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Presswork, stamping, fabrication Subcontracting Services
News Release from: DavyMarkham | Subject: Fabrication
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 October 2006
25 years' experience of heavy
fabrication work
DavyMarkham, the Sheffield-based engineering design and manufacturing company with an industrial heritage dating back to 1830, is throwing the spotlight on its specialised Fabrication Department.
DavyMarkham, the Sheffield-based engineering design and manufacturing company with an industrial heritage dating back to 1830, is throwing the spotlight on the capabilities and market experience of its specialised Fabrication Department Dedicated to producing mainly one-off bespoke fabrications using skilled materials-joining technology, the department is staffed by a team of qualified personnel, each with more than 25 years' experience of heavy fabrication work
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 10 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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All are apprentice trained and hold a wide variety of technical, metallurgical and associated qualifications, from welding trade skills to degree level, with the majority also certificated for working in confined spaces.
They are based in a purpose-equipped 6,000 square metre fabrication shop, handling projects from 5 to 90 tonnes plus and working in a wide variety of plate materials, with scope for larger fabrications in the assembly area.
Yet what really distinguishes DavyMarkham's fabrication team from its competitors across the UK and Europe is its unrivalled experience of heavy fabrication work and its formidable contract reference catalogue.
Further reading
Largest hard rock tunnel boring machine
To serve a Niagara hydro-electric project, DavyMarkham manufactured a cutter head support and a final drive housing for what is claimed to be world's largest hard rock TBM (tunnel boring machine).
Heavy fabrication manipulation used for bridges
Turning and rotating technology used in the fabrication of tunnel boring machines, as well as water turbines and mine hoists, is now being applied to bridge decks that lift, swing and swivel.
Welded fabrication is UK
Britain's tallest sculpture, approximately the height of a 20-storey building, is a welded fabrication that required specially adapted welding torches to accomplish.
It has undertaken projects in such diverse international industries as hydro, nuclear and wind power generation, mining and tunnelling, metal production, bridge construction and structural engineering, shipbuilding and aerospace.
Contracts range from submarine transport frames for nuclear reactors and lift guide columns for aircraft carriers, to steel mast sections for Heathrow's air traffic control tower and an interaction chamber for the world's leading high intensity laser.
Broadly defined as the joining of multi-plate structures using welding and other fastening techniques, fabrication is distinct from manufacturing since it is not an automated process, relying instead upon the individual skills of specialists in bending, forming, assembly, welding, surface treatment, stress relieving and non-destructive testing.
The majority of DavyMarkham projects are also precision fabrications, in that they are often machined after welding to extremely tight tolerances, with in-house stress relieving used to ensure dimensional stability.
Qualified metallurgist and a professional member of The Welding Institute, Paul Madin MSc, CEng, MWeldI, is the team's Technical Support Manager, responsible for preparing fabrication procedures and issuing scopes of work; he is assisted by two fabrication planners, who prepare information required by the craftsmen and technicians.
A team of multi-skilled coded welders cover MIG, MAG, Flux Cored Arc, Submerged Arc, TIG and other welding processes, working with carbon and stainless steels, low and medium alloy steels, nickel and copper-based alloys.
Skilled fabricators work from engineering drawings to assemble and construct the jobs for welders to join, while blacksmiths carry out raw material preparation, employing bending and forming machines, profile burning and cutting equipment.
Surface treatment technicians carry out grinding, shotblasting and painting operations, while the foremen manage departmental activities and possess all-round fabrication skills.
Completing the team are ND testers qualified in ultrasonic, magnetic and penetrant crack detection methods, certificated welding inspectors and a qualified welding engineer, providing technical support services.
The dedicated fabrication shop is equipped with several overhead cranes up to 90 tonnes capacity, with heavier pieces handled in DavyMarkham's machine or assembly bays.
CNC profile burners, Bronx Roll bending machines, a 500t hydraulic press, 50t side presses and around 40 welding machines form the main equipment manifest, together with pre-heating and post-weld heat treatment ovens up to 150m3.
Surface treatment of fabrications is carried out in an adjacent rail-linked shop, equipped with 60t overhead crane, shotblasting facilities and paint spraying rooms, metal spraying and electroplating being contracted in as required.
DavyMarkham's fabrications reference list is unique in scale and variety across Europe, extending from the complex welded core of the B of the Bang street sculpture, to gas catchers for proving Rolls Royce jet engines.
For Robbins, Kawazaki and other manufacturers, it has fabricated cutterheads and other components for tunnel boring machines used on the Channel Tunnel, Eurotunnel, Boston's Big Dig, Manapouri New Zealand and other major projects.
For GE Energy, it has produced 25t hydropower turbine runners and 60t main inlet valves, as well as 22 stainless steel knife gate valves for the Changi water reclamation project.
For MMD, it made 80t prototype fabrications for the Canadian oil sands industry and giant sizers for grading rock and minerals for processing.
At Heathrow's new Terminal 5, DavyMarkham fabricated control tower mast sections and terminal building stainless steel downpipes are in evidence, at Wembley Stadium 40t rotation hinges pivot the main roof and at the St Pancras Eurostar terminal extension there are structural steel suspension hangers.
Mine hoists and winches fabricated in Sheffield, up to 5500mm in diameter, help to recover gold and nickel deposits in Canada, while a steel plate fabricated brake disk was recently commissioned at one of the UK's remaining collieries in Harworth.
Other recent work references include a 30t form press fabrication used for bending steel plates in shipbuilding; stainless steel weld cladding for a dozen hot strip mill housings in Taiwan and China; and, more prosaically, 7m diameter ring girder fabrications for the brewing industry.
Flexibility, individual skills and a virtual lifetime of experience are the main hallmarks of DavyMarkham's Fabrication Department.
Backed by the company's engineering design and machining resources, it is also able to offer turnkey solutions for the most complex projects, from one-offs and prototypes, to small volume runs.
The team welcomes technical challenges and unusual job requirements, such as the need for left-handed welders on the B of the Bang project, while the scale of DavyMarkham's works means that size is almost no object.
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