There is no end in sight to the serious global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). But resourceful British engineers and entrepreneurs are finding that there is one part of the PPE armoury that can be created in the UK cheaply and relatively easily – the visor, or face shield.
And now Mail Force, the new charity for procuring PPE for our medical front line, is enthusiastically exploring ways of scaling up production of this vital bit of kit, using home-grown components and British know-how.
There have already been some excellent examples at the local level. Several British schools – including Haileybury, alma mater of the NHS’s godfather, Clement Attlee – have turned over their design and technology workshops to the production of visors for grateful local hospitals and care homes.
This week, Mail Force has been visiting several companies that have quickly adapted to the demands of the coronavirus epidemic, doing the same sort of thing but on a much larger scale. In one case, a small Lancashire operation has switched to producing reusable face shields. Their simple process could allow them to equip the entire NHS in just a couple of weeks.
Until the outbreak, the 20-strong workforce at Agenda Boxes (pictured) and Packaging were producing boxes and cartons for the retail and restaurant industries. Now, the two owners have designed a simple face shield which can be turned out at a rate of two million a week at less than £2 a time
Mail Force, the new charity for procuring PPE for our medical front line, is enthusiastically exploring ways of scaling up production of this vital bit of kit, using home-grown components and British know-how. Pictured: Someone in Agenda Boxes’ PPE
Until the outbreak, the 20-strong workforce at Agenda Boxes and Packaging were producing boxes and cartons for the retail and restaurant industries. Now, the two owners have designed a simple face shield which can be turned out at a rate of two million a week at less than £2 a time.
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The company has already donated thousands to local hospitals, care homes and hospices, while maintaining a steady output for businesses now preparing for their returning workforces.
Masks which cover the mouth and nose can be crucial in preventing inhalation of germs. A visor, however, prevents infection via the eyes or facial skin.
Such shields are essential when medical staff are undertaking what are known as ‘aerosol-generating procedures’ – which could cause the virus to disperse in the air – such as when they are working at close quarters with an infected patient.
But before they can be supplied in bulk to the NHS and the care sector, they need to pass the requisite certification tests laid down by Public Health England. Agenda Packaging is now going down that route.
‘We’re hoping to get our test results back in the next ten days or so and then we can really scale things up,’ says co-owner Andy Clarkson, 46. ‘We’re really only looking to cover our costs. This is really about doing our bit to help the country.’
You could hardly find a more British address than this small factory at Albert Mill in the town of Nelson.
The company may be up against the huge international PPE producers in places such as China and Indonesia. But Andy knows all about being a minnow versus the giants.
For three years during the Nineties he played full-back for nearby Accrington Stanley, while that famous old club was still fighting its way out of the doldrums and back to the Football League (where it resides today). ‘It was while I was playing for them that the chairman gave me my first job in packaging – and I’ve never looked back,’ says Andy. Five years ago, he and his friend Gary Barker set up Agenda and recently invested £600,000 in a machine for corrugating packaging materials. When the market slumped two months ago, they decided to reconfigure the machine to produce a simple, three-part face shield instead.
The machine now takes sheets of low-density, anti-fogging PVC (made in Blackburn) and presses them into face shields and wrap-around straps. A third component is a foam strip (made in West Bromwich) which holds the visor away from the face. The three parts are then packed into boxes, along with instructions on how to put them together.
Ready to wear: Staff at the The Lakes in Dukinfield with their Mail Force delivery. Pictured from left to right: Sue Houston, Lisa Cannon, Beverley Craig and Annette Peace
It only takes a few seconds to push the strap and the foam into place, but making it a self-assembly product means it is cheaper and more compact.
‘We can press four sheets at a time and turn out a million a week, though if the demand was there, we could put on a night shift and double that number again,’ says Gary, 37, whose girlfriend Chantel is a nurse at the local hospital.
Here, once again, is a small British outfit on the cusp of making a substantial contribution to the fight against coronavirus.
I have come across a similar story in Cheshire at Tibard, a company that has been making quality clothing equipment for the hospitality industry for more than 40 years.
Covid-19, inevitably, has been catastrophic for the restaurant trade. However, Tibard took an instant decision to turn its hand to making scrubs for local hospitals and has since produced more than 60,000. In recent days, it has also secured a good supply of a licensed, washable, fluid-resistant material and has started to make reusable isolation gowns. These are now among the most in-demand, must-have items in hospitals all around the world.
Inevitably, British businesses are never going to be able to produce PPE at the same volume or price as global mass-producers in the industrial centres of the Far East.
The NHS and charities such as Mail Force will continue to source essential kit wherever it can be found as quickly as possible – and that means importing the bulk of it.
A global pandemic demands global solutions. A ‘buy British’ policy can only go so far and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise. Nonetheless, it is uplifting to see just how much reliable, good quality PPE – which simply didn’t exist two months ago – is now to be found right here on our doorstep.
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