AMRC Cymru to be part of Ventilator Challenge effort

The AMRC Cymru is one of several key sites set to host the rapid manufacturing of ventilators as part of a consortium of businesses united under the VentilatorChallengeUK initiative.

Building on a UK-wide effort, manufacturing will begin in early April at the Welsh Government-owned facility at Broughton, which is managed by the University of Sheffield’s renowned Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).

The VentilatorChallengeUK consortium includes AMRC Cymru anchor tenant Airbus, along with BAE systems, Rolls Royce, GKN Aerospace and Siemens UK among others, who have taken many of their best people from key projects and dedicated significant resources to serve the national need.

The group will harness their collective design, development and manufacturing capabilities to rapidly produce much needed ventilators for the NHS. They have received an order to produce at least 10,000 units from the UK Government.

Minister for North Wales Ken Skates said: “I’d like to thank all the great businesses involved in the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium for their brilliance and innovation at this time of crisis. I’m so pleased that Airbus can use the state-of-the-art facilities at AMRC Cymru to help manufacture ventilators and that they are taking part in this important national project to save lives.  When we opened the AMRC Cymru last year we could not have foreseen it would play such a critical role at this time of national emergency.

Martin Bolton, Head of Assembly, Wing of Tomorrow, at Airbus said: “Airbus has a crucial role to play in the fight against COVID-19.  We are part of the VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium focused on accelerating the production of life-saving ventilators in support of the NHS. Our engineers and technology teams are working flat out to respond to the challenge and I’m proud to be a part of the team.”

Katherine Bennett CBE, SVP Airbus in the UK, said:  “The fight against Covid-19 affects every one of us. Airbus is part of the VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium and is using its industrial skills to rapidly scale up the production of ventilators to support the NHS and help save lives. I would like to thank all of our employees involved for their fantastic commitment to help the UK at this time.”

More details about the Ventilator Challenge are available here: http://www.ventilatorchallengeuk.com/