Digger-giant JCB is poised to re-start production at a factory closed as a result of the coronavirus crisis - in order to join the national effort to manufacture ventilators.
The manufacturer received a direct appeal from Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this month to help plug the national ventilator shortage and to help save lives of coronavirus patients.
Following the approach, JCB Chairman Lord Bamford promised to help in any way the company could and immediately mobilised a research and engineering team to examine potential ways to assist.
Now JCB is ready to restart production at a factory which has been closed for nearly two weeks as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, but instead of making cabs for JCB diggers, the plant is being mobilised to make special steel housings for a brand new design of ventilator from Dyson.
A minimum of 10,000 of the JCB housings are earmarked for manufacture once Dyson receives regulatory approval for its design.
The first prototypes of the housings have been delivered to Dyson after rolling off the production line at JCB’s £50 million Cab Systems factory in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, which Boris Johnson visited during the election campaign.
The factory fell silent on March 18 along with eight other JCB 海角视频 manufacturing plants in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham, after a fall in demand caused by the coronavirus crisis.
But mass production of the housings could start in a matter of days.
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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."
The move by JCB will see the return of 50 employees affected by an extended company shutdown announced last week; with staff helping with the manufacturer of the ventilator housings paid 100 per cent of their normal pay.