The Davy Roll Company

The Davy Roll Company was formed in 1970 with the merger of four long-established UK roll making companies. They were Armstrong Whitworth Rolls Ltd., Davy and United Roll Foundry Ltd., Brightside Roll Foundry Ltd. and John M. Moorwood Ltd.

It was a vitally important decision that the Davy Roll Company made at its formation in 1970 by turning all its production facilities to roll making. The four foundries had their own exclusive expertise. Brought together, they produced a world class roll making facility for producing cast rolls in steel and iron.

Work was concentrated in two centres. The North East concerned itself with the large, heavy and complex rolls, leaving the smaller simpler rolls to be made in Sheffield. Instead of looking around for orders for a variety of engineering products, everyone was immersed in making better rolls by improved production methods.

The parent group’s rationalisation programme made available a lot of up-to-date machinery which Davy Roll was able to buy. The whole of the Close Works was to be gutted and revitalised. At the same time, a specialised roll turning lathe from Germany was bought and a Heat Treatment Furnace was installed for the production of surface hardened back-up rolls.

By the seventies, the company had become the largest manufacturing unit of its kind in Europe and was having an increasing impact on both the British Steel industry and metal production in many other parts of the world. This can be understood when it is realised that about 90% of all steel produced throughout the world passes through a rolling operation at some stage before it reaches the customer.

The Gateshead Division manufactured cast rolls for hot and cold strip mills, medium/heavy section mills and plate mills in a variety of iron and steel qualities.

However in 1978 the Jarrow Works was closed and some of the equipment was transferred to Gateshead. Since then other facilities have been added at the Gateshead foundry, including melting furnaces, drying stoves, vertical spin casting machines built by Davy International in Sheffield, cranes and heat treatment furnaces. The machine shop gained new specialist CNC machines, a Hoesch MFD twin saddle heavy duty roughing and finishing lathe, a Geminis single saddle CNC lathe and a Waldrich CNC twin miller, the first of its kind in the world!

In 1998 a large lathe for back-up rolls and heavy steel rolls was installed and retrofits of older lathes, grinders and millers were carried out. These machines easily achieve the high tolerances required for modern rolling mill rolls.

The Davy Roll company carries out a comprehensive series of inspection tests during the manufacturing cycle of the rolls. To improve the tests it has invested in spectrographic analysis, modem ultrasonic testing equipment, sophisticated hardness testing equipment, residual stress measurement equipment, a spark erosion machine and state-of-the-art image analysis equipment.

The company is dedicated to achieving coninual improvements in the quality and service offered to its customers. In 1992 the Gateshead Works was awarded independent accreditation to the Quality Management System ISO 9002 /1987. Two years later, further accreditation to BS EN ISO 9002/1994 was obtained, Davy Roll Company, Gateshead, being the first roll maker in the world to achieve the new 1994 standard. The Gateshead Company has also been awarded the VDEh accreditation in 1995. This organisation represents many steel makers in Europe and the VDEh is a very prestigious award.

The Company has a partnership agreement with Hoogovens of the Netherlands which has been in existence since 1995 and there have been substantial mutual benefits. Partnership Agreements have also been implemented with Corus and are being assessed with several companies throughout the world. Several agreements will be concluded in the near future.

The areas of current research work are in new production techniques, solidification modelling and further development of well established roll materials by alloying and heat treatment. New materials are being developed for producing better rolled products. The Davy Roll Company’s interest in the rolls produced does not stop once they are delivered. A team of technicians with wide experience of mill applications is available to advise on all aspects of roll use. Technical support is further extended by a mobile metallurgical inspector who can inspect and maintain rolls in service.

This investment in equipment, technology and services are all focused on to give our customers increased value in use across all product ranges.

Union Electric Steel

On acquiring The Davy Roll Company in August 1999 Union Electric Steel Corporation pledged to invest heavily In capital projects to make The Davy Roll Company one of the most modern and up to date roll manufacturing facilities in the world. To date this has resulted in over Ł4million ($5.8 million) being spent on a diverse range of projects.

By far the biggest project undertaken as part of the upgrade of Davy Roll’s facilities is the purchase and installation of a dry grinder, which will be used to remove casting debris from the rolls after removal from the mould, and stock removal prior to the rolls being transferred to the machine shop for processing.

To house the new machine a new building was constructed. This building links the current Foundry and Machine Shop therefore improving the flow path of the product. The building was designed to allow rolls up to 100 ton to be lifted and processed.