Royal Mint to manufacture vital visors for NHS frontline staff
The Royal Mint is set to manufacture thousands of visors for the NHS to help protect frontline staff.
Engineers at the Royal Mint created an approved medical design in just 48 hours.
The first batch are already in use at The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales.
The Royal Mint usually produces coins, bullion and gifts, but engineers have come to the aid of NHS workers.
They began searching for medical equipment which could be easily produced on site and after founding a rudimentary design for a medical visor online, began developing high specification prototypes.
They turned the concept into an approved design in just two days.
The first batch of visors are already in use at The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales.
The visors will be made available to Cwm Tax Morgannwg University Health Board Wales.
However, the Royal Mint has said it has the capacity to produce thousands per day if it can secure enough raw components.
It has appealed to manufacturers across the UK to help source 1.0mm PET clear plastic, which is currently in low supply.
The Royal Mint’s director of operations, Leighton John, said: “My sister works for the NHS and it really focuses your mind on the challenges they are facing, and the opportunity we have to support them.
“On Wednesday at 9am we knew nothing about medical visors, but 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.
The Royal Mint is set to post the specifications of its design on its website to enable other firms to follow suit.