A CREDITON business chief has said he is immensely proud of his staff who have worked night and day to produce urgently-required ventilator machine parts which are so essential in the fight against the coronavirus.

David Pike, chief executive officer of Graphic plc, printed circuit board manufacturer based on the Lords Meadow Industrial Estate, made the comments after his staff worked throughout the Easter Bank Holiday weekend to produce the ventilator machine parts.

It was the government which recently announced the Ventilator ChallengeUK.

The government asked British Industry to facilitate the production of more than 30,000 medical ventilator machines in just a few short weeks.

Key industry players such as Dyson, Formula One, BAE, Ford Motors and Airbus are included within the selected firms who are taking part in the scheme.

David confirmed that alongside this, many of Graphic plc’s own customers outside of this list have been playing vital roles with the manufacture of parts and supporting assembly of vital medical technology.

"I am proud that Graphic plc proudly stepped up to support the government’s call to make NHS ventilators and other medical equipment by manufacturing critically-required Printed Circuit Boards from our 24-hour PCB facility in Crediton.

"These medical orders are given top priority by our highly skilled workforce, with many of the pre-production orders manufactured in under 24 hours!

"The first of these deliveries has already been produced and assembled by the end customer.

"I am immensely proud of all our team at Graphic who are working exceptionally hard 24-hours, seven-days-a-week, in order to produce the medical printed circuit boards as quickly as possible to help in the supply of thousands of ventilator parts which will help to save people’s lives.”

Mr Pike explained: “On Thursday night (April 9) at 8pm we were set a challenge by our customer to deliver a new set of prototype boards to be delivered to Scotland by midnight on Good Friday (April 10).

"The boards were completed in record time at Graphic and couriered into Exeter Airport.

"Due to the urgency of this project the end customer had organised for Exeter Airport to remain open long enough to accept their specially chartered plane and on picking up its urgent cargo it flew back to Scotland where a team of Electronic Engineers worked through the night to assemble the boards and have them ready for testing on the Saturday morning.

"This was such a success that the production was released and Graphic staff worked tirelessly during the rest of the Easter weekend to continue to produce 10,000 boards as soon as possible.

"This could not have happened without the dedication and flexibility of Graphic’s staff who have taken up the challenge in wanting ‘to do their bit’ against this terrible virus.”