William Robertson:1935 Review
Note: This is a sub-section of William Robertson (of Warrington)
Visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to the Iron, Steel and Engineering Industries of Manchester and District
The works of Messrs. William Robertson Ltd., owned by The Lancashire Steel Corporation, and Monks, Hall and Co, are situated at Latchford, about two miles from Warrington on a site which runs parallel with the Manchester Ship Canal.
The plant comprises bar drawing, wire drawing, wire finishing and straightening, bar turning, precision grinding and cold rolling departments. There are also a tool and die making plant, a test house and a joiner's shop for the preparation of packing cases for export orders.
The raw steel for the commercial qualities of bars has an initial ultimate tensile strength of 28 to 32 tons per square inch which becomes increased when drawn to 37/40 tons per square inch according to the section and the amount of drawing to which it is subjected. The finished bars are either delivered in this condition or normalised to the original tensile strength according to customers' requirements. The special quality steels cover a very wide range, the principal being:— All Admiralty and A.I.D. specifications; nickel steels; stainless steels; 'Silver' steel for small tools, dental and surgical instruments, etc.
Among the principal customers are: railways, the Admiralty, the War Office, the Air Ministry and motor manufacturers. A stock of over 1,000 tons of various finished products is always maintained for the purpose of meeting urgent orders.
The bar drawing installation comprises cold and hot bar pointing machines, pickling, neutralising and cleansing baths, seven draw benches of various capacities, three reeling and polishing machines, special polishing machines, a roller straightening machine for sections other than rounds, a double sided ram type straightening machine, and special cutting-off machines having a limit of accuracy for the lengths of the bars ofplus or minus one ten-thousandth of an inch. All the machines are electrically driven and are arranged in a building 490 feet long by 37 feet wide, which is commanded by one three-ton and one two-ton electrically driven cranes, the latter serving the packing end of . . .
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