South West Ireland-based T & T Precision Ltd was established in 1996 with the aim of supplying tailored engineering and tooling solutions to local industry.

Brothers Victor and Finbarr Twohig were tool-makers by trade and trained in electronics, but they noticed that much ofthis work was going abroad, while the medical-device industry in Cork was growing.

With the help of some grants — and still holding down their day jobs — they opened a 4,000ft² factory and began designing and making their own medical equipment.

They have expanded organically over the last 22 years, hand-picking both new markets and a skilled workforce during that time.

T&T’s design department is now creating work-holding solutions and robot clamping for some of the largest medical-device and aerospace companies in the world. In 2015, the company moved to a ‘state of the art’ 32,000ft² facility on the outskirts of Cork.

Already running a Haas lathe (www.haas.co.uk), it decided to invest in a Haas machining centre as well.

Victor (www.twohigprecision.com) said: “We knew Haas were very efficient, cost-effective and reliable machines. We chose a fast VF-2SS vertical machine with a five-axis trunnion, and our cycle times improved by 15% straight away.

"We found the transition to five-axis machining easy, and the gains have been huge in both the reduction of manpower and the increase in quality. The purchase coincided with an increase in our workload; the machine simply powered through the orders.”

T & T has since added a VF-5SS and eight UMC-750 universal machining centres, partly funded by government grants that are directly related to the number of people the company employs.

Victor said: “The UMCs have a smaller footprint than some of our machines but a larger work envelope. They give us more scope to machine components of greater dimensions.”