From 1866 to the present day...
You might not realise just how long producers have been pressing concrete, so we thought a brief history lesson wouldn't be out of place.
- 1866 – Fielding & Platt founded as a company in Gloucester
- 1890 – Fielding & Platt designed and manufactured the first hydraulic press in the UK (Possibly the world) for producing pressed concrete slabs. This particular press was of a 3-mould rotating table design, powered by a water accumulator system
- Three months later a second press of the same design was delivered to the same customer. Both these presses were of 500 ton (5MN) power with a working pressure of 2 tons / inch sq
- 1897 – The second press mentioned above was transferred to a new site in the UK, where it continued in service until 1965 (Total length of service 73 years)
Company – Adamant Stone & Paving Co - Aberdeen
- 1929 – British Standards for precast concrete flags first published, based on products produced on Fielding Presses
- 1938 – First Hydraulically pressed concrete kerb stones made on a Fielding concrete press using tooling specifically developed for this purpose
- 1948 – First Single Mould Design of press manufactured and supplied to a UK customer
- 1949 – Major modification to the design of press hydraulic system. Changed from a water accumulator system to direct oil hydraulic pumping system. This made the press much faster in operation
- 1951 – First concrete press shipped to Australia
- 1957 – The 100th Press manufactured for concrete pressing
- 1958 – Modification to the table drive system on the 3-mould press. Changed from a ‘Geneva’ type mechanism to a ‘rack & pinion’ drive
- 1962 – First concrete press shipped to Sweden
- 1962 – First single mould press shipped to Canada
- 1963 – First concrete press shipped to the USA
- 1964 – First 3-mould press delivered to West Germany
- 1964 – The 200th concrete press manufactured
- 1964 – Design modification to incorporate air / servo control system for hydraulics. Providing simpler operation, more reliability and easier maintenance
- 1966 – First 3 mould concrete press built for ‘duplex production’
- 1967 – First concrete press delivered to the Middle East
- 1967 – First concrete press delivered to France
- 1968 – First concrete press delivered to Holland
- 1970 – Semi-Automatic handling equipment for a 3-mould press developed and installed
- 1970 – 300th concrete press manufacture and installed
- 1971 – First concrete press delivered to Norway
- 1972 – First concrete press delivered to Spain
- 1972 until the late seventies to early eighties the only major development was the introduction on the ‘Programmable Logic Control’ (PLC) which replaced the air / servo to ease the control of the machinery, automation and fault finding. Also the sale of the machines slowed down
- 1984 – Forest Press Hydraulics Limited established
...and the rest is history !!!!!
