TPT September 2012

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Industry News

Visitors go behind the scenes MEMBERS of the public were given a rare glimpse behind the scenes of one of the world’s largest steel production and engineering plants, and were able to see one of the impressive 90 tonne electric arc furnaces melt a ladle full of steel at more than 1,600°. about what happens when their loved one heads off to work.” Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd – UK Fax: +44 114 251 9013 Email: sales@sfel.com Website: www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

Sheffield Forgemasters International (SFIL) held a special open day to allow guests to see what lies behind the gates of the Brightside Lane site. One former worker, Tony Williams, aged 66, said he jumped at the chance of having another look round: “I started working here in 1961 as an apprentice electrician when it was British Steel – I was just 15 years old and straight out of school. I started in the east machine shop, which is now the scrap yard. I wanted to come back and see how things have altered; it’s brought back a lot of memories. In my day there were no hard hats, no safety glasses or ear plugs and we had to buy our own steel- toe capped shoes, so it’s very different today.” Visitors were taken on a 2½-hour tour of the site and were able to look inside the different areas of production, like the forge, foundry, melt shop, the quarter- mile-long south machine shop, and the latest addition to the site – the north machine shop. Tim Hall and his 19-year-old son, Bruce, also attended the tour and said it was an ‘incredible day’. Mr Hall said, “The scale of the site is unbelievable. I run a small engineering business in Chesterfield and so we work with a lot of the same equipment but on a much smaller scale.” Bruce added, “My friend is an apprentice here and he knows about our business so we wanted to learn more about his place of work. It’s good to see there is still some British industry leading the way.” Also in attendance were The Bentley Drivers Club; a father and son who travelled from Wiltshire; and BT apprentices. Mark Tomlinson, technical director of the melt shop, said, “We started running the annual open day five years ago and it has increased in popularity. We get so many requests from people wanting to look around the site and see what we do that we decided to hold a day-long event that gave people that chance. It’s also a really good opportunity for employees’ friends and families to understand more

Visitors take their hats off to the open day

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S eptember 2012

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