After our Managing Director, Tom Bailey, received a call from his sister (a retired NHS nurse but well connected) desperate for help getting visor, we pivoted part of our business to support Covid-19 NHS supply chain by designing and making visors.
On March 27th, we set up a community-led production initiative which saw a community hub of several hundred hobby engineers with 3D printing capabilities come together to print the plastic components for the visors. Volunteers sent their printed parts to 3P’s Warwick facilities where they were checked, sanitised, assembled into full visor kits and shipped across the country to the NHS and care-worker community.
In order to significantly increase production of the visors, Mondelez International generously funded the purchase of an Injection Moulding tool, which increased production to over 5000 visors per week. Combined with the 3D printed components, we were able to produce circa 8,000 per week. After two months of production, more than 30,000 PPE visors were produced and donated to over 350 hospitals, care homes, hospices, surgeries and other institutions in need across the UK with the help of SSC Visor Bikes, Warwickshire Visor Bikes and volunteers from Midlands Freewheelers and Orbital Direct.
To support this project, we began a crowdfunding initiative which raised over £22,000! These kind donations enabled us to purchase the tools and materials needed to produce the visor parts. This initiative was strictly not-for-profit and all visors were donated completely free of charge.
Simon Strothers, Business Development Director at 3P innovation, said: “We are truly amazed and humbled by the number of volunteers and businesses who came on board to support the visor initiative. It was amazing to see the community come together to help tackle the massive shortages off PPE that front-line workers faced. 3P would like to thank all who have supported this project, whether that’s through donations, printing 3D parts or delivering the visors. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the community and businesses.”