Nissan's UK plant to deliver 100,000 face visors per week to NHS
Hundreds of thousands of face visors will be delivered to the NHS from Nissan's Sunderland plant. A team of volunteers has created an assembly line at the company’s Sunderland plant to sort thousands of parts and pack them in sets of 125. They will be delivered to frontline workers.
More than 77,000 visors will leave the plant by the end of this week, with up to 100,000 being distributed each week, from next week.
In the first phase of the project, the team took delivery of hundreds of boxes of visor parts from volunteers from across the country who have been using their 3D printers to make the PPE.
'It’s great to be able to play our part in helping to provide the NHS with these visors. Our people are experts in the logistics behind an effective supply chain, and we certainly weren’t short of volunteers for this project.'
– ADAM PENNICK, NISSAN’S PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
The project was inspired by four brothers, two of whom, Anthony and Chris Grilli, work for Nissan. Production was initially kicked off with the support of crowd funding and used banks of 3D printers at the Grillis’ homes.
'We had the ability to support the national effort to produce more PPE for frontline health workers and we just had to help. We quickly mobilised to produce parts using our 3D printing capability at home and we’re grateful to everyone that donated through our crowd funding site to help us get this going.'
– ANTHONY GRILLI
Nissan has provided funds for an 'injection moulding tool' that increases the number of parts produced, which are now being sourced from companies in Gateshead, Lancashire and Coventry. Injection moulding provides a faster way to produce the plastic parts needed and, they say, it has ramped up the volume.
How are they made?
The visors are made up of three individual parts: an elastic headband, frame, and see-through visor. These parts are sent to Nissan for packing and distribution in a ready-to-assemble format to an NHS procurement centre. The visors are shipped in this format at the request of the NHS to minimise damage risk during transit, and to ensure the maximum volume can be dispatched at once.
Taken from the original article by itv.com: https://bit.ly/3br9TR0