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Tuesday, September 15, 2015
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BIG DEAL: Craig Leaning with the largest autoclave to be built in the UK, inside the GWF workshop on Woodhouse Road, Scunthorpe. Picture: David Haber.
Record-breaking vessel builds on proud history O
NE of the biggest projects ever embarked upon by a Scunthorpe specialist machining and fabrication company is nearing completion, as the business celebrates 50 years.
GWF Engineering Ltd is this month taking the UK’s largest autoclave from the Woodhouse Road workshop where it has been produced, to Prestwick Airport, where it will be used to cure the
out
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carbon fibre coating of aeroplane jet engines. At 6m diameter, and 12m in length, the huge pressure cooker is the largest of any previously built in the country, and comes 17 years after a first was sent north by the business, then nearly half the size. The vessel features 60 tonnes of steel, using predominantly 30mm plate, and comes in at around £500,000. “This is the biggest one yet, and we have made the bulk of it here,”
The physical diameter, as a one-off piece, makes it the biggest we have ever done, and certainly the biggest for the last three years in terms of price as well Craig Leaning
More than nt just a restaura
said managing director Craig Leaning. “It has been a complex project, not least because of the size, and we have also had to bring in the heads from Finland, other elements from Germany, and we have had some assistance with machining it from Sheffield Forgemasters. “It has been a very good project.” The contract was won in December last year, with work beginning in February. It will be taken from the Scunthorpe site by town firm C&C Transport in four sections, then re-assembled on the bank of the Firth of Clyde, beside Royal Troon Golf Club, where it will be pressure tested by the team. It will have a capacity of 20 bar, or 290 pounds per square inch, at temperatures up to 180 or190C. “It is a one-off piece as far as the UK market goes,” said Mr Leaning, adding that the client does have sites all over the world, but the scale means it needs to be built close by. “The scale is all down to the actual size of the aeroplanes getting
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GROWTH GAME: An engineer pictured at GWF Engineering, working on the largest autoclave to be built in the UK. Left, early days at the Woodhouse Road site.
bigger and bigger,” he added. In terms of workshop capacity it takes GWF close to it, with just centimetres to spare when it comes to getting it out of the door. “The physical diameter, as a one-off piece, makes it the biggest we have ever done, and certainly the biggest for the last three years in terms of price as well,” Mr Leaning said. “When we had the workshop doors built we went for that size because we knew if we couldn’t get it out of there, we wouldn’t be able to get it anywhere!” Of the looming anniversary, a clear source of pride, Mr Leaning said: “It is a very competitive industry and we have seen a few engineering firms go, particularly in the last 10 years. The niche work, such as this, has helped, together with a very wide customer base, as we work for people all over the country. The broad customer base is certainly key, we deal with oil and gas, power, food, general industrial, a real range.”