1967 - 1977
In 1968, MSM held the stage at an Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering Conference in The Midlands, with the story of our Datex CNC Pipe Bender, the first in Europe. The rest of the conference concentrated on Hydroforming of metal shapes, and there were four basic alternatives on offer. The Cincinnati Hydroform Press, which was horrendously complicated, with a bird’s nest of pipes and several press modes with cushion pressures and bulging operations included. The necessary tooling was expensive too. The second technique on show was the Russell Dualform Press, which had the advantage of moulding it’s own tools in situ from low melting point alloys. Unfortunately these alloy tools were not able to repeat-form the higher alloys like titanium and nimonics, as they lost their draw edges after only a few operations, and had to be recast. Rubber Pressing was well known for shallow forming of aluminium alloys, but the really interesting technique was that designed by SAAB for use in their Aircraft manufacturing plants in Sweden, which they called SAAB Fluid Forming. MSM decided that we just had to have one for, amongst other contracts, the manufacture of stainless steel exhaust ducts for the new Concorde supersonic airliner!
Fluid forming was also an excellent method used to create spherical pressure vessels in 0.010” stainless sheet for the Nuclear Power industry, and indeed for the new industry of high altitude space satellites, for the Communications Industry. The advantage of being able to bulge form components with ease, from very simple tools also lead to contracts for the manufacture of vacuum centrifuges used to convert Uranium 235 into the more useful Uranium 238 alloy, popular with the Defence Industry.
SAAB Fluid Forming has been developed over the years in Middleton, such that we now have the largest facility in Europe, with some five hydraulic presses and twelve differently sized “pots” and cushion units varying in size from 8” to 40” diameter. The whole facility is offered to our customers as a Hydroforming Service to produce parts which are difficult, if not impossible to form by any other method. This service is relatively unique in the Aerospace and Defence Industries.
Alongside this new facility we were asked to produce a series of large Aluminium Alloy Fuel Tanks for the RAF Victors, which, in the mid 1970’s were being converted at Woodford Aerodrome into Airborne Refuellers. The Handley Page Company had originally designed these “V” Bombers to be largely constructed by Resistance Welding to the highest quality standards, and the Bomb Bay Tanks were designed to similar specifications. Some 18,000 spotwelds on each Fuel Tank were required to be free from cracks, porosity and other defects, and had to be of excellent definition, which necessitated 100% x-ray of every weld. We were delighted to report that there were absolutely no weld failures on any of the Victor Fuel Tanks, which were in service for the duration of the life of the RAF Victor Tankers. A splendid vindication of our specialist Aluminium Alloy Resistance Welding facility at our Spring Vale Site.
During the 1970s, we also manufactured many aircraft sets of rather smaller Aluminium Wing Fuel Tanks for the Beagle Pup, which later morphed into the Scottish Aviation Bulldog used as a Primary Trainer for the RAF. These Tanks also benefitted from our resistance welding expertise.
An interesting contract from GEC Accrington led to us manufacturing a series of Large Aluminium Alloy Tropospheric Scatter Dish Assemblies at our Hanson Street Facility. These “radar dishes” were used to bounce military signals off the troposphere in the days before geostationary satellites appeared. They were designed to collapse onto the rear of the standard 3 Ton Bedford Truck, for transport to a convenient site, where they were unfolded, and quickly ready for use.