Brown Bayley Steels
Encyclopedia
Brown Bayley Steels was a steel-making company established in Sheffield
, England
in 1871, as Brown, Bayley & Dixon. They occupied a site on Leeds Road which is currently occupied by the Don Valley sports stadium
. The firm was founded by George Brown, Nephew of "John Brown" of the firm John Brown & Company
. The firm Manufacture Bessemer steel and railway tracks.
Notable among its employees was Harry Brearley
, the inventor of stainless steel
. Bearley left Firths after a dispute over the patents and was offered a position at Brown Bayley, were he was appointed works manager and then became a director.
"View of a 1950s Engineering Apprentice";
s via charging machines tipping “coffin”-like 6 feet (1.8 m) 18 inches (457.2 mm) loading containers directly into the furnaces. The furnaces were heated by water gas and producer gas made on site fed to the furnaces by 36 inches (91.4 cm) gas mains.
The molten metal had alloys added, then sampled and after satisfactory laboratory checks of the metal composition the furnaces were tapped out into preheated bottom pouring ladles holding some 20 tons. The ladles were manoeuvred by overhead crane
into the casting bays over several ceramic runner systems each feeding six preheated one-ton ingot moulds. After cooling the ingot moulds were stripped of the still hot ingots and taken to the ingot yard. In the 1950s the transport from the Open Hearth Casting Bays to the ingot yard was by steam lorry, or on the internal steam railway system.
After cooling and weathering selected ingots would be transported to the machine shop where they were placed on ingot planning machines to remove the outer-scaled surface and allow examination for cracks and impurities. Impurities were gouged out with chisels using pneumatic “chipping hammers” or by manually operated swing frame grinding.
Electromagnets carried ingots to the skid pusher behind the reheat furnaces of No.1 Mill. These furnaces were again heated by on site-produced raw coal gas
.
The first stand had a hydraulic manipulator
, which turned the material for rolling and also aligned it with a hydraulic accumulator driven hot shear, which cut off the red-hot ingot runner head of 9 inches (228.6 mm) section in 3 seconds. The manipulator then aligning the ingot with the reducing rolls making several passes to make the required section.
After rolling to the ordered section the red hot steel ran along ground level live roller paths to the hot saws or hot shears. The hot saws had a 4 feet (1.2 m) carbon steel saw blade similar to a woodworkers circular saw, but running with a constant cooling water spray to the teeth. These hot saws were capable of slicing through 4 inches (10.2 cm) bar in seconds with showers of sparks and the screaming metal emitting a noise of 110 decibels.
Hot shears also cropped the bar to length, but left indentations in the end of the bars, where hot sawing left a straight, clean cut. The bars were then lowered into cooling pits before being taken to heat treatment and bar-straightening machines.
Round bar straightening was done in machines known then as “Reelers” with a convex and concave roller paired together at an angle, the action of which both straightened and fed the bar whilst passing it through the machine. Again the entry chute to the machine was a lidded box built to contain the flailing bent bars which emitted a very loud rattling noise.
s also produced steels using scrap from “T’Top Bank” many tons of armaments arrived at the Top Bank for melting down Oerlikon
and other anti aircraft guns arriving by rail for destruction into steel for peaceful use.
Two high-frequency electric furnaces produced one-ton melts of special steels in an area close to the main electric arc furnaces.
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1871, as Brown, Bayley & Dixon. They occupied a site on Leeds Road which is currently occupied by the Don Valley sports stadium
Don Valley Stadium
The Don Valley Stadium is a stadium in Sheffield, England and is the home of Rotherham United F.C.. The stadium is an athletics stadium which has hosted major UK Athletic events and the 1991 World Student Games. Sheffield Eagles RLFC and Parramore Sports FC also use the stadium. It was designed by...
. The firm was founded by George Brown, Nephew of "John Brown" of the firm John Brown & Company
John Brown & Company
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...
. The firm Manufacture Bessemer steel and railway tracks.
Notable among its employees was Harry Brearley
Harry Brearley
Harry Brearley is usually credited with the invention of "rustless steel" in the anglophone world.-Life:...
, the inventor of stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
. Bearley left Firths after a dispute over the patents and was offered a position at Brown Bayley, were he was appointed works manager and then became a director.
The Brown Bayley steelworks,
The company occupied a 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) site."View of a 1950s Engineering Apprentice";
The melting shop
Scrap steel loaded by overhead cranes using electromagnetic grabs fed the Siemens Martin Open hearth furnaceOpen hearth furnace
Open hearth furnaces are one of a number of kinds of furnace where excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of the pig iron to produce steel. Since steel is difficult to manufacture due to its high melting point, normal fuels and furnaces were insufficient and the open hearth furnace was...
s via charging machines tipping “coffin”-like 6 feet (1.8 m) 18 inches (457.2 mm) loading containers directly into the furnaces. The furnaces were heated by water gas and producer gas made on site fed to the furnaces by 36 inches (91.4 cm) gas mains.
