TRB Lightweight Structures is using its material science know-how and specialist equipment to produce vital PPE based on the Foster + Partners design in the battle against COVID-19.

The company has redeployed personnel and machinery – which normally create advanced composite components for electric vehicles – to produce an innovative reusable face visor, and is now generating 1000 of these per day. TRB has adapted its expertise and cutting equipment to manufacture the simple, reusable visors, one every 50 seconds.
For further information www.trbls.com

Vehicle transmission specialist Xtrac has received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The company won the award in the ‘Innovation’ category for its development of an Integrated Lightweight Electric Vehicle (ILEV) gearbox range spearheaded by Xtrac CEO Adrian Moore.

Xtrac previously received a Queen’s Award for Export and Excellence in 1992, less than a decade after it was founded to serve the motorsport industry. Nowadays, as well as continuing to serve the industry globally, it has successfully reached out to the automotive mainstream.
For further information www.xtrac.com

3T-am, a production additive manufacturing (AM) company, is utilising EOS’ global partner ecosystem to 3D print face-shield headbands for health workers in the UK.

According to 3T, it is now producing 20,000 headbands per week, and will exceed 100,000 within the next few weeks. The face shields are being used by frontline workers, across the NHS and UK healthcare system, fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. 3T has also provided the CAD for free, available to download from the company’s website.
For further information www.3t-am.com

Research materials supplier Goodfellow is showing support to several initiatives in the fight against COVID-19, supplying materials that are being used to make protective equipment for frontline workers.

The company’s latest donation has seen it donate 130 kg of polypropylene coil to Stamford School in Lincolnshire, where design technology teachers are voluntarily manufacturing 1000 protective face masks a day. The school is contributing to the national effort to increase the availability of PPE for frontline NHS staff.
For further information www.goodfellow.com

Tranquil PC – a specialist in rugged, fan-less computers – was started on the kitchen table of its founder David Thompson, with the company outsourcing and offshoring all of its chassis machining to suppliers in China. However, as the business grew, the logistics of shipping from China, and the associated risks of products being copied, saw the decision taken to bring the majority of machining back to the UK and, more specifically, in-house. The company chose XYZ Machine Tools as its supplier for vertical machining centre capacity.

“Our first move was to purchase an XYZ Mini Mill 560, initially for R&D work,” says director Phillip Thompson. “That machine was soon working to capacity seven days a week, not only on R&D, but also production. To ease the workload, we added two XYZ 710 vertical machining centres to create our first machining cell.”
Thompson admits, at the time, no one at the company was a “seasoned machinist or programmer”, but the machines provided a good introduction thanks to the intuitive nature of the Siemens control systems and the level of support from XYZ Machine Tools.
This support was integral to the next phase of investment, which saw an additional XYZ 710 VMC and another Mini Mill 560 installed to meet demand. With these machines in place and running five days a week, eight hours a day, Tranquil PC wanted to complete its second cell, choosing an XYZ 750 LR (linear rail) machining centre equipped with advanced Renishaw probing technology.
“In-house machining has definitely been a driver of our growth, and now that Tranquil PC is part of the French IT group 2CRSI, we have significant plans for further investment,” says Thompson.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com