British design and manufacture

Made in Britain CEO John Pearce said: “In the tenth year of the Made in Britain initiative, I’m delighted to announce a new collaboration with the British Design Fund. This partnership will enable us to play a greater role in connecting innovative, young British companies with a wide spectrum of experienced manufacturers within our community to help turn their ideas and IP into a reality.”

British Design Fund CEO Damon Bonser said: “At the British Design Fund, we celebrate and support the design and innovation skills which drive so much of our growth in Britain - so we are delighted to be partnering with Made in Britain to support more of the great ideas produced in the UK being manufactured in this country too.”

The two organisations are jointly launching a series of webinars that will be held during the first half of 2023. The first webinar will take place in January 2023 to introduce the British Design Fund to Made in Britain’s community of manufacturing companies – with a focus on how the BDF selects investments, supports and mentors some of the UK’s brightest entrepreneurs. 8 madeinbritain.org britishdesignfund.co.uk

NTG has put its first machine into a new facility in Gateshead and at the same time has increased its 5-axis machining capacity.

The subcontract manufacturer remains on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead, but has massively increased the size of its premises, up to 45,000 sq ft, from 18,000 sq ft.

The first machine into the new facility was a new state-of-the-art Mazak VARIAXIS i-800 NEO, a move that is designed to both increase NTG’s 5-axis machining capacity and enable the company to enter new markets.

Mike Hutchinson, Group Managing Director at NTG Holdings, said the investment in both the new facility and the new machining technology opens up opportunities for his company.

“Our 5-axis capability has become a bottleneck due to demand from customers for this type of complex work. The new machine will enable us to offer shorter lead times by reducing the restrictions around our 5-axis work.”

The VARIAXIS i-800 NEO is a 5axis vertical machining center that delivers advanced high-speed multiple-surface machining in an exceptionally large machining area that enables the production of larger diameter parts.

The VARIAXIS becomes the first machine into NTG’s new facility and will be followed by another 50 machines that will be transferred to the new facility in the coming weeks, including Mazak turning centres, INTEGREX