Brown and Hawthorne Engineering Ltd, a subcontract CNC machinist based in Coventry in West Midlands, have started making tooling parts to allow two businesses; a well-known car manufacturer and a supplier and manufacturer of racing and road vehicle parts, to produce ventilators for the UK National Health Service (NHS).
Brown and Hawthorne was established in 1955 and has 12 employees and over 15 machines. They manufacture a wide range of parts predominantly for the motorsport industry supplying high precision, complex parts in a variety of materials. They have 5, 4 and 3 axis machining capabilities as well as CNC turning, cylindrical and surface grinding facilities. They have been a customer of Master Fluid Solutions for over ten years.
Although they only started making the tooling parts for the purpose of the ventilators on Wednesday, they have already made 132 individual parts. The metalworking fluid being used to create the tooling parts is TRIM E905.
Managing director, Vicki Walls of Brown and Hawthorne says: “I heard on the radio that manufacturing companies were being asked to register on the UK Government website if they were interested in helping to produce ventilators and components, so I made the decision to register. Two of our existing customers then contacted us to say that they were starting to manufacture ventilators to help with the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Straight away we decided as a business that we didn’t want to make any profit as a result, but rather help to fight this deadly disease. Everything we have been supplying for the ventilators has therefore been at cost price. When an order related to this comes in everything else is pushed aside. It becomes the priority job – to help as a small cog within the bigger machine that saves lives. Of course during the process we are ensuring the safety of our workforce with implemented measures such as social distancing and staggered work patterns.”
District Sales Manager, Richard Nield from Master Fluid Solutions says: “This is such a positive example of local businesses coming together to support the larger cause and we are happy to help. We praise the employees at Brown and Hawthorne for coming together at this crucial time and are proud to call them our customer. Excellent job!”
