OUR NHS PARTNER HELPS JAGUAR LAND ROVER INNOVATE IN FIGHT AGAINST COVID19
8 April 2020
One of our NHS partners is at the centre of manufacturing innovation in the fight against COVID-19.
Car giant Jaguar Land Rover is supporting South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust by producing reusable protective face visors for frontline health and care staff.
Clinicians at the Trust – together with colleagues at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – advised JLR engineers on the design of the visors.
JLR used state-of-the-art 3D printing at its Advanced Product Creation Centre in Gaydon to produce an initial 1,300, with plans for mass production.
Images have emerged of UK medical staff looking bruised after wearing uncomfortable face visors and masks for long periods amid a national shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
The JLR visors have been designed to be more comfortable, and easily dismantled and cleaned before being repeatedly reused.
JLR’s innovative work is a response to Government appeals to industries and manufacturers to help develop PPE and ventilators for the NHS.
It now aims to produce 5,000 visors a week for NHS Trusts across the country.
A spokesperson for JLR said: “Pre-line trials have already taken place with a team of healthcare professionals at the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. Using rapid prototyping technology enabled the engineers to work through several iterations of the design in under a week, allowing for medical staff to feed back and improvements to be made.”
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Glen Burley said: “We are extremely grateful to Jaguar Land Rover for their kind donation of visors to aid our frontline staff in the fight against COVID-19. The innovation from their designers and engineers is helping the NHS to keep our staff safe and protected while they provide care to our patients.”