Fixed Open Hearth Furnaces - No1 Melting Shop
Tilting Open Hearth Furnaces - No2 Melting Shop
28 inch & 30 inch Mills
12 inch Mills
8 inch Mills
Range of Rolled Sections
Site Plan
First production of steel at Round Oak developments, change in name, until nationalsed in 1951 and the Earl of Dudley's connection was finally broken.
In 1891 work commenced on building a steel making plant using the basic siemens open hearth process. The plant consisted of three 17 ton capacity furnaces, a cooling mill with 30 inch (750mm) diameter rolls and roughing and finishing mill to produce rolled shapes. Producer gas was used to heat the furnace, the Earl's Collieries supplying the coal. The furnace charge would be pig iron obtained from the Earl's level new furnaces, adjacent to the steel plant, steel scrap partly crop ends from the mills and partly bought in from local sources, and lime obtained from the Earl's limestone kilns.
By 1914 the plant consisted of five fixed open hearth furnaces with capacities between 50 - 65 tons and a 250 ton capacity mixer furnace used to store the molten pig iron received from the blast furnaces. Steel production at this stage was about 2000 tons per week.
In 1938 the site had two melting shops, No 1 shop being as listed above and No 2 shop having two 90 ton capacity tilting furnaces; the combined steel production about 4000 tons per week. Heat is recovered from the waste gases leaving the furnaces and producers between 6-7000 pounds per hour of steam at 120 pound per square inch.
Ingots are rolled into blooms in a cogging mill having 36 inch (900mm) diametre rolls. Blooms were then re-rolled in either a 28 inch (720mm) or 30 inch (750mm) mill into round or square bars. A 22 inch (550mm) mill rolls is also used to roll blooms. Smaller sized sections are produced in 8 inch (200mm) and 12 inch (300mm) mills having a weekly output of 1200 tons.
All of the furnaces in No 1 shop were rebuilt to give a rated capacity of 100 tons in 1947. By 1950 the annual production was approximately 325,000 tons. A new 37 inch (925mm) cogging and across-country mill to replace the small mills were installed.
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| Reference: | 371 |
| Keywords: | Open Hearth Rolling Mills MCOL 1900c 2000c |
| Archive Ref: | EB 1A 1983/395/015 Round Oak Steelworks - Plant & producers + Steel at Brierley Hill 1857-1957 4.412 |
| Updated: | 22/8/2000 12:41:48 |