Man of steel

THE name Pyemetric Refractories may sound like an area of advanced mathematical theory, but the pioneering product it produces is beautiful in its simplicity and serves an industry at the very heart of Teesside’s economic heritage.

To the layman, the company’s name provides little clue of what is produced inside the 10,000sqft Skippers Lane factory, but workers in the steel industry will wax lyrical on the importance of high-quality refractories and how the best ones, like most things in steelmaking, come from Teesside.

The spark of an idea that would lead to the eventual creation of Pyemetric Refractories ignited on the “concast”, the continuous casting line, at the former British Steel Engineering plant at Redcar (now owned by SSI) when Pyemetric managing director Steve Mills was, in steelworking terms, a relative newcomer to the industry in the early 1980s.

“I came into work and the management and engineers were arguing with each other and going at it hammer and tongs,” said Steve. “The stopper that controls the flow of molten metal wasn’t working and it was holding up production.

“I told one of the managers that I had an idea about how to alleviate these problems we were having with this part of the pouring process and a design I had worked out that would change the way the molten metal was poured. After a few conversations about it he eventually said they would take a look at it, but wasn’t best pleased when I told him that I’d already patented the design.”

The refractory, to the uninitiated, is the funnel or nozzle through which molten metal is poured from heavy duty, industrial ladles into casts and moulds.

Traditionally, this was a frustrating process, as the nozzles would clog as the metal cooled and solidified during pouring.

Steve’s design has revolutionised the industry, speeding up the pouring process so metal remains liquefied, eliminating clogging, increasing cast yield and hugely reducing set-up time.

The design, which Steve says caused consternation amongst management at British Steel, who thought they should own the design as it had been produced by one of their engineers, was to become the springboard he needed to branch out on his own in the early 1990s.

A man of steel through and through, Steve’s dream was always to own his own independent manufacturing operation on Teesside. However, it was to take him another 18 years before that ambition would be realised.

A stint working as a consultant throughout the 90s and early 2000s saw him travel the world visiting foundries and even helping to run one enormous steel producer in Michigan for a year.

All the while Steve was developing ideas and patents for refractories and by early the 2000s he had two patents that were bringing in £15,000 a month.

“I had hired one company to make the product and another to sell it, but I wasn’t happy and felt I needed to be more active. I believe that you must keep moving forward in business,” he said. “Patents last 20 years, but in reality they last around eight years before they are replaced or overtaken by new technology.

“I wanted to make the product and develop new ideas; I’m not one to sit at home picking up the royalties.”

So with a suite of products in place and a handful of lucrative patents, Steve set about building the company profile across the globe.

He teamed up with Derbyshire firm Capital Refractories, which still sells his products and have themselves gone from a company with a turnover of £1m to a multi-million pound organisation in the past decade, to establish the Pyemetric products in foundries all over the world.

Issues breaking into the US market were to prove the stepping stone that would eventually lead to Steve realising his dream of starting a manufacturing plant.

He said: “The Americans just didn’t get the product. I was told that I was trying to change the laws of physics, but I said I wasn’t changing them I was influencing them, using them to improve the process.

“Eventually the response was, ‘This product is great, but we have to ship it and the amount we need would mean issues with cargo weight. Why can’t you just make them here?’ So that’s what I did.”

Pyemetric began production in a plant on the banks of Lake Michigan and was soon supplying the vast majority of foundries in the country.

In 2008 Pyemetric Refractories opened its first plant in Middlesbrough at Redesdale Park and within four years had outgrown the factory and moved to Skippers Lane.

He added: “We have 11 people working here and since we opened in May we haven’t had anyone lose a day to sickness. Everyone is really dedicated to the company.

“When we moved premises we had to do it in a day and keep production going, which was a tough task. The lads all came in and worked the weekend to complete orders – I didn’t ask them to do it, they just did it because they enjoy the job and understand what we’re trying to do.”

Having devised the designs that would eventually form the basis of Pyemetric on the foundry production line, Steve is a firm believer in encouraging his employees to do likewise.

“It’s a fool who ignore his workforce,” he said. “The lads who work the production line are the ones who come up with the best ideas.

“I might not be the world’s greatest businessman, or be the best educated, and some might accuse me of being a bit soft as a boss, but I believe that if you treat your employees right and with respect then they’re a happy workforce and you get it back in spades.”

Pyemetric now has manufacturing bases in the UK, USA and India serving worldwide refractory markets across Europe, South Africa, Australia, Japan, China, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, NAFTA, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Steve said: “Our product is in 99 per cent of foundries in the UK. Foundry managers at one time would look for the cheapest option, but now they want quality and durability – our product is not only the most durable, we beat everyone for cost too.”

The Teesside plant is about to embark on the production of Zirconia refractory nozzles, which will provide even greater cast durability combined with excellent wear resistance.

The company currently exports around 40 per cent of the 150,000 to 200,000 refractory nozzles and stoppers it produces each year and has signed up for North East Chamber of Commerce’s Global Membership, which offers preferential rates on international trade support, documentation checking, training and advice; access to high quality events and the advice and guidance of a designated International Trade Advisor.

NECC Senior Account Manager for International Trade, Matthew Ord, said: “Pyemetric is a fantastic company that is completely committed to the industry it serves and providing skilled work on Teesside.

“The rapid progress the business has made in such a short time has been phenomenal, not only in opening up new overseas markets, but also cementing Pyemetric’s reputation as a global leaders for the production of high-quality, cost effective refractory products.”

A product of the Middlesbrough suburb of Beechwood, Steve is adamant that Pyemetric will continue to provide manufacturing work for his hometown in the future.

“The most important thing for me is that Pyemetric remains an independent, Teesside-based company,” he added. “I want the lads who work here to come in and enjoy their jobs and go home at the end of the day feeling they have done a good day’s work.

“Ten years ago people would look at me like I was mad when I told them I wanted to start a manufacturing business, but that has all changed now. We make the best products on the market and we do it in Middlesbrough and we always will