Contrary to latest reports highlighting UK companies turning to overseas suppliers, as a UK manufacturer we’re proud to have taken up the critical PPE baton, directly destined for UK heroes facing COVID-19 on the frontline.
Approached by two UK companies in the last few weeks, we have rapidly applied our design, tool and injection moulding capabilities to critical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) production, destined for UK heroes and heroines working in the NHS, care homes and out on the roads delivering food, medical aid and supplies to those in isolation.
The scale of this pandemic has weighed heavily on us all and as experienced UK plastic injection manufacturers we were keen to step up. So, when we were approached by UK design innovators to engineer their clip-on visor shields Capit for delivery drivers and Protecting Heroes to assist in large scale manufacture of NHS protective face shields, we didn’t hesitate. The last few weeks has seen a monumental, collaborative effort from our small but agile team to respond quickly to both rapid injection tooling projects.
Experienced and multi-skilled with design, tooling and moulding teams working metres from one other, under one roof, the BEC team have absolutely stepped up.
We are working closely with Capit on the tooling for their protective visor system, ensuring its suitability for mass production in a short time frame, taking the project from idea to final drawings in hours, rather than days. Simultaneously, conducting efficient design for manufacture, tool manufacture and material selection, all the while liaising with Protecting Heroes. This was done in parallel with their prototypes being tested by the Critical Care team at the Royal London Hospital, so as not to waste any time getting into production.
Ensuring full compliance with stringent quality control guidelines set down by Public Health England for both PPE projects, has lead to the development of protective face shields which exceed standards.
Paul Holland, our Head of Design & Innovation explained “our design for manufacture reviews, including thorough Moldflow analyses, have enabled us to assist and make informed decisions in hours, rather than days. This ensured that the tools we make are as efficient as possible, to help get PPE into production as quickly as possible and out to our incredible frontline workers where they are needed. A superb collaborative effort.”
The result: comfortable, secure, flexible, resilient and easy to use face shields scheduled to protect our #nhsheroes and #frontliners.
To ease the burden, we’ve donated a lot of time for free, often working through the night to meet critical deadlines, so we can move into production quicker. A big thank you to our staff, suppliers and of course our customers, as we concentrate on this essential work.
We look forward to telling you more about these fabulous projects so watch this space.
