Waddington Europe, a European thermoforming packaging company has joined forces with longstanding customer and partner Ricoh 3D to help bolster the national manufacturing and supply chain effort to provide supplies of personal protective equipment for the NHS.
Ricoh 3D were approached by The Royal London Hospital. Since then, countless NHS trusts and medical establishments have come forward requesting support, with Ricoh now fulfilling mass production of 40,000 face shields per week.
Following a swift response to source and produce the plastic visor component of the face shield, Waddington Europe’s Bridgwater based in house design and development team produced and laser cut two initial design options with amendments to the position of the visor holes, so that the visors could be made on their thermoform machines.
Samples were dispatched within 12 hours of receiving the request, so that Ricoh could assemble and present the prototype visor to the NHS for approval within 24 hours.
Eduardo Gomes, Waddington Europe, Managing Director, said: “The coronavirus outbreak requires support and collaboration from all manufacturing and supply chain companies, and we are pleased to be working in solidarity to support the increased production of PPE and medical supplies to the NHS.”