Next month marks the start of an exciting new chapter at Halewood as we open our first ever T&PPG Die Manufacturing Centre, following a £1.4M investment from UK Manufacturing, which will support the production of future products.
This pioneering programme will see the installation of a state of the art 5 axis machine which will allow Halewood to manufacture press tools on-site, for the first time in its 58 year history.
Blanking dies are used to make the shaped pieces out of the steel sheets, which takes place at the start of the stamping process, during new car production.
Speaking about the new Die Manufacturing Centre, Halewood’s T&PPG manager, Niall Ford, said: “This is huge news for Halewood as the manufacturing of raw cast iron press tools has never been done before as we’ve previously used external suppliers to do this which comes at a significant cost.
“It’s a decision that has come directly from the UK Executive Manufacturing Director, Grant McPherson and shows huge confidence, not just in our plant but our people, who will be building these tools with their very own hands.
“It will allow us to invest in our workforce as well as build skills across the region. For the first time ever, our workforce and apprentices will be trained in the new processes and hand skills required to build and operate dies, which means we can maintain and attract the best talent at Halewood.”
The civil and ground works for the new Die Manufacturing Centre have already commenced with the installation of the new 5 axis machine taking place next month.
Niall said: “This will be the biggest machine of its kind across all JLR sites- so it’s a real coup its coming here and means Halewood will have the largest capacity to manufacture dies in-house, which is huge step towards our future.”
Asked what is next for the Press Shop, Niall added: It’s the first and very important step in our new business model where our vision is to manufacture full die sets at Halewood- so we’ve told Grant to keep his phone at the ready as I am confident we will be back for more dies very soon!”
