Jobs roll in as these giant steel cylinders roll out of Teesside factory
Jobs are being created on Teesside as more than 50 giant cylinders are rolled before being delivered by escort to play a key part in the UK's green energy revolution.
The giant cylinders (Image: Tom Banks)
Middlesbrough’s Steel Benders UK are believed to be the only company of type capable of rolling the 14 ton pressure vessel material in this way anywhere in the country. And it is a sign of the growth of the steel profiling specialists that the cylinders are being produced from its Dockside Road site by the River Tees.
Such contracts have led to Steel Benders looking to recruit more staff to boost output on the shopfloor and in computer-aided design (CAD).
Phil Anderson, Steel Benders’ operations director, said: “These are the biggest cylinders we have done in terms of weight in 20 years of business.
“The contract is spread over six months due to the logistics side of the job. You can only move two cylinders at any one time because of their size and once we roll them we have them shipped out in a couple of days.
“The direct result of contracts like this means we now require more staff to continue to grow. We are looking to recruit anywhere between four to ten staff in different roles.”
The cylinders at the Steel Benders factory. (Image: Tom Banks)
The four metre wide and four metre diameter cylinders are 34mm thick. The steel plates arrive at Steel Benders where they are then prepared by removing excess material before being then rolled into the full cylinders.
After being transported to the customer in the UK, at least five cylinders will be welded together to reach around 20m long before they will help split water into hydrogen and oxygen to produce an alternative to fossil fuels.
Phil said: “This shows the progress we are continuing to make and will continue to make. Jobs like this are becoming the norm at Steel Benders as more and more companies go green.
“These cylinders are always something we have been capable of, but we have never really done. Having grown we can handle contracts like this more comfortably.
The cylinders being rolled by Steel Benders (Image: Tom Banks)
“We have never previously had the craneage to move around plates of this size either; after all these are 14 ton and not easily moveable.
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“Since we have started to upgrade our equipment we have increased the capacity to roll and form such large cylinders in one piece.
"Crucially, the work is all done in cold form by our skilled operators and inspected to suit customer tolerances.”
Steel Benders operate in a wide-range of markets including marine, defence, renewable energy, offshore, petrochemical, manufacturing, architectural and civil engineering.
The Teesside company is the largest steel bending company in the North-East and boasts the only 8x2m fibre laser cutting bed in the north of England.
