BT’s Adastral Park is co-ordinating a major effort to create thousands of protective visors for frontline health and social care workers in the East of England every week during the coronavirus pandemic.
The company’s research and innovation hub in Martlesham is working with local schools, universities and 3D printing firms to supply organisations, including the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), with the vital protective equipment.
Lisa Perkins, BT Adastral Park research and realisation director, said they developed a prototype of the widely approved PRUSA visor using a 3D printer, after hearing about the difficulties the NHS was facing in securing enough PPE.
She said: “It started off as a small request enquiring if we had any 3D printers which then grew to us taking on the whole co-ordination of producing these visors across the region.
Ms Perkins said a prototype of the visor was shown to officials at Ipswich Hospital who were so impressed that they asked if production could be ramped up immediately.
She added: “We’ve set up a production line at Adastral Park and delivered our first visors to Ipswich Hospital on 9 April. They told us they would be put to use in the intensive care unit immediately and it’s incredible to think it’s already making a difference.
“We’re working with so many great partners on this project including Stealth Mounts, Farlingaye High School and University of Suffolk, as well as Connectix Cabling Systems, Ipswich Makerspace, Kemtron and Stour Valley School. Huge numbers of individuals are also contributing using their personal 3D printers and supplies, and non-manufacturing businesses are also contributing*. We’ve only just started but the plan is to soon be producing around 3,000 visors a week.”
For further information visit the BT Adastral Park website.