Smart jigs for fast trains

KM Tools has delivered smart jigs for the fabrication and welding of high speed trains to Hitachi Rail’s Newton Aycliffe production plant.

The contract awarded to KM Tools, a specialist manufacturer of bespoke machinery, covers the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of the jigs.

Neil Harrison, Sales Manager at KM Tools, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this contract from a market-leading OEM such as Hitachi Rail. Our turnkey engineering service for specialised production machinery proved an ideal fit for this highprofile contract. Experience of working closely with other OEMs in the automotive and rail sectors also ensured we had the right engineering expertise and capacity to support large, modern production lines like Hitachi’s in Newton Aycliffe.”

Hitachi Rail’s advanced facility at Newton Aycliffe is the result of a £110m investment by the company. The facility has already delivered 122 pioneering trains for the Department for Transport’s InterCity Express Programme (IEP) for the East Coast and Great Western Main Line as well as 70 all electric commuter trains for ScotRail. The facility will also build trains for the wider UK network.

The jigs provided by KM Tools allow the main sub-assemblies (floor, sides and roof) to be held in position for welding and finishing. Each jig has been manufactured entirely in-house by KM Tools in Staffordshire to Hitachi Rail specifications. KM Tools is also providing on-site technical and maintenance support to Hitachi manufacturing teams.

Mark Snowdon, Quality Engineer at Hitachi Rail, added: “KM Tools has been absolutely fantastic from the beginning. The company has been completely professional all the way through, and its engineering capabilities are second to none. We look forward to working with KM Tools again and are already planning future ventures with them.” 8 kmt.tools/

Rebrand for NDI

Make UK has re-launched its specialist defence and space Trade Association, formerly NDI, as Make UK Defence.

NDI was launched twenty years ago as the Northern Defence Initiative by the North East Development Agency to help regional businesses to win work on the then fledgling Aircraft Carrier programme. Since those early days as a regional trade body, Make UK Defence has become one of two national Defence Trade Associations recognised by the

Smart jigs for fast trains

Ministry of Defence (MOD), with nearly 300 members spread across the whole of the UK.

In particular, Make UK Defence works across the UK supply chain, especially with SMEs and midtiers helping to make connections and develop supply chains for many of the UK’s most critical defence programmes. It acts as a leading critical interface with the major Prime Contractors in these sectors and has recently become the lead Trade Association for the MOD’s new Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) Working Group with the industry co-Chair drawn from Make UK’s membership. This Group has an important role in improving engagement between the MOD, major Prime Contractors and the SME and mid-tier Supply Chain, especially as the MOD wants to spend around 25% of its total budget with SMEs by 2022.

Make UK Defence is a division of Make UK, The Manufacturers’ Organisation.

Collectively it represents 20,000 companies of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals, across engineering, manufacturing, technology and the wider industrial sector. 8 makeuk.org