When Colin worked at Philips in Crossens

Colin started working life in the horticultural industry in Banks to the
north of Southport, the village where he lived.

As life progressed horticulture was struggling to pay the bills.

So from 1987 to 2003, he worked for Philips, the electronics company who had a factory on the outskirts of Southport in Crossens.

The plant, which was on one end of the factory site towards the old railway bridge, produced a metal powder that was pressed into
shapes that were fired in kilns to produce magnets to fit around the tube in a t v.

The basic process of the powder plant was to mix metal powders together, roll them up into little balls, fire them through a rotary
kiln at about 1200C, this was known as the “Dry Process”

The balls where then allowed to cool before being ground down in a ball mill with water in them to form a slurry, “Milling”

A liquid binder was added to the slurry and it was spray dried to form the finished powder which was either used on in the factory
at Crossens or exported to such places as Taiwan.

He worked in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as an operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the
powder plant closed in December 2003 he was a group or shift leader in the powder plant.

The powder plant was the last part of the Philips operation on the site, though there where a few other firms in parts of the old
Mullards factory that kept going a bit longer before the whole place was demolished and cleared and is now being redeveloped as a housing estate.

As it is coming up to the day 20 years ago when there was a meeting in the works canteen to say that the plant would be closing just before Christmas in 2003 it seems to be a appropriate time to put these few words together along with some pictures from around the plant for anyone who may be interested in what went on the site.

These pictures are in no particular order, mainly as I find them and scan them in.

Two Spray dryer stacks of the Powder plant at the Philips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport.

This is the view most people would have seen of the powder plant, Two Spray dryer stacks of the Powder plant at the Philips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport.

Image Cw 8296 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations

A Elino kiln is removed from the Powder plant at the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport. This kiln was removed by specialist contractors to make way for a new spray drier. To the left of this picture are the big yellow silo’s that the raw materials were stored in, of iron oxide, zinc, manganese which arrived on to the site either in bulk bag, tankers or containers. Just visible in the back ground is the towns gas holder that was demolished in 2009. Not quite sure of the date but probably about 1998 The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China.
I worked in the factory from 1987 to 2003, working in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as a operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the powder plant closed in December 2003
I was a group or shift leader in the powder plant. Colin Wareing 16.5.2023 Image Cw 8297 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations

Cw 8298 Kiln removal from powder plant 1998 Philips, Southport.

A Elino kiln is removed from the Powder plant at the Philips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport.

This kiln is being removed by specialist contractors to make way for a new spray drier.

To the right of this picture are the big yellow silo’s that the raw materials were stored in, of iron oxide, zinc, manganese which arrived on to the site either in bulk bag, tankers or containers.

Kiln removal from powder plant 1998 Philips, Southport. Cw 8298 A Elino kiln is removed from the Powder plant at the Philips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport. This kiln is being removed by specialist contractors to make way for a new spray drier. To the right of this picture are the big yellow silo’s that the raw materials were stored in, of iron oxide, zinc, manganese which arrived on to the site either in bulk bag, tankers or containers. The powder plant produced a metal powder that was pressed into shapes that were fired in kilns to produce magnets to fit around the tube in a cathode ray tube television. The basic process of the powder plant was to mix powders together, roll them up into little balls, fire them through a rotary kiln at about 1200C, this was known as the “Dry Process” The balls where then allowed to cool before being ground down in a ball mill with water in them to form a slurry, “Milling” A liquid binder was added to the slurry and it was spray dried to form the finished powder which was either used on in the factory at Crossens or exported to such places as Taiwan. “Spray Drying” As the slurry was spray dried the evaporating water was let off as steam, through a scrubber that for most of the time collected any powder granules within the steam. Not quite sure of the date but probably about 1998 The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China. I worked in the factory from 1987 to 2003, working in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as a operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the powder plant closed in December 2003 I was a group or shift leader in the powder plant. Colin Wareing 16.5.2023 Cw 8298 Colin Wareing Image Cw 8298 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations

Cw 8299 Kiln removal from powder plant 1998 Phillips, Southport A Elino kiln is removed from the Powder plant at the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport. This kiln is being removed by specialist contractors to make way for a new spray drier. To the right of this picture are the big yellow silo’s that the raw materials were stored in, of iron oxide, zinc, manganese which arrived on to the site either in bulk bag, tankers or containers. The two pieces of equipment to either side of the forklift where used in the unloading of iron oxide powder from the containers that it was shipped over from Holland in.

Not quite sure of the date but probably about 1998 The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China. I worked in the factory from 1987 to 2003, working in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as a operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the powder plant closed in December 2003 I was a group or shift leader in the powder plant. Colin Wareing 19.5.2023 Image Cw 8299 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations.

Cw 6080 Dry process in the Powder Plant, Phillips, Southport. Part of the Powder plant in the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport. This view is off the one of the rotary kilns of the “Dry Process”. Not quite sure of the date but probably towards the end of the 1990’s. The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China. Colin Wareing 4.3.2018. Image Cw 6080 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations

Cw 6081 Bottom of no 2 spray dryer in the Powder Plant, Phillips, Southport.

Part of the Powder plant in the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport.

This view is off the bottom of no 2 spray dryer. The slurry was pumped into a heated vessel that dried the slurry into a powder which dropped out of the vessel over a sieve and into a steel hopper.

Richard in the Powder plant, Phillips, Southport.
Part of the Powder plant in the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport. This operator “Richard” is transferring powder from a “big bag” into a hopper that will be lifted with a crane to be fed into a mixer before being fed into the Dry Process.
Not quite sure of the date but probably about 2000 The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China. I worked in the factory from 1987 to 2003, working in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as a operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the powder plant closed in December 2003 I was a group or shift leader in the powder plant. Colin Wareing 16.5.2023 Image Cw 8291 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations

Part of the Powder plant in the Phillips, the old Mullard’s factory in Crossens near Southport.

This operator “Norman” is keeping a eye on the filling of a hopper with powder that is falling from a sieve at the bottom of one of the 3 spray dyers that where in the plant at the end. Not quite sure of the date but probably about 2000
The plant closed at the end of 2003, with the work going to Poland and China. I worked in the factory from 1987 to 2003, working in the powder plant from 1987 to 1992 as a operator, a couple of years making magnets then from April 1994 until the powder plant closed in December 2003 I was a group or shift leader in the powder plant. Colin Wareing 16.5.2023
Image Cw 8292 copyright Colin Wareing of Colin and Carole’s Creations
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