Castings and forgings specialist, Sheffield Forgemasters, has been granted planning permission to build a 30,000 sq m machining facility on brownfield land in Sheffield’s Meadowhall district.
Located on a 16-acre plot at Weedon Street, the new facility will form one of the world’s most advanced large machining facilities, to support the Ministry of Defence-owned company’s manufacture for the UK defence programmes.
With work to prepare the site already underway, the building will cover a space equal to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools and will contain some of the largest and most advanced five-axis Vertical Turning Lathes ever produced.
Craig Fisher, Programmes Director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “This planning agreement will see construction of the largest machining hall of its kind in the UK, and regeneration of a prominent brownfield site in the city’s industrial centre.
“It signals an amazing investment for the city and for the wider UK, which will create highly-skilled engineering jobs for decades to come, fully supporting our national defence programmes.
“The sheer scale of the building will make it an iconic landmark, and will eclipse the construction of the UK’s largest open-die forging-line, which is also underway on our adjacent Brightside Lane site.”
Plans for the new machining facility detail a main building with a circa 272.5 x 110 metre footprint, standing 32 metres tall, located close to the River Don and designed to complement the historic look of the company’s existing buildings.
Adjoining the main construction is a second, proposed 3,500 sq m building, with a state-of-the-art test-house facility and a dedicated training area, to transfer vital skills to the next generation of engineers.
Craig added: “What we are creating in the centre of Britain’s historical industrial heartland is unparalleled in the UK and will not only de-risk supply for the UK’s AUKUS defence programme, but it will also deliver technologically advanced and rewarding working facilities for our employees.”
The machining facility is set to be operational by the end of 2028 and will deliver new levels of speed, accuracy and efficiency for the manufacture of large, highly complex, nuclear-grade components.
Machine tools specialist, WaldrichSiegen, is building a series of large Vertical Turning Lathes and associated machines for the machining hall, which will be installed and maintained by McDowell Machine Tools.
Sheffield Forgemasters’ 13,000 tonne forging line and proposed machine shop will create a new generation of engineers and designers trained to work with Industry 4.0 technologies.
The machine shop project team consists of Arup, which handled the ecological and travel assessments, Bond Bryan Architects, and JLL, which acted on behalf of Sheffield Forgemasters for the site acquisition and planning submissions.
Joanna Gabrilatsou, Regional Head of Planning at JLL, said: “JLL has been working closely with Sheffield Forgemasters and Sheffield City Council to ensure the delivery of Sheffield Forgemasters’ time-critical growth programme is met, and are delighted with the decision.
“Approval of the new machine shop is essential to allow Sheffield Forgemasters to operate in a modern, fit-for-purpose facility, and is highly beneficial to the city and the region’s economy. It will also allow the regeneration of the vacant Weedon St plots.
“We are already working on the first phase of enabling works as part of an existing consent, and we’re now gearing up to discharge conditions to implement the next phase of construction.”
