As part of the modernisation programme in the mid-1980s the Coping Shop was built as a facility dedicated to the cutting and profiling of manufactured tubular and beam sections. Prior to introduction of this facility the traditional means of marking and profiling sections involved preparation of templates, manual marking and manual / mechanical cutting techniques. The shop operated with two discreet cutting lines, with one being dedicated to the profiling of tubulars and one dedicated to profiling beam sections. Each line comprised of automated conveyor handling, positioning and flame cutting equipment which operated using data downloaded from electronic drawing files. The tubular line was capable of cutting complex tubular profiles up to 1,900 mm in diameter and the beam line was capable of cutting beams up to 1,000 mm deep.
