JCB is reopening its closed Uttoxeter factory and recalling 50 furloughed staff to join the national effort to manufacture ventilators.<\/p>\n
The cab systems production line at the factory will now switch to fabricating special steel housings for new ventilators designed by vacuum cleaner specialist Dyson.<\/p>\n
A minimum of 10,000 of the JCB housings are earmarked for manufacture once Dyson receives regulatory approval for its design.<\/p>\n
The first prototypes of the housings have been delivered to Dyson after rolling off the production line at JCB\u2019s new \u00a350m factory in Staffordshire.<\/p>\n
The factory fell silent on 18 March along with eight other JCB UK manufacturing plants after a fall in demand caused by the Coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n
Mass production of the housings could start in a matter of days.<\/p>\n
JCB Chairman Lord Bamford said: \u201cWhen we were approached by the Prime Minister we were determined, as a British company, to help in any way we could.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project has gone from design to production in just a matter of days and I am delighted that we have been able to deploy the skills of our talented engineering, design and fabrication teams so quickly at a time of national crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also a global crisis, of course, and we will naturally help with the production of more housings if these ventilators are eventually required by other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
www.jcb.com\/en-gb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"