Sale of Rugby Electric Motor plant by US based GE

[Tomvart]

Closure of GE Rugby electric motor plant now threatens the future supply of RN propulsion systems - as last year the US giant announced it plans to close its UK Power Conversion plant in Rugby in 2019.

This plant currently designs and manufactures most of the RNs power systems (QEC, T45) as well as those for some of the newer USN ships (e.g Zumwalt class), It is also designing and manufacturing the new 'stealthy' poweplants for the new Type 26 and 31 Frigates - so this closure will also impact on UK foreign sales worth billions (Canada and Australia at the moment - likely more to come) as these ships also share the same powerplants as the RN ships.

GE have stated that they plan to move operations from the UK to France by the end of 2019 - to a factory with little / no experience (or the facilities) to conduct this type of defence manufacturing.

Essentially much of the work at the Rugby factory is of a 'nationally sensitive' nature, and should not be moved overseas, this will threaten not just UK manufacturing jobs and high end UK skills, but also our national security - and could potentially leave the T26 with an inferior (and foreign) propulsion system.

The now struggling US giant, GE bought the owners of RMR, Converteam in 2011. Not surprisingly - they now want to restructure (this smacks of the Cadburys/Kraft take over and subsequent factory closures).

Some capability 'tech' details from 'Save the Royal' Navy Website:

"The Power Conversion site in Rugby has been manufacturing electrical components for the RN since the First World War. (Sometimes referred to as the Rotating Machines, Rugby (RMR) Factory). The site has unique manufacturing capabilities needed to produced quiet and shock-resistant electric motors for naval applications. In the recent past they manufactured the Advanced Induction Motors (AIM) for the Type 45 destroyers and the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. They have also made the very high specification ultra-quiet motors needed for submarine hunting for the first three Type 26 Frigates. Around 90% of the current Naval Service fleet have GE-made electrical equipment on board.
RMR has the largest air vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) tank in the world. This tank is used to seal the insulation in high-voltage motors and generators. The VPI process prevents leaks and corrosion while improving heat dissipation making for efficient, reliable long-life motors. Also on the site is a 250-tonne gantry crane and many other facilities that cannot simply be popped on the back of a lorry and moved to France. The factory has been built up over decades with considerable investment in large, complex and highly engineered plant that would cost £millions to relocate or replicate elsewhere. Of course, more valuable even than the plant is the existing workforce of dedicated people with decades of accumulated specialist experience in naval electrical component manufacture."


Link to the full Save the Royal Navy article here, the article also has an interesting video excerpt of the House of Commons Defence Committee taking evidence on the proposed closure from Union Reps on 23 April.

We need some government action here to stop GE destroying what little defence manufacturing we have left in our country - once its gone, we will never get it back!

[Engine Serang]

Is there a market other than the R N ?

[BobClay]

My hometown Stafford used to be the home of English Electric, with an enormous factory that employed close to 10,000. They made just about the entire range of heavy electric equipment.

It got took over by GE and then Alstom, gradually being whittled away. They recently closed the turbine generator section saying the work would go to Rugby. There's very little left now, and nobody is sure what the future of it is.

When I left school for a while I worked in the brand new state of the art English Electric MRI (meters, relays and intruments) factory. Last August I was up in my hometown to see it being demolished.

Somebody somewhere needs a rotating cactus up their orifices for the way they've allowed big foreign companies to take over and then wind down our industry.

[Tomvart]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

Is there a market other than the R N ?

According to the report some of the newer USN ships, Canadian warships with lots of future potential international sales with the 26/31E designs.

[Tomvart]

Same happened up in my hometown when Siemens bought the old Parsons Turbine plant in Heaton, production moved overseas when times got tough.
BAE systems (who inherited the old English Electric Plant from BAC/British Aerospace at Warton) seem to be going the same way with an over reliance on the MOD obsessively purchasing aircraft from US suppliers, much to the detriment of what little is left of the U.K. Military aviation industry, and of course, self destructive 'so called' Joint projects such as the JSF, essentially relegating BAE (UK) to metal bashing roles, whilst all of the lucrative system integration tasks (and in service support work) go to the US too.

[erimus]

But if some of these takeovers had not happened then plants may have closed a long time before.

geoff

[BobClay]

English Electric Stafford was going strong when it got took over. What better way to remove your competitors than to take them over and asset strip. 'Ifs' and 'mays' simply don't cut it.

[Tomvart]

Totally agree Bob - The pioneering spirit English Electric (Aircraft) was essentially destroyed by multiple forced mergers - all initiated by Government meddling in the 60's - It seemed that they had such a bright future until the mergers undermined pretty much everything they did well - being innovative and bold (just look at the Canberra & Lightning if you need proof of that).

The end result today - a highly risk averse and management top heavy BAE Systems, 60% of which is in the US. All of that bold innovation has been slowly beaten out of them since the TSR2 debacle.

Geoff - You may have a valid point with Parsons though, as they were taken over by a succession of different companies in the 80's, (RR included I think) - none of which could really re-establish themselves in the Turbine market, marine or civil. I think the massive Heaton plant is still there under Siemens ownership - but they don't 'make stuff' any more (more of a servicing depot I think), they only employ a few hundred rather than the 10,000 or so on the payroll there in the 60's, with production being moved overseas (with much of the plant equipment).

My late old man (a Geordie marine engineer who served some of his time there and in Wallsend before the war) would have been turning in his grave had he known that a German company had taken over an institution such as Parsons - he wasn't a great fan of Adolf & Co!

[Dartskipper]

Another old British manufacturer closed some years ago in Northampton and Daventry. Timken, famous for heavy duty roller bearings. Both sites are now apartment blocks and houses. There was an SKF factory in Luton, but that became just a "distribution" centre I believe.

[Ron Stringer]

Hoffman's, the UK's first ball bearing factory was established in Chelmsford in 1898 and produced ball and roller bearings as well as many specialised types of bearing. By the end of WW1 it employed almost 5,000 people - far more than the Marconi Company across the road from its factory and eventually became the town's biggest single employer, with more than 7,500 workers in a factory covering 50 acres.

During WW2 the factory was a regular target for the Luftwaffe, suffering both loss of life and significant damage but production was never stopped.

At the end of the 1960s it amalgamated with Ransome & Marles to become Ransom, Hoffman and Pollard (RHP) but eventually closed just before Christmas in 1989. A much-resented present for the town.

[Engine Serang]

I don't think there is a town in UK or indeed most of Western Europe that hasn't been destroyed by a major employer closing. Unfortunately that is the business cycle.

[BobClay]

The cycle that moves production to China (the latest way to fatten your wallet) to improve profit with no concern whatsoever for the inevitable result. Business never ever pays any heed to history. It certainly has no concept of potential instability. Just next years figures.

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

I don't think there is a town in UK or indeed most of Western Europe that hasn't been destroyed by a major employer closing. Unfortunately that is the business cycle.

There is still a bad atmosphere in Luton over the closing of the Vauxhall factory. The announcement was made one December shortly after a new MD had been appointed. The plant was one of the most efficient in General Motors Europe, with the lowest reject rate on the assembly line. The site is now housing. My Dad visited the factory before WWII when he was at Leyton Technical College. I think the experience made his mind up to take up a career at sea.

[ALARIC]

Have belatedly just come across this thread, all the posts bear witness to the many dreadful mistakes made by both government and owners always seeking quick profits.
The demise of the Rugby plant is particularly disappointing as they designed and were due to build the tidal turbine-generators for the Swansea Lagoon scheme. Earlier this year our incredibly short sighted government withdrew support from this reliable green method of generating power in favour of the Chinese nuclear station on the other side of the Bristol Channel.