Since it was acquired by F. H. Lloyd and Company Limited a few years ago, the Derby works of Parker Foundry(1929), Limited has been completely rebuilt and re-equipped with modern plant. Some 25,000 square feet have been added to the productive floor area by the construction of a new melting shop, new bays and other extensions, and the capacity is now about 150 tons of finished steel castings a week.

The new melting shop at present contains an arc furnace capable of producing up to 5 tons of steel every two and a half hours, and provision is made for the installation of a second furnace. A new foundry bay for castings up to 8 tons in weight is some 325 feet long by 60 feet wide, and is served by 15 ton overhead cranes. A recent addition to the equipment of this bay is a Beardsley and Piper mobile “Speedslinger” which runs on a rail track 240 feet long, and is designed to ram moulds situated at any point on the floor within 20 feet of the track. This machine is designed to deliver sand at a rate of 45 tons an hour into the moulds. Four permanent casting pits in the shop, each about 20 feet long by 14 feet wide and 5feet 4 inches deep, accommodate castings up to 8 tons, the largest made in the foundry.

In the extended and re-equipped heat treatment section, two bogie, gas-fired, annealing furnaces have been installed, one 9 feet by 18 feet 6 inches by 7 feet high, and the other 6 feet 9 inches by 16 feet 6 inches by 7 feet high. New shot blasting equipment in the fettling section includes a dual table 7 feet 6 inches diameter "Wheelabrator" and a 10 feet diameter table "Centriblast" with three abrasive throwing wheels.