Hick, Hargreaves and Co:1935 Review
Note: This is a sub-section of Hick, Hargreaves and Co
Visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to the Iron, Steel and Engineering Industries of Manchester and District
Hick, Hargreaves and Co. Ltd., Bolton.
Messrs. Hick Hargreaves and Company Limited, of Bolton, manufacturers of industrial power plant, specialise in the particular requirements of the iron and steel industry. For reversing mills they supply the storage flywheels required to damp out peaks on the supply lines, and a recent order has been placed with them for a 41-ton flywheel running at 600 r.p.m. with a stored energy of 200,000 horse-power-seconds, for a reversing mill drive in South Wales. A similar set is also under construction for the North-East Coast. The accurate balancing of these wheels is essential and Hick Hargreaves guarantee to balance to within one ounce.
For rolling mills and other similar drives, the Company manufactures reduction gears of various sizes and has recently completed the largest yet made in this country. In connection with both the above, the firm has developed a high pressure lubricating system which lifts the shaft in the bearings before starting up, thus ensuring long life and minimum friction loss.
Hick Hargreaves manufacture turbo-blowers and compressors to the designs of the Gutehoffnungshutte of Germany, the former being specially designed for blast furnace and steel works practice. One of the great advantages of the G.H.H. design is the simplicity of the control, whereby it is possible to reduce the output to half the full load figure, by speed variation alone. For quantities smaller than this, hand or automatically controlled throttling of the suction is employed. For smaller outputs they manufacture the positive type rotary compressor with its advantages of reliability and low maintenance cost.
The Company has for some years specialised in industrial steam turbine plants of the highest efficiency and reliability and a good example of these machines applied to the iron and steel industry is a 3,000 K.W. mixed pressure turbo-alternator running at 3,000 r.p.m. for the Shelton Iron, Coal and Steel Company Ltd.
Other manufactures of the firm of interest to iron and steel works' engineers are their well-known condensing plant and condenser auxiliaries, of which their evaporators and de-aerators are coming into increasing demand with the increase in steam pressures and the consequent necessity for pure feed water for the boilers.
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