Keeping Underground on the right tracks

A WORKSOP firm have been working hard to lend a helping hand to ensure a project for the London Underground remains firmly on the right lines.

Worksop Galvanizing, part of Wedge Group Galvanizing, has now galvanized almost 100 tonnes of the steel used to manufacture a number of buffer stops that have been installed at various points across the capital’s rail network.

This has been done with great timing as 2012 will see London’s already extensive railway network expanded to be made ready for the Olympic Games, to be hosted at 33 venues.

London’s public transport was a huge stumbling block when they were denied the chance to host the Olympics in the year 2000.

Chesterfield fabrication firm Direct Engineering turned the local firm’s steelwork into 19 buffer stops for London Underground Limited, the organisation that maintains the network on behalf of statutory body Transport for London. Each of the steel buffer stops weighed 4.9 tonnes, and measured 2.2 metres wide, by 1.5 metres high, by 2.5 metres long.

The process of galvanising involves dipping the steelwork into molten zinc at temperatures of up to 450 oC to provide a protective coating against corrosion.

Commercial Manager of Worksop Galvanizing Paul Robinson said that making they had been working very hard towards the successful project.

“By having the steelwork galvanized, it will ensure the buffers will have a long and maintenance-free lifespan, even in an environment as demanding as an underground rail network,” he said.

Ray Woolley, of family-run Direct Engineering, also praised the skills and effort displayed by Worksop Galvanising.

“This project involved particularly tight lead times,” he said. Thanks to the efforts of the team at Worksop Galvanizing, and the quality of their work, the buffers were manufactured and despatched to our Customer’s requirements.”

Wedge Group Galvanizing is the largest hot dip galvanizing organisation in the UK with a history dating back over 150 years.

With 14 plants strategically placed across the country, they offer a truly national galvanizing service.

Worksop Galvanising is also famed for having the largest galvanizing bath in the UK at 21 metres long, which enables them to galvanize steelwork up to 29 metres in length.