Social media is currently ‘alight’ with UK engineers doing the country proud in meeting the ‘Ventilator Challenge UK’ demand to support the battle against COVID-19. Likewise, the supply chain is flying the flag for UK manufacturing with its response to keeping this critical infrastructure in motion.

Guhring UK, which is part of this supply chain, has stepped up to the plate with the critical supply of cutting tools. As a UK manufacturer with a factory floor space of over 60,000 sq ft, Guhring UK is holding in excess of £5m of standard cutting tool stock items. This stock is being directed to F1, aerospace and medical OEMs involved in the ‘Ventilator Challenge UK’, as well as the subcontract supply chain. In fact, with the impact of the pandemic on imports and the wider supply chain, Guhring UK is even delivering its products to recognised cutting-tool manufacturers and competitors that cannot meet the urgent demands of their customers.
Despite Guhring UK holding a plentiful stock of thousands of standard cutting-tool items for next-day delivery, it is the UK manufacture and coating of special tools that are really “saving the bacon” for pockets of the supply chain at such a critical time. One particular customer, Bellurgan Precision Engineering Ltd, based in Ireland, urgently required a three-step special drill for the production of ventilator components. Guhring stepped up to the mark by delivering within 48 hours.
Within that timeframe, Guhring UK had liaised with Bellurgan, designed and created a tool drawing that was subsequently approved, and then the race was on. The Guhring UK team immediately manufactured 16 identical cutters at its Birmingham headquarters and coated all tools in-house with its Signum coating technology before delivery to Bellurgan.
For further information www.guhring.co.uk