No_4_November_and_December__1952 — Page 56

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ABBEY STEEL WORKS

T the new Abbey Works of the Steel Company of Wales

Ltd., the largest rolling mills in Europe covering an area of about 550 acres, the principal production departments have been arranged in a series of five large buildings.

The exacting light requirements for the production areas provided a unique opportunity for glazing of outstanding character, and in order to produce even daylighting through- cut the buildings it was necessary for the panels of sidewall glazing to curve inwards at the head. It was inadmissible to break the line of the curve by allowing the panes to over- lap in a "Lobster-Back'

Lobster-Back" fashion, and curved glass was cut of the question because of the cost and difficulty in replacement. The effect had to be achieved by using flat panes set out in a series of chords and this arrangement presented special weathering problems as also

did the flat pitch near the top of the cascade. Το overcome these, Messrs. Williams & Williams' En- gineers designed a new weathering detail which is shown and is a de- velopment of the standard Aluminex "Z" weathering extrusion which is one of the special features of the Aluminex glazing system. The re- markable effect achieved resembles cascades of glass. The cascades are each 14 ft. wide and range from 15 ft. to 55 ft. high. The 55 ft. cascades are composed of seven vertical tiers with a further curved portion of three tiers on a 9'9" radius. The cascades were glazed in some in- stances with special toughened glass in order to resist the thermal shock caused by hot ingots passing within a few feet of them.

The Cold Mill building is a five- bay unit and the roof is of high/low construction. In order to provide controlled ventilation together with even distribution of light, the moni- tors are glazed partly with continuous top-hung opening lights and partly with aluminium vertical pivot-hung windows. Each range of continuous top-hung opening lights, 92 ft. in length by 4'6" in depth, is hand con- trolled by Teleflex Gear from separate control points, and each range of vertical pivot-hung win- dows, comprising 42 windows, 5'6"x2'8" in each range, are similarly controlled from individual operating points. points. The cascade glazing and continuous top-hung opening lights for the whole project, together with the aluminium vertical pivotted windows in the Cold Mill and the Teleflex Gear, were supplied by Messrs. Williams & Williams Ltd., Reliance Works, Chester.

The local agents for Messrs. Williams & Williams are Davie, Boag & Co., Ltd., Chartered Bank Building.

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Photos by Sydney W. Newbery, England.