The molten metal had alloys added, then sampled and after satisfactory laboratory checks of the metal composition the furnaces were tapped out into preheated bottom pouring ladles holding some 20 tons. The ladles were manoeuvred by overhead crane
Overhead crane
An overhead crane, commonly called a bridge crane, is a type of crane found in industrial environments. An overhead crane consists of parallel runways with a traveling bridge spanning the gap...
into the casting bays over several ceramic runner systems each feeding six preheated one-ton ingot moulds. After cooling the ingot moulds were stripped of the still hot ingots and taken to the ingot yard. In the 1950s the transport from the Open Hearth Casting Bays to the ingot yard was by steam lorry, or on the internal steam railway system.
After cooling and weathering selected ingots would be transported to the machine shop where they were placed on ingot planning machines to remove the outer-scaled surface and allow examination for cracks and impurities. Impurities were gouged out with chisels using pneumatic “chipping hammers” or by manually operated swing frame grinding.
Electromagnets carried ingots to the skid pusher behind the reheat furnaces of No.1 Mill. These furnaces were again heated by on site-produced raw coal gas
Coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
.
No1 Mill
No1 Mill was a 30 inches (76.2 cm) reversing cogging mill driven by a several hundred horsepower electric motor through a Krupps gearbox. The cogging stand reduced the 12 inches (304.8 mm) section ingot to either slab or bar of 9 inches (22.9 cm) section. All hot material was moved at ground level on live roller paths. The second and third stands reduced material to either square or round bar of 4 inches (10.2 cm) section, or plate of 2 inches (5.1 cm) section.The first stand had a hydraulic manipulator
Manipulator
In robotics a manipulator is a device used to manipulate materials without direct contact. The applications were originally for dealing with radioactive or biohazardous materials, using robotic arms, or they were used in inaccessible places. In more recent developments they have been used in...
, which turned the material for rolling and also aligned it with a hydraulic accumulator driven hot shear, which cut off the red-hot ingot runner head of 9 inches (228.6 mm) section in 3 seconds. The manipulator then aligning the ingot with the reducing rolls making several passes to make the required section.
After rolling to the ordered section the red hot steel ran along ground level live roller paths to the hot saws or hot shears. The hot saws had a 4 feet (1.2 m) carbon steel saw blade similar to a woodworkers circular saw, but running with a constant cooling water spray to the teeth. These hot saws were capable of slicing through 4 inches (10.2 cm) bar in seconds with showers of sparks and the screaming metal emitting a noise of 110 decibels.
Hot shears also cropped the bar to length, but left indentations in the end of the bars, where hot sawing left a straight, clean cut. The bars were then lowered into cooling pits before being taken to heat treatment and bar-straightening machines.
Round bar straightening was done in machines known then as “Reelers” with a convex and concave roller paired together at an angle, the action of which both straightened and fed the bar whilst passing it through the machine. Again the entry chute to the machine was a lidded box built to contain the flailing bent bars which emitted a very loud rattling noise.
Special steels
Electric arc furnaceElectric arc furnace
An electric arc furnace is a furnace that heats charged material by means of an electric arc.Arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one ton capacity up to about 400 ton units used for secondary steelmaking...
s also produced steels using scrap from “T’Top Bank” many tons of armaments arrived at the Top Bank for melting down Oerlikon
Oerlikon Contraves
Rheinmetall Air Defence AG is a division of German armament manufacturer Rheinmetall, created when the company's Oerlikon Contraves unit was renamed on 1 January 2009 and integrated with Rheinmetall's other air-defence products...
and other anti aircraft guns arriving by rail for destruction into steel for peaceful use.
Two high-frequency electric furnaces produced one-ton melts of special steels in an area close to the main electric arc furnaces.
No6 Mill
No6 Mill was a three-high rolling mill with several stands (Sets of Rolls) producing bar down to thick wire sizes from red hot billets taken from the reheat furnaces. The small diameter rod and bar produced in this mill snaked all over the cast iron floor plates. The operators used tongs to catch hold of the end of the red hot bar as it left the rolls, passed the bar around their body allowing it to loop out onto the floor and then entered the bar into the next pass position. In one hot summer the floor plates expanded, the expansion could not go anywhere and two plates buckled upwards like flagstones directing the hot metal into the air – within milliseconds there was no one on the mill floor as the metal reared up towards the roof and collapsed in a writhing heap as the mill rollers continued to spew out the rest of the bar.Leeds Road
- Spring Shop
- Hammer Shop
- Ring rolling shop Telpher Crane
- Axles- railway
- Axle and railway tyre drop test
- Heat Treatment Department
- Creep Laboratories
- Tyre Blank Press
- Machine shop axles tyres
- Blacksmiths Shop
- Loco Shed
- Drawing Office
- Generator converter house DC for Cranes
East Works
- Sheet Rolling Mill
- Sheet pickling plant
- Sheet Polishing and guillotine Shops
- Stekel Mills - slitting machines
Bright Bar Shop
- Bar Drawing
- Centre-less Turning Machines
- Centre-less Lidkoping Grinding Machines
- 5 Ton hammer
- 500 Ton press
- Railway tyre rolling mill
See also
- List of companies in Sheffield
- Kelham Island MuseumKelham Island MuseumThe Kelham Island Museum is an industrial museum on Alma Street, alongside the River Don, in the centre of Sheffield, England. It was opened in 1982.-The site:...
has a vast archives of information available for researchers and public displays from the history of Sheffield steel, with artefacts from old steel works. A lot of the local history books use material from their collection of photographs.