The company is ready to begin manufacturing special steel housings for a brand new design of ventilator from Dyson, it has announced via Twitter. The first prototypes have been produced at JCB's cab factory in Uttoxeter and delivered to Dyson.
The firm’s nine manufacturing plants in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham closed on 18th March as disruption resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic caused an unprecedented reduction in global demand. During this period all affected JCB employees will be paid 80% of their basic pay.
Now 50 employees affected by the shutdown will now return to work to respond to the call for ventilator production from the government.
JCB chairman Lord Bamford, said: “When we were approached by the prime minister we were determined, as a British company, to help in any way we could.
"This project has gone from design to production in just a matter of days and I am delighted that we have been to deploy the skills of our talented engineering, design and fabrication teams so quickly at a time of national crisis. This 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.”
JCB www.jcb.com
