SOCKBURN CABLE FACTORY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27999, 20 June 1956, Page 10

SOCKBURN CABLE FACTORY

EXPANSION PLANNED NEW WAREHOUSE BEING BUILT Expansion of the factory of Associated British Cables, Ltd., on the Main South road at Sockburn, is planned to keep pace with increasing production. Eventually, the main factory building, now measuring 400 ft by 100 ft, will be extended to 500 ft by 150 ft, and a separate office block will be built close to the road. At present, a warehouse of 1500 sq. ft. is being built to store the plastic materials used to cover the cables. A new cafeteria to seat 100 employees is also being constructed. The factory, which was officially opened in December, 1951, with a staff of about 35. now has 67 employees and produces 2000 miles of cable a month. The steel building was prefabricated in England, and then welded together on the site. Temporary office accommodation was erected at one end of the building so that it could be removed when the extra space was required by the factory.

Copper is imported in the form of steel rods, and these are pickled in sulphuric acid to remove tne coating of impurities. They are then drawn down through a series of dies. Some of the wire produced has a diameter of only .005 m.

Some of the cable is coated with tin by being drawn through a bath of molten tin. but most of it is stranded and covered with plastic or cotton braiding. All stages of manufacture are to strict specifications, and the cable is tested in a fully-equipped laboratory. Diameters of the cable produced vary from l-16in to Jin. The biggest cable is used for heavy industrial purposes, and the smallest for radio work.