Steel in the sky at Sheffield Forgemasters
The next steps in the Ministry of Defence-owned company’s £1.3bn recapitalisation programme are underway, with construction of a building to house its 13,000-tonne forging line now underway.
The steel frame on the Brightside site measures 45 metres high and will house the UK’s largest open die forging line, located adjacent to the Midland Mainline railway.
The project team includes McLaughlin & Harvey, Arup, Bond Bryan, Turner & Townsend, JLL, Ipsum, and JBA Bentley.
Construction of Sheffield Forgemasters’ 32,000 sq ft Machine Shop is also taking shape on nearby Weedon Street, towering 10 metres above the neighbouring Meadowhall shopping centre and Ikea.
Sheffield Forgemasters was formed in 1983 and can trace its heritage back to 1776, when George Naylor moved his cutlery manufacturing partnership into steelmaking through the construction of a crucible steel furnace.
The company still operates from its original River Don Works site and is expanding onto the former William Jessop & Sons’ Brightside Steel Works at Weedon Street, where the new Machine Shop will be located, housing 24 new machines including some of the world’s largest vertical turning lathes.
Gareth Barker, chief operating officer at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “We are now at an exciting phase of our £1.3bn recapitalisation programme, where the physical reality of what we are delivering for the city starts to manifest.
“With the New Machine Shop and Forge programmes on schedule, we can expect to see framework for both buildings completed by the end of the year, with external cladding underway ahead of the winter.
“The new Forge will bring a dramatic increase in capacity and capability for the manufacture of highly complex, large-scale forged components required for UK defence programmes and for civil nuclear developments.
“With a secure future, we are in a position to deliver new levels of nuclear-grade manufacturing as we train our employees and apprentices to adopt the latest technologies and expand the parameters of what can be achieved with state-of-the-art equipment.”
