Fielding Hydraulic Pumps

A brochure of Fielding Hydraulic Pumps, c.1950s

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  • Worked on the same pumps until 1999 when I left Chesterfield Cylinders.

    Ed: Thanks for your note, Robin. Beautiful H15 Pumps (15″ stroke), probably the last of their size working in the UK until the site closed. John B

    By Robin Stafford (15/12/2021)
  • As an apprentice, in about 1963, I worked on reconditioning an H15 pump with a fitter who taught me a great deal. The first job was to scrape the four 12″ diameter (?) main bearings. I think the crankshaft weighed half a ton. This was ‘blued’ and lowered into the four white metal half bearings in the pump bedplate. It was then rotated I think about a third of a turn, lifted out and the white metal scraped on the high spots with a half round scraper. Great curls of swarf were produced. This procedure was repeated numerous times until an adequate area of contact was obtained. The bearing caps were then fitted and scraped in a similar way.
    The pump barrels had a flange on the back which retained the horizontal suction valve seat. This was held on by four 2 3/4″ BSF studs. The casting end had a coarse spiral air release groove ( about 1 t.p.i.) which resulted in horrible sharp burs along the thread. I remember carrying the studs in an orange wiper one at a time to the Light Machine Shop to have the thread eased until it was a good fit. The machinist returned the stud each time. The pump was gear driven from the motor by open double helical (herringbone) reduction gears protected by a mesh guard.
    This was the most satisfying job I had in the fitting shops.

    Ed: Fascinating story Chris! I guess you must have been one of the last fitters to work on an H15 (15″ stroke) Pump. What was the name of the fitter who taught you the skills of scraping white metal bearings? The last new pump of this capacity was made in the late 1950s and a number were supplied to Chesterfield Tube, that had two large accumulator systems powered by H15 pumps. One of these systems was called ‘B’ Mill, for producing hot-forged steel gas cylinders, designed and built by F & P.(see pics on this website and watch this YouTube film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfYdiuW78x0 of ‘B’ Mill in action!); sadly the site has been razed a number of years ago to make a retail park, where have we seen that before! The motors for each pump were in the region of 600HP. John B

    By Chris Farley (14/07/2020)

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