350 ton Billet Piercing Press, views taken in the works, O/No. X78860, c.1971

This Fielding press was designed and manufactured to ‘pierce’ the centre portion of a 5″ or 6″ dia. solid copper billet prior to the billet being heated in a furnace and transferred to a Fielding 1000 ton ‘Serck’ Vertical Indirect Extrusion Press. The resulting thick-wall copper tube shell was  then pulled through a series of drawbenches to progressively reduce the diameter and wall thickness to become the sizes used in domestic heating installations.

This press provided an alternative method to that of machine drilling each billet.

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