which are the chief raw materials required for the manufacture of steel, are received and handled at the works daily.
Coke Oven Plant, - This plant consists of 280 coke ovens, together with their caol washery and by-product plant, the make of coke per week being 7,500 tons. The trucks containing the slack are brought on to inclined sidings and lowered by gravity to underground hoppers.
Here the trucks are tipped into hoppers by means of hydraulic rams, the slack being conveyed from this point by means of belts and discharged into the washery.
At the washery the slack is cleaned, from thence elevated into storage bunkers of a capacity of 1,500 tons, and is taken as required from these bunkers for feeding to the ovens, where it is coked. This process occupies about 40 hours, after which the coke is pushed out by means of a powerful electricity-operated ram. During the process of ejection the coke is quenched and falls upon a sloping hearth, from whence it gravitates to conveyors. These conveyors carry the coke to the loading station, which consists of shaker shoots and a special loading machine.
This machine is capable of picking up one of the special coke skips, revolving it, and at the same time weighing and registering, automatically, the weight of its content coke on a card.
The coke skips when loaded are taken and discharged into the blast furnaces. The by-product obtained from the coke ovens consists of concentrated ammonia, muriate of ammonia, crude and rectified benzol, and tar. The tar is redistilled, the resultant products being light and middle oils, creosote, anthracene, naphthalene salts, the residue being pitch.
Blast Furnaces, - There are six blast furnaces, each capable of making 1,000 tons of iron per week, and almost all this product is used to feed the steel furnaces which in turn convert the iron into steel.
As a rule one sees a small army of men around a blast furnace plant, some unloading ore, coke and limestone, others loading it into hand barrows, and so on, but here men are conspicuous by their absence. All the hard work is done by machinery, and the only human labour is that which is required to control the machines.
Steel Furnaces, - Here are twelve steel furnaces and two mixers: eight of the steel furnaces are of 50 tons capacity, four are of 50 tons capacity (typo maybe on article?), and the mixers are 500 and 400 tons capacity, and the melting shop is capable of turning out 750 tons of steel ingots per week.
Soaking Pits and Mills, - The soaking pits consist of six pits, four of which will accommodate and heat 96 ingots and tow which will accommodate 40 ingots.
Mill, - The mill consists of a 40-inch centre cogging mill, and a Bloom shears, which cuts 16-inch by 18-inch hot blooms.
The roughing and finishing mills are 32-inch centres (or 82-inch centres, difficult to read). Trains of live rollers couple all the mills together, and there are two five feet diameter pendulum hot saws, together with a hot bank. The mill is provided with finishing and rail banks.
Power House, - In order to supply power to the works, a large central power house has been built in the middle of the works. This produces 10,000 K.Ws of electric energy all from surplus blast furnace gas.
Slag Works, - Another feature of the works is the preparation of blast furnace slag for commercial purposes. This slag is crushed in large Blake crushers and afterwards screened to various steps. It is disposed of for various purposes, the chief of which is to provide ballast for railways. Another of its uses is as aggregate for concrete, it is also used in ferro-concrete work.
New uses foe slag occur every week, and the works are in a position to meet all demands, there being already in existence a tip that contains 1,000,000 tons.
Like all progressive concerns the Partington Steel and Iron Company pay careful regard to the welfare of their employees. A canteen has been erected where 1,500 meals are served daily in a large hall which accommodates 900 people. Lectures and exhibitions are also held in this hall, and during the winter months, evening technical classes are conducted.
The firm is perfectly equipped and run on the most enterprising lines, and in a word, can challenge favourable comparison with similar undertaking in any part of the world.
PARTINGTON STEEL AND IRON CO., LTD., 1920
Warrington Guardian on local industry 1920.
PARTINGTON STEEL AND IRON CO., LTD.,
Compared with other partners in the combination, viz., the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company, Ltd., and Rylands Bros., this company may be called a young company.
The original layout of the plant was only begun in 1910, and the first ingot was cast one year before the war, but youthful though it may be, the company's methods and organisation are as perfect as enterprise can make them, as the following narrative will abundantly show:
Many thousands of tons of coal, ores and limestone, which are the chief raw materials required for the manufacture of steel, are received and handled at the works daily.
Coke Oven Plant, - This plant consists of 280 coke ovens, together with their caol washery and by-product plant, the make of coke per week being 7,500 tons. The trucks containing the slack are brought on to inclined sidings and lowered by gravity to underground hoppers.
Here the trucks are tipped into hoppers by means of hydraulic rams, the slack being conveyed from this point by means of belts and discharged into the washery.
At the washery the slack is cleaned, from thence elevated into storage bunkers of a capacity of 1,500 tons, and is taken as required from these bunkers for feeding to the ovens, where it is coked. This process occupies about 40 hours, after which the coke is pushed out by means of a powerful electricity-operated ram. During the process of ejection the coke is quenched and falls upon a sloping hearth, from whence it gravitates to conveyors. These conveyors carry the coke to the loading station, which consists of shaker shoots and a special loading machine.
This machine is capable of picking up one of the special coke skips, revolving it, and at the same time weighing and registering, automatically, the weight of its content coke on a card.
The coke skips when loaded are taken and discharged into the blast furnaces. The by-product obtained from the coke ovens consists of concentrated ammonia, muriate of ammonia, crude and rectified benzol, and tar. The tar is redistilled, the resultant products being light and middle oils, creosote, anthracene, naphthalene salts, the residue being pitch.
Blast Furnaces, - There are six blast furnaces, each capable of making 1,000 tons of iron per week, and almost all this product is used to feed the steel furnaces which in turn convert the iron into steel.
As a rule one sees a small army of men around a blast furnace plant, some unloading ore, coke and limestone, others loading it into hand barrows, and so on, but here men are conspicuous by their absence. All the hard work is done by machinery, and the only human labour is that which is required to control the machines.
Steel Furnaces, - Here are twelve steel furnaces and two mixers: eight of the steel furnaces are of 50 tons capacity, four are of 50 tons capacity (typo maybe on article?), and the mixers are 500 and 400 tons capacity, and the melting shop is capable of turning out 750 tons of steel ingots per week.
Soaking Pits and Mills, - The soaking pits consist of six pits, four of which will accommodate and heat 96 ingots and tow which will accommodate 40 ingots.
Mill, - The mill consists of a 40-inch centre cogging mill, and a Bloom shears, which cuts 16-inch by 18-inch hot blooms.
The roughing and finishing mills are 32-inch centres (or 82-inch centres, difficult to read). Trains of live rollers couple all the mills together, and there are two five feet diameter pendulum hot saws, together with a hot bank. The mill is provided with finishing and rail banks.
Power House, - In order to supply power to the works, a large central power house has been built in the middle of the works. This produces 10,000 K.Ws of electric energy all from surplus blast furnace gas.
Slag Works, - Another feature of the works is the preparation of blast furnace slag for commercial purposes. This slag is crushed in large Blake crushers and afterwards screened to various steps. It is disposed of for various purposes, the chief of which is to provide ballast for railways. Another of its uses is as aggregate for concrete, it is also used in ferro-concrete work.
New uses foe slag occur every week, and the works are in a position to meet all demands, there being already in existence a tip that contains 1,000,000 tons.
Like all progressive concerns the Partington Steel and Iron Company pay careful regard to the welfare of their employees. A canteen has been erected where 1,500 meals are served daily in a large hall which accommodates 900 people. Lectures and exhibitions are also held in this hall, and during the winter months, evening technical classes are conducted.
The firm is perfectly equipped and run on the most enterprising lines, and in a word, can challenge favourable comparison with similar undertaking in any part of the world.