Monkton Design Department make protective visors for the RUH Bath
The Monkton Design department have spent much of the last week joining the effort, like many schools, to play their part in supporting the NHS in the fightback against Covid-19 by producing over 100 full face visors for use as PPE by health professionals, with the entire stock to date being requested by the RUH Bath.
A Design Technology forum set up to support this effort included the idea of producing these visors to help fill the shortfall and prevent infection for hospital workers. A collaboration of DT teachers around the country then came up with a design which is what Monkton staff have been working to.
Monkton Design have produced 3 versions: a 3D printed version that takes 4 hours to make each one, a laser cut visor where they can produce 20 per hour and a handmade visor manufactured through batch production, where they can produce 40+ an hour. The latest version is a more eco-friendly cardboard headband as the visors are designed only for single use.
They have liaised with the Head of Operational Procurement at the RUH, who is getting the visors approved for use through infection control, but his team have said they will take as many as we can make.
DT Teacher Will Judd said:
"We have a small team of Art and DT staff working on this but it is good to be able to be useful in this time of national crisis. Yesterday we received a further request to make more visors for the 26 GP practices in BANES so we are sourcing an extra laser cutter as it looks like we will be kept busy!"
This is only a part of our initiative to offer support to our hard pressed healthcare workers which has also included donating science lab goggles to South Western Ambulance Service, providing local GP's with the DT departments Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and offering beds to healthcare workers who need to stay nearer the hospital.
Chris Wheeler, Principal, said:
"Like everyone in the face of this unprecedented national emergency, we are just looking for the ways we can play our part and support the NHS and our local community. I am hugely grateful to the staff for supporting in this way and to those frontline healthcare workers who are doing such an amazing job across the country. We have been hugely grateful for the messages of support for this initiative from across the local community and from our own parent body."
