Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be turning over its prototype build operations to start production of protective visors for the U.K.'s keyworkers, utilising its Computer Aided Design (CAD) expertise to answer the U.K. government's call for more vital equipment to fight coronavirus.
The only reusable, National Health Service (NHS)-approved visor of its kind, the design has been developed in consultation with a team of NHS healthcare professionals for efficient rapid prototype printing at the Advanced Product Creation Centre in Gaydon, home to one of the most advanced 3D printing facilities in Europe.
JLR's engineers in the Additive Manufacturing Centre, who have designed and manufactured the visors, are now in discussions with suppliers and partners to scale up production. They hope to create a tool that will enable mass production.
It is JLR's intention to make the open source CAD design files available to additiional manufacturers and suppliers, so many more protective visors can be printed over the coming weeks.
Each face visor has been designed to be reusable, and can be easily dismantled and cleaned before being used again; safeguarding NHS trusts against future shortages as the situation develops.
The visors are assembled by a skeleton team of four JLR employees in a specially designed clean area. Strict processes are in place to ensure there is no risk of contamination before the finished visors leave the manufacturing site.
