NQO&V EAM fBeEaRt u 2r0e1 9
action with our supply chain before
the situation became critical to ensure
stock continues to feed into production.
In addition, our additive
manufacturing technologies are among
the best in the world and we have access
to more than 300 CNC and injection
moulding machines at our European
HQ in Telford. All of this gives us plenty
of capacity to ramp up for sudden orders
and continue providing the support our
customers need.
Adhering to strict social distancing
guidelines, whilst maintaining our
high levels of productivity, has been
a challenge, but the teams within
Protolabs have responded well to the
new conditions. Staff not required on
our sites have been working from home,
which has freed up the space required
to help keep all our employees safe.
Our production team has put in
place strict measures and consulted
regularly with the staff, so that they
understand the rules and processes.
Their response has been fantastic. From
day one, they showed a willingness
and commitment to ‘doing their bit’ to
support the fight against Covid-19 and
this has seen them work additional
hours.
Were there any particular enabling
technologies that helped you to meet the
challenges you faced?
BW: 3D printing is the ideal technology
to react quickly in times like these as
it does not require lengthy processes
to develop tooling. Parts can be made
in hours rather than days or weeks.
This agility allows us to speed up the
development of a product like no other
process. The state-of-the-art 3D printing
resources here at the Jaguar Land Rover
Additive Manufacturing Centre were
dedicated to supporting this activity
which meant that within a few days we
had high quality, fit-for-purpose face
shields ready to dispatch.
Despite machines running 24/7 the
demand soon outgrew our capacity. We
needed to find a way to industrialise the
process further, so we could increase
the volumes produced.
Using new injection mould tooling,
developed by WHS Plastics, we can
produce a further 14,000 visors each
week for key workers across the UK.
The team is producing more than 2,000
visors per day – with one polypropylene
headband generated every 30 seconds.
Injection mould technology comes
with its own design for manufacturing
requirements. The 3D design required
some minor adjustment to suit the
process and we took this opportunity to
include further user feedback received
from frontline NHS staff. The visors
now come with an adjustable strap
made from a high-quality silicone
which can be completely removed for
cleaning.
MS: Ventilator component machining
was performed on a combination
of sliding head lathes and our own
automated RAMTIC (Renishaw’s
Automated Milling, Turning and
Inspection Centre) machining
centres. These feature automated
June 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk 24
work handling and integrated in-cycle
probing to enable productive 24x7
operation. Standardised tooling and
proven fixturing concepts enabled
rapid process prove-out and ramp up to
volume production within a few days.
Coordinating the activities of
around 20 consortium members, who
are working on multiple workstreams
at dozens of different locations, has
required extensive use of modern
collaboration software tools. VCUK
has used Microsoft Teams to hold
daily meetings and to share critical
information at a consortium level,
whilst Renishaw has also made use of
these tools to manage its project teams,
many of whom have never met face-toface
throughout the whole project.
LB: Our unique design and
manufacturing process means the
customer can upload their CAD models
to our secure portal, then receive the
parts without stepping foot in our
facility - sometimes just days after
upload.
This removes potential issues
around social distancing or cross
contamination, but it also significantly
reduces the time it takes to receive the
parts.
So how does it work? As an
the experiences many have had
could accelerate the adoption of
digital processes Lee Ball, Protolabs
l i f esaving
design
Machining and
inspection
programs for the
ventilator part
designs had to
be produced
in record time
by Renishaw’s
engineers
/www.theengineer.co.uk