Taylor Brothers and Co:1935 Review
Note: This is a sub-section of Taylor Brothers and Co
Visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to the Iron, Steel and Engineering Industries of Manchester and District
Taylor Bros. and Co. Ltd., Trafford Park Steel Works, Manchester, 17.
"The wheels the world runs on " - and the axles for those wheels — are the specialised products of this firm. Railway wheels, in brief, and it will surprise many visitors to realise what a big and complicated job their manufacture is.
The firm occupies 64 acres of Trafford Park, and its operations are spread over five main productive departments. The fundamental one is the steel melting department, which is equipped with four open hearth furnaces having a normal capacity of 50 tons each, and two Venturi type furnaces, each of which is capable of melting 1,000 tons of high class steel per week.
The departments devoted to the output of wheels are the solid wheel and disc centre forging and rolling departments and the tyre rolling department (consisting of continuous and soaking furnaces fed by sliced ingots, three presses of 2,900 tons, 6,500 tons and 2,500 tons, a 20 tons hammer and the necessary rolling mills).
The axle forging department consists of three steam hammers of 7, 5 and 3 tons, gas-fired annealing furnaces and machining equipment. Finally, there is the wheel machine and assembly shop. This consists of three main bays equipped with machinery capable of turning out about 800 complete pairs of wheels and axles per week.
Overhead cranes, charging cranes, spacious machine shops, tyre and wheel warehouses, stockyards, central boiler plant fired by pulverised fuel, steam storage plant, gas producers and fully equipped maintenance and repair shops have their part in the organisation of manufacture.
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