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LuK (UK) Ltd. was formed in 1987 after the take-over of the Laycock Engineering Clutch division by LuK GmbH. The headquarters of LuK are located in Bühl, Baden on the north west corner of the Black Forest. Laycock was part of the world renowned GKN Group of companies and in its latter days had been mainly supplying double clutches to the UK tractor market. The Laycock factory was located on the South Side of Sheffield in premises dating back to the 1800's. LuK quickly came to the conclusion that a brand new facility equipped with the latest machining and assembly machines was urgently required. After negotiations with the Local Authorities the site at Waleswood, near Rotherham, was selected due to its close proximity to Junction 31 of the M1 Motorway, whilst remaining an accessible distance from Sheffield and the old Layock site. This enabled many of the personnel previously employed by Laycock to remain with the new company. The new 10,000 m2 facility was officially opened in Summer 1989 by Lord Trefgarne the Trade and Industry Minister for the region and was quickly established as the European manufacturing centre of all double clutches for the tractor market. In 1990 the first passenger car clutch assembly facility was commissioned along with machining capability for car clutch cast iron pressure plates. The first deliveries of car clutch assemblies to Ford ESI in the UK began that year. |
Since then the site has undergone three major expansion phases, the first in 1992 when 2000 m2
additional floor space was added to accommodate the transfer of Tractor Clutch Disc assembly from Bühl. In 1996 the decision was made to transfer two Car Clutch Disc assembly lines from Bühl necessitating in a further 4,000 m2 of floor area. To complement the increased production capacity, a covered shipping hall complete with two levelling docks was constructed during 1997.
By mid 1998 LuK (UK) had installed capacity to produce 3 Million Car Clutches and Discs, and up to 400,000 Tractor Double Clutches and Discs. Our major customers include: Ford, Peugeot/Citroen, Nissan, Toyota, GM, AGCO (Massey Ferguson), New Holland, Case, Renault, DaimlerChrysler and John Deere. The LuK (UK) facility has gained a reputation for Class leading quality and delivery performance and currently holds Q1 status with Ford since 1991, ISO 9002 (1995), EAQF (1997), QS9000 (1998) and VDA 6.1 (1999). With such a great deal achieved in such a short time, the future looks bright for all that work at LuK (UK). |
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