ETG Ireland medicine for engineers
At the recent Engineering Technology Group (ETG) Open House event in Ireland, MTD Magazine’s Paul Jones spoke with ETG’s Jamie Fletcher to discuss the differences between the Irish market and the rest of the UK and how ETG addresses the needs of manufacturers on the Emerald Isle. It comes as no surprise that the medical industry is a major driving force behind the local manufacturing economy.
Commenting upon the strong performance of Irish industry over the last couple of years, Jamie told MTD: “A lot of the growth is credit to the medical industry in Ireland, especially in the southern part of Ireland. We have a lot of US companies over here with the likes of Stryker, Depuy and Zimmerman who are all very big players in their respective fields. Of course, there is a big subcontract supply chain that is supporting those companies.”
Underpinning this statement is the fact that Ireland’s medical technology sector accounts for 300 companies employing over 32,000 people and it has become one of the world’s leading clusters for medical products, now representing 8% of all merchandise exports from Ireland. The value of the sector to the Irish export economy now stands at £12.6bn. Furthermore, 8 of the world’s top 10 medical technology manufacturers have a facility or manufacturing base in Ireland.
Reflecting upon why the sector is so strong in the area, Jamie says: “The medical sector is well established in Ireland and has been here for years. With the bigger companies located here, they have made a major investment in the sector, the technology and the immediate supply chain. For example, Stryker has an innovation centre of excellence in Cork and they also have a facility in Limerick with a centre of excellence for automation. So, these companies are focusing upon certain specialism’s in particular geographical areas and then investing heavily in the respective areas.”
“From an ETG perspective, we’re not just selling solutions to the OEM market, we are working with the subcontract supply chain that feeds into the OEMs. With regard to our sales in Ireland, especially in the south, almost 70% of our machine tool sales are into the medical sector. The likes of Stryker and Depuy are always investing in R&D and developing the next generation of medical technology. As they continue to keep this investment and R&D local, that can only help the local supply chain and ETG from a business perspective.”
“The majority of what ETG does in Ireland is knee and hip implants and all the associated components. This means we are working with titanium, cobalt chrome or plastic implants in many instances.” Referring to the challenges ETG and its medical industry customers face in Ireland, Jamie says: “Some of the difficult things we are working with, include the materials and this then then becomes a tooling issue. So, we have to work very closely with cutting tool manufacturers in Ireland to develop solutions. At this event, we have people here that only work in the medical sector and they are developing tools for that industry.”
“Additionally, when the OEMs come to us, they want an ‘all-in-one’ solution and this sits perfectly with ETG, our product range and particularly the Chiron range. This is because we can work with Chiron who can develop any type of automation system. They have the expertise in clamping, robot loading and other aspects and this allows us to build a suitable automation system to support the customers looking for automated manufacturing.”
“Surface finishes in the medical sector are more critical than in most industries, so here, we have to work very closely with the cutting tool manufacturers. You need a combination of high-end accurate machines, a high level of repeatability and even vibration dampening in the spindle. We have done a lot of work at our facility with the cutting tool companies to create solutions for specific medical manufacturers. So, it’s essential that we have that relationship to supply the most applicable solution for the customer.”
Whilst the medical industry is a major contributor to ETG machine tool purchases in Ireland, Jamie concludes: “With 70% of Southern Ireland sales allocated to the medical industry, the north of Ireland has more of an aerospace bias. At present, we are seeing a lot of new aerospace work come to Ireland and this is largely in the South. Simultaneously, we have the Southern Ireland subcontract supply chain making considerable efforts to enter the aerospace market. Regardless of whether manufacturers specialise in the medical, aerospace or even automotive industries, our facility at ETG Ireland can cater for the diverse needs of the market place.”
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