Introduction

Have a read about how Midtherm Laser helped bring the NHS Covid Rainbow at Russell’s Hall Hospital to life. Designed by Steve Field, this 6-metre stainless steel and glass arch celebrates our local NHS teams.

Designed by Steve Field

The 6-metre rainbow archway was designed by artist Steve Field on behalf of Dudley Council. His design combines colourful glass tiles with a laser-cut steel stencil. You can now see the Rainbow Monument outside Russell’s Hall Hospital in Dudley.

We’ve worked with Steve on several other public art projects, including the Stour Bridge Sign and The Abraham Darby Monument. You can read about those collaborations here plus many others.

Below are Steve’s original sketches for the rainbow.

Precision Laser Cutting in Design

We laser cut the sections from 5mm 304 Stainless Steel in 2023 using our 12 kW fiber laser.

Because the sculpture is so large, we split each section into multiple parts. We carefully nest parts like these to maximise material use on our 4000 mm x 2000 mm laser bed. Our cutting process ensured the design matched Steve’s detailed CAD drawings perfectly ready for glass infill and assembly.

Here are the laser-cut components Midtherm Laser produced.

Assembling the Rainbow

Vince Thompson from Iconoclast Constructs Ltd assembled the laser cut parts of the rainbow. The glass, which was added on site, is created at the Ruskin Glass Centre in Stourbridge.

The Official Unveiling

On 23rd October, myself, Alec and Shard-e from Midtherm Powder Coating visited Russell’s Hall Hospital for the official unveiling.

The monument is a symbol of Hope, courage, and community spirit celebrating our local NHS team after the challenges of the Covid pandemic. It was great to see it in real life after cutting it so long ago. It offers the added bonus of being just down the road from our factory. We will enjoy driving past the rainbow on our daily commute, knowing we played a small part in bringing it to life.

From Steve’s initial sketches to detailed AutoCAD drawings, the ideas have finally all come together along with the glass which looks beautiful. It’s incredible to see the finished monument in place after so many years in the making enhancing our local area..

Projects like this showcase how precision engineering and creative design can come together to create something meaningful. It was rewarding for our team to use laser cutting to support a piece that honours the NHS.

It looks fabulous on a night time too!

A massive thank you to Councillor Keiran Casey for his support throughout the project and for sending us some photos!

You can read more on the NHS website here

If you have an upcoming project please contact us to see if we can help. Thanks for reading!