Maker of hydro-power castings gets order from India

The two hundred year old Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited has landed a contract to deliver hydro-power castings to Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectricity Project in India.

Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering will first make crowns and bands for rotating turbines within a period of eighteen months at a cost of two million pounds. They will all be made of stainless steel. The Francis turbines have a very high efficiency rate of ninety per cent.

The Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectricity Project is the biggest hydro-electricity generating facility in India financed privately. The plant is in the state of Himachal Pradesh and will have a generating capacity of one gigawatt.

The castings provided by Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited are resistant to corrosive forces and are capable of operating in an extreme pressure environment such as that likely to be experienced at the Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectricity Project.

The Chief Executive Officer of Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited, Graham Honeyman, disclosed that his firm had for a long time been involved in the manufacture of components and they had perfected the process. Mr. Honeyman added that there was a widespread shortfall in electricity production and various countries were involved in efforts to address the deficit.

Meanwhile Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited has received the top award for regional learning and skills, the Clive Leach Award for Outstanding Contribution to Training by a Company, for its involvement in offering training opportunities as well as apprentice positions throughout Humber and Yorkshire. This was during the 2008 edition of the CoLaS Awards. Organising the event was the Learning and Skills Council in the Humber region and Yorkshire.

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