Smith-Clayton Forge Ltd.

Smith-Clayton Forge Ltd

Company type	Private
Industry	Engineering, Drop forging
Founded	18 December 1929
Fate	Became division of GKN in 1966; later integrated into British Steel and then part of United Engineering Forgings
Headquarters	Lincoln , England, United Kingdom
Products	Drop forged components including crankshafts and aircraft engine parts

Smith-Clayton Forge Ltd was a firm based in Lincoln that specialised in drop forging. In 1966, the company became a division of GKN before eventually being integrated into British Steel. Subsequently, it formed part of United Engineering Forgings (UEF), which was sold during 2000 and 2001 to Wyman Gordon and Bifrangi, both of which continue operations at the original Smith-Clayton Forge location.

Company Evolution

In 1929, Smith's Stamping Works from Coventry acquired the Clayton Forge, situated next to the Abbey Works of Clayton & Shuttleworth on Spa Road in Lincoln. The once thriving engineering enterprise Clayton & Shuttleworth had entered insolvency. On 18 December 1929, a new entity named Smith-Clayton Forge Ltd. was established. The business focused on drop forging using drop hammers. By 1935, the Abbey Works was also obtained and underwent significant modernization. Around this period, the facility’s name changed from Abbey Works to Tower Works, likely inspired by Tower House located at the intersection of Monk's Road and Greetwell Road. Among the manufactured components were crankshafts for Rolls-Royce Kestrel and Merlin engines. The Kestrel powered aircraft such as the Hawker Fury and Hawker Hart, while the Merlin engine was used in the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire.

Production During Wartime

In the years leading up to and throughout Second World War, the factory experienced further upgrades. In 1938, an Erie steam hammer capable of delivering an 8,000-lb blow was installed, enabling faster production of motor vehicle crankshafts alongside aircraft parts including crankshafts for the Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engines widely used in British trainer aircraft. Manufacturing of airscrews and crankshafts continued for Hurricanes and Spitfires as well as components for the Rolls-Royce Vulture engines and numerous parts for the Napier Sabre engines. Since the Abbey Works escaped damage from Luftwaffe bombing raids during the conflict, it maintained a consistently high output of aircraft engine parts and other castings throughout the war.

Postwar Period

Following World War II, profits driven mainly by exports of automotive and aircraft components allowed investment in extensive equipment originally installed by the UK Government for wartime defence manufacturing. The company reported strong trading results in 1948. In 1950, works superintendent Mr H M H Fox spent six weeks in the United States studying forging methods, which led to an immediate boost in efficiency. He highlighted improvements such as mechanised material handling, enhanced factory organisation to streamline workflow, and furnace upgrades. The forge had already increased output by 10% after adopting certain recommendations from a report on American drop forging published by the Anglo-American Council on Productivity. We have reorganised our internal transport systems and refined how billets (short bars) are fed to machines as well as how finished products are moved away from forging stations. One notable advancement is the introduction of powered conveyors that transport materials directly between forging units; the first of these has now been installed and is operational at Smith-Clayton Forge.

Later Developments

In 1966, Smith-Clayton Forge was acquired by GKN, which at the time promoted itself as the Largest Manufacturer of Forged and Cast Components for the Motor Industry. Following the establishment of British Steel in 1967, the company was integrated into British Steel's Special Steels Division. By 1995, GKN Holdings had been fully sold to British Steel, leading to Smith-Clayton becoming part of British Steel’s Forgings Group. In May 2000, United Engineering Forgings (UEF) Aerospace, operating on the site, was acquired by Wyman Gordon, an American firm. As a subsidiary of Precision Castparts based in Portland, Oregon, the Lincoln facility was rebranded as "Wyman Gordon Lincoln". At that period, UEF specialized in producing forged engine discs, engine shafts, as well as airframe and landing gear components predominantly for Rolls-Royce.

Bifrangi

In November 2001, the Lincoln site together with UEF Automotive in Sheffield was acquired by an Italian corporation that established Bifrangi UK Ltd. Subsequently, Bifrangi leased part of the premises back to Wyman Gordon. In 2012, Bifrangi initiated a substantial £60 million redevelopment project at the Tower Works location. The company constructed a new 7,000 square metre press house designed to house a 32,000-tonne percussion screw press—the largest forging press globally and unique in its design. This equipment enables closed die forging of components up to 1,000 kilograms and three metres in size. The facility supports forging of large micro-alloy steel parts and expands capabilities into new markets including aluminium, superalloys, and other advanced materials. This advancement allows efficient production of crankshafts, shaped shafts, and wheel components while minimizing time and material usage.

Wyman Gordon

Wyman Gordon produces components for aerospace and energy sectors. The facility operates two counterblow hammers: the largest in Europe with an energy rating of 900kJ stands central to operations and is capable of hot die forging aerospace, power generation, oil & gas, and nuclear parts—including asymmetric forgings, discs, shafts, and valve bodies—at temperatures reaching 1340 °C. Smaller items are forged using a DG40 counterblow hammer originally installed by Smith-Clayton Forge in 1964. Both hammers are fully computer-controlled to guarantee process consistency. Complementing these is a Zdas 630 controlled pull-down press used for manufacturing pre-forms of asymmetric structural components and elongated aero engine shafts. The Lincoln plant maintains operational links with other Wyman-Gordon facilities located in Livingston, Scotland and Plzeň in the Czech Republic. Wyman-Gordon is recognized as a leading forging specialist serving global aerospace and energy industries with high-performance titanium and nickel-based alloys utilized for jet engines—including fan discs, compressor disks, turbine discs, shafts—as well as titanium and steel forgings for aircraft airframes.

External links

• Grace's Guide: [1]
• Bifrangi [2]

Literature

Muir A (1958) 75 Years: A Chronicle of Development, Smiths Stamping Works, Coventry and Smith Clayton Forge, Lincoln. Ribble Works, Coventry.