City university has designs on ramping up mask production
the team supplied more than 200 visors and continues to 3D-print and assemble the safety equipment, following strict sterilisation procedures for ICU requirements.
Roger O’Brien, director at AMAP, said: “We had a rota of staff working from 7am until midnight over the Easter weekend to produce and assemble the visors to meet the demand.
“In addition to our own efforts, where we have 12 printers running around the clock, there are various manufacturing, from small companies to large, who are helping us by 3D-printing our frame design.
“We then quality control what is produced, sterilises it and assemble the finished product, adding the visors, forehead protection and retaining straps, all of which have also been sterilised by processes agreed with the clinicians.”
As well as use in hospitals, demand for the protective equipment has also come from North East GP surgeries, prisons and care homes, while charity Age UK have also been in touch to request supplies
Roger said: “We are currently working with a local manufacturing company to invest in an injection mould tool. This will enable us to scale up the operation from producing around 100 face shields per day to many thousands. We are hopeful these can be in production very soon.
“This tooling will be supported as well by grant funding from our SAM (Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing) project with the SME involved.”
The production has also been supported by companies attached to the SAM project – including Pilgrim Gin which supplied denaturalised alcohol used for part of the sterilisation process.