UK’s Royal Mint making Covid-19 protective gear
LONDON: The Royal Mint, the world’s largest maker and supplier of coins, has started manufacturing visors for Britain’s medical staff to protect them from coronavirus.
Engineers at the Mint created the visors after finding a basic design online and developing medically-approved prototypes within 48 hours at their production site in Wales.
The first visors are already in use at a hospital in Wales.
The Mint says it can produce thousands of visors per day if it can get enough parts and is now appealing to manufacturers across the UK to help it source enough clear plastic, which is currently in short supply.
The simple design comprises a clear plastic shield which covers the worker’s face, held in place by a piece of elastic.
“My sister works for the National Health Service and it really focuses your mind on the challenges they are facing,” said Leighton John, director of operations at the Royal Mint.
“We set our engineers the task of developing essential medical equipment which could be easily made on site — within seven hours they’d created a medical visor, and within 48 hours it was approved for mass manufacture,” he said.
As the virus sweeps the country, the Mint is the latest in a number of companies taking on new operations as part of a nationwide effort to support the NHS.
Vacuum cleaner company Dyson Ltd was recruited to supply hospitals with 10,000 medical ventilators designed at breakneck speed ahead of an expected surge of cases, and outsourcer Capita Plc announced that was working with the government to provide coronavirus testing sites.