Coronavirus: Royal Mint to manufacture up to 4,000 medical visors a day to protect NHS staff

Engineers create approved design in 48 hours after looking for ways to help fight Covid-19

(Getty Images)

The Royal Mint is set to produce thousands of medical visors to protect NHS workers on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak.

While the organisation typically produces coins, its engineers are to manufacture up to 4,000 visors a day to help protect health workers from contracting Covid-19.

The engineers decided to produce the visors after searching online to see what medical equipment could be easily created on its site.

After settling on visors, their high specification prototype was approved in two days.

The Royal Mint has announced plans to post the exact specifications for its design online so other engineers can replicate it.

The first batch of the visors are already being used by medical staff at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales.

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.”

A spokeswoman for the Royal Mint added it had received requests from NHS trusts and hospitals across the UK since news of its medical visors was announced.

“We have increased production as a result to help as many as possible,” she added, explaining it should be fairly straightforward for other engineers to produce its visors.

“We are already a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturer so a lot of the techniques could be easily transferred.”

Huw Davies, clinical director for anaesthetics at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, has said his staff were “really grateful” to the Royal Mint.

“It was actually quite emotional for our teams when they came in and offered their support and expertise to us to help keep us safe,” he added.

Dr Sharon Hopkins, chief executive of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, also expressed gratitude.

"This equipment will be vitally important for our frontline staff to protect themselves and others as they work to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic," she said.

The Royal Mint is appealