Summer 2017

ANOTHER UNUSUAL

DAY OUT

Visiting Magna in Rotherham, The former Templeborough Steelworks

Out with the grandchildren again! This time to Magna in Rotherham. Today, this is an exciting science adventure park for youngsters but also a must visit for those interested in British industrial archaeology and history. The site is the former works of Steel, Peech & Tozer Ltd., which closed about 25 years ago.

Magna today (Formerly Templeborough Steelworks.- Once a huge melting shop, gigantic scrapyard and mill, about one third of a mile long).

Since Roman times, iron was made on the site. “However it was not until the Victorian era that the industry was firmly re-established following the great steel making inventions of Bessemer, Siemens and others”.The company was formed by Mr Henry Steel around 1875 and in 1918, it joined with Samuel Fox, Stocksbridge, Appleby Frodingham, Scunthorpe and others to form The United Steel Group of Companies.

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Up to modernisation in the 1960’s., The company was identified with the production of railway materials - wheels, tyres and axles. It also produced billets for the drop stamp- ing, forging and re-rolling industries; rod and bar material for concrete reinforcement, machinery parts, tools and motor vehicles; hot and cold rolled strip for bicycles, motor cars, tube manufacture and domestic equipment, to name but a few. It operated two melting shops with 21 open hearth furnaces. Almost a century after formation, it had grown to become the largest electric steel making plant in the world with an annual output of 1.25 million tons. The works was affectionately known as “Steelos”.

How was steel made at Templeborough?

Unlike Appleby Frodingham (see last newsletter), Steelos was not an integrated works as there were no blast furnaces. The raw materials were cold pig iron, carefully graded steel scrap, fluxes and additives.

In 1965, the plant had been completely modernised and six electric arc furnaces, each of 110 tons capacity, installed. The arc furnaces (EAF’s) were water cooled refractory lined steel vessels, mounted so that they could be tilted for both slag removal and tapping. Three carbon electrodes fitted through a removable top. Typical EAF, similar to those used at Templeborough.

“By courtesy of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., copyright 1999; used with permission.”

The electrodes could be lowered into or retracted from the furnace. Power was supplied from the grid via a transformer with output current adjustable to the demands of the process. When the furnace was ready, the top was raised and swung clear for the charge to be added by a scrap crane and bucket. The top replaced, electrodes lowered

2 Summer 2017 and the power turned on. An arc struck between the electrodes provided the intense heat to melt the scrap. When all the scrap was melted, refining followed. An oxygen lance was used to blow in the gas and remove unwanted elements. The furnace was then tilted and slag removed. Tilting the opposite way, molten steel was poured into a heated ladle before further processing in the works. Electric steel making was much quicker, more closely controlled and more efficient and versatile than earlier methods

Outside, the former scrapyard is now the car park. To walk Templeborough EAF Statistics inside the building is a strange experience. Much • Power Input - 30MW per furnace at 33kV. large plant still covers the shop floor - ladles, cranes • Arc temperature - 3000 degrees C. and ‘E’ furnace at the far end. • Melt temperature - Around 1650 degs. C. When in the main hall, an eerie noise from the air • Heat time (tap to tap) - Around 90 minutes. pavilion gives the impression of industrial dereliction. But thanks to Magna and The National Lottery, the building and its steel making heritage remain and are described in the “Steel Hall” and various other exhibits around the site.

There is a simulation - “The Big Melt” - which every hour describes the operation at E furnace. This is a must for your visit and is an excellent attraction. Ken Hawley once de- scribed to me his actual experience of a melt (or ‘heat’). The noise, flame and vibration of the process was breathtaking. Put into perspective, the electric power required to run each furnace was equivalent to the boiling of 10,000 domestic electric kettles.

Today, there are even larger furnaces operating in other parts of the world. The process has been improved and some furnaces using twin vessels and pre-heated scrap can be charged without removing the electrodes. Tap to tap times have been reduced but the fuel bills are still in the region of millions of dollars per week.

We are very grateful to Mr John Heaps of Magna for his assistance in compiling this article.

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