|
Welcome to NBR Wrinklies
|
Hose
|
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO NBR WRINKLIES HOME PAGE
Please click the name below to go to the story
Melville Castle
Training
Rush Order for Hose
for Korea
Sanctuary for Super Tanker
Esso
Refinery at Milford Haven
Markets
for our Products in Monsoon Asia
Europe's most
modern Hose Factory
Hose
Sales conference 1959
Centre
Block Rehabilitation
Drawing of
New Factory
New
Foundations
Hose
Production at Castle Mills
****************************************************
October
20 2011
This was from a training
meeting for Superintendents and Foreman
at the Melville Castle Hotel in 1969
The Poet was either Jim Daly or
Willie
Williamson--Editor
January
15 2011
Another excellent example of the
cooperation between International Sales and all the Factory
departments
January
4 2011
Another great example of the first class
technology and quality that came out of Castle Mills--
This was from the N B News of January 1962
November
25 2010
Another example of the excellent products produced at Castle Mills
and below is the remainder of the story
 |
November
7 2010
There are two pages below with the heading "Markets
for our Products in Monsoon Asia |
 |
|
November
7 2010
The Story of Europe's most modern Hose factory |
********************************************************************
November
7 2010
MORE GROUPS VISIT THE HOSE FACTORY |
 |
September 26 2010
This report
was taken from a 1959 NB news
Apologies but this was the best I could do with
the photos
Return
to ToP
********************************************************************************
March 22 2008
From
NB News of July/August 1957
Return
to ToP
March 22 2008
f
From
the NB news of July/August 1957
Return
to ToP
March 21 2008
This article
below appeared in the NB News in the December issue of 1957
Please Note
Return to ToP
January 2008
An interesting story of Fire hose taken from N B News of
1956
Return to ToP
March 7 2006
Our thanks to Jim Finlay for this
article, Jim says he had help from Clive Thawley whom we also thank.
|
Hose
Production at Castle Mills
The
Castle Mills factory produced an extensive range of Industrial hose. Most was mandrel made in lengths up to 60 ft. which was the
Industry standard at that time. Water, Air, Oxy-Acetylene, Oil, Brewers,
and Wire Braided Hydraulic hose were
manufactured for both domestic and
export markets.
Some
interesting applications were ;-
1.
Water
hoses externally armoured over heat resistant covers. This type was regularly supplied to the Steel Company of
Wales to protect the hose in the high
temperatures environment of the
steel making process.
2.
Wire
Braided Hydraulic hose for industry and in particular the National Coal.
This hose was regularly assembled for the N.C.B.
by Flexaulic Ltd in
Wrexham.
3.
Wire
Reinforced steam hose, externally armoured, and supplied to oil refineries
fitted with boss type couplings for fire fighting applications.
4.
Fire
engine textile hoses processed by fitting an internal rubber tube blown
into the carcase and cemented to the hose under pressure. Tricky one!
5.
‘Helicord’
Long Length Moulded hose of a textile spiral construction.
GIBSON
TERRACE
The
manufacturing area at Gibson Terrace was reserved for the production of a
range of large bore suction and discharge hoses
with built in flanged steel fittings.
The maximum bore size was 24 inch.
These units were supplied
to the major oil companies for oil suction and discharge purposes at Oil
Terminals and on sea tankers. Each
was tested and certificated before despatch.
A variety of tube compounds including Neoprene, Nitrile, Butyl, and
Viton were used to produce hoses for specific and demanding applications.
It was a regular sight in Edinburgh to see these giant hoses with
their long wooden slatted protective covers being transported through the
City on their way to oil terminals in the U.K. and
in export markets.
Rotary
and Vibrator hoses, used for pumping mud at high pressure to the drilling
bits in the oil drilling process, were produced for export markets. Each
unit was fitted with built in
A.P.I. fittings and lengths up to 55ft. were standard.
FLOATING HOSE
Oil
is only too often found in remote regions of the world and where this is
offshore in the sea it is often uneconomic to build production pipelines
to transfer the product to the the nearest shore. The berthing of sea
tankers offshore to load the crude oil from the production point is an
attractive and economic alternative. The initial development of
large bore Floating hose lines, still widely used today for this
type of application, was conducted by NBR technicians at Castle Mills.
Shell
Petroleum challenged our hose engineers and technicians to develop a
strong and reliable floating hose construction that could be used for the
oil transfer flexible link between offshore production and the sea tanker.
This was usually through a
buoy system or a moored tanker. The hose was required to float and resist
the action of waves and abrasion over extended periods. (Some initial
applications required the hose to sink when not in use and float when
filled with oil!)
The
development team was headed up by John Black in London, and Ian Cameron,
and John McWilliams at the factory. They were joined by George Dunnet,
Stan Watt, and Clive Thawley,
who headed up the development of the floating hose constructions. . Stan
Watt was the engineer responsible for the installation of the hose into
the loading systems. He worked closely with the major buoy manufacturers
such as S.B.M. Systems of Monaco, and
Imodco of the U.S.A. Extensive
trials of various types of hose lines and floatation collars was carried
out. Sea trials were
conducted at the May Island site in the Firth of Forth.
The
May Island was selected as being ideally situated for the sea testing of
the various floating hose designs during the development stages and was
reasonably close to the factory. The development involved the attachment
of floatation collars along the length of the hose and these were fitted
over rubber bands vulcanised onto the hose covers during manufacture. The
floats, produced in Italy, and bright orange in colour for identification
purposes were subjected to the very severe sea conditions existing in the
Firth of Forth. There
are many stories of members of the Development group being quite ill on
their various trips by the small boat transporting them from Granton
Harbour which was used to regularly check the hose lines anchored
at sea. There were reports from time to time of ‘strange
orange floats’ being reported floating in the Firth of Forth. This
usually indicated that further development work was required and also
perhaps a search for the hose line usually under water at this stage!
The
product development continued and eventually produced an acceptable design
and production was commenced. The hose designs continued to be developed
as actual system operating conditions were evaluated in the field. The floatation collars, always vulnerable to external damage
which in turn caused a loss of floatation in the hose, were gradually
phased out over the years in favour of floatation incorporated into the
hose carcase just below the cover. The
maximum hose bore size also increased to 24 inch allowing greater
throughput through the systems and enabling a quicker loading time for the
tankers.
The
ongoing hose development eventually produced a twin carcase hose
construction offering greater resistance to damage and minimising the
danger of oil pollution the ever present threat to the environment.
With
the closure of the Castle Mills factory the equipment and the building
expertise built up over many years was transferred to the Manuli Group in
Italy. George Dunnet, who was
involved over many years in the Gibson Terrace product lines supervised
the production transfer and start of production at the Ascoli Piceno
factory in southern Italy. Stan
Watt and Ian Cameron also transferred to the Manuli Group and continued
with the customer contact in system design and marketing.
The
concept is widely used today offering economic oil production from remote
offshore areas in many parts of the world.
*********************************************************************
Return
to ToP
|
