Corby firm's PPE work now supporting worldwide coronavirus battle

RS Components (RS) Corby will be helping support to frontline health workers around the world with its 3D-printed PPE after the success of its printing farm set up at the height of the coronavirus outbreak.

In April, RS set up a 3D printing 'farm' to create hundreds of visor frames which were then sent to Brackmills-based Northampton firm igus UK where protective plastic sheets were added by staff volunteers.

At the peak of the demand, more than 1,000 visors a day were sent out from their repurposed factory's emergency production line and now those left over which have not cleared new Government guidelines will be sent to countries outside the EU.

Mike Bray, group vice-president of innovation and DesignSpark at RS, said: “We are proud to be continuing to assist in the 3D printing effort.

"The UK was hit hard by the first wave of COVID-19, with global supply chains for PPE stretched to breaking point.

"Every volunteer who has given their time and effort across all of these initiatives should be very proud to have played their part."

Across the UK, owners of 3D printers were rallied by the National 3D Printing Society's (N3DPS) to produce vital PPE with donations of raw products.

Thousands of schools and businesses supported the initiative and combined with 3D Crowd UK and Makers 4 the NHS the groups, collectively producing more than 250,000 visors in just two months.

Matthew Aldridge, managing director of igus UK, said: “When we became aware of this project, we volunteered to help with the assembly of the face visors.

"Within hours the production line was set up, within days PPE was being delivered to frontline workers, all using igus people, usually working in their own time to make it happen."

Now RS will refocus its efforts on the international need for 3D-printed face visors during COVID-19 pandemic as the N3DPS UK campaign has now officially drawn to a close.

As more conventional ways of making PPE have now been able to keep up with demand, the 3D printers will be returned to their pre-pandemic uses.

Thousands of assembled visors remaining within the N3DPS' network, which have not cleared the new guidelines set by government, will instead be diverted to countries outside of the EU that are able to use them, working with the Red Cross.

RS and igus are working to explore support for other initiatives in Africa and Moldova respectively.

Any remaining funds from the £14,472 crowdfunded for the N3DPS campaign, are being donated to MedSupplyDrive UK, an organisation run by volunteer NHS doctors and medical students to purchase PPE for frontline workers.

MedSupplyDrive UK has been a key partner in the initiative, alongside igus, RS Components, ByBox, the Gap Partnership, SHIELD and the Nottinghamshire Community Foundation.

Mr Bray added: “Whilst not all of the visors will be heading to the UK frontline workers as originally intended, they will still be helping to save lives across the world and that is no small achievement.

“The increased number of injection moulding companies now producing large quantities is helping to ensure that the demand within the UK will be supported.

"We are continuing to work with the Office for Product Safety and Standards to clarify guidance, specifically around the inclusion of heat testing in the CE Marking process and the liability for volunteer groups.

"This will enable 3D printing solutions to step up again in the UK as and when needed.

“As our focus moves towards supporting health-care workers from across the globe, we would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the initiative to-date, including members of our own DesignSpark engineering platform.

"The community spirit and resolve to help has been a huge positive during this time, and we continue to urge people to produce emergency equipment for frontline healthcare workers wherever it’s needed. We are one community, supporting each other in facing the same challenges from COVID-19.”

Mr Aldridge added: "We are proud to have been part of this community effort and believe that it is very important that we are able to help people around the globe who are fighting Covid-19 using the remaining visors.”

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