UK press jobs despatched from Sheffield Forgemasters

Two giant castings for one of the world's largest screw presses have been despatched from Sheffield.

Sheffield Forgemasters has produced both a 315 tonne and 285 tonne casting which will form the carcass of an enormous screw press for Italian engineering company Bifrangi UK’s Lincoln site.

Bifrangi, which supplies forged parts to the power generation industry including engine crankshafts, is installing a new screw press at its Monks Road site as part of a £50m upgrade to its facilities.

The multi-million pound castings, which required Sheffield Forgemasters to make pours of 600 tonnes of molten steel for each one, were completed nearly three months ahead of schedule and left the Brightside Lane site on two specialist trucks with a girder trailer.

The table casting measures seven metres in length, four metres wide and three metres in height while the headpiece, moved separately measures six metres long, four metres wide and 3.6 metres high.

Sheffield Forgemasters, which has a global network of offices and exports more than 70 per cent of its products, was awarded the contract by German company Schuler Pressen formerly Muller Weingarten, against tough worldwide competition for the UK-based job.

The installation of the 320,000 kN operating force screw press will allow Bifrangi, a family-run firm with 180 staff, to expand its production of engine crankshafts.

Mick Holloway, senior sales manager castings at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: "The PZS1200 table and headpiece were manufactured and finish machined entirely in-house at our Brightside Lane site and we completed the job ahead of schedule. The project included using Sheffield Forgemasters' expertise in many areas, from pattern making to moulding, casting, heat treatment, fettling, non-destructive testing, finish machining, and to complete with painting and packing."

Sheffield Forgemasters specialises in producing some of the largest engineered products in the world, and has the facility to produce single castings of up to 350 tonnes from one pour of molten metal, and forgings of up to 170 tonnes finished weight.

It is one of a select few foundries in the world capable of producing something on the scale of these press parts and supplies an increasing global demand for high quality engineered products to key industries such as defence, nuclear, oil and gas exploration and power generation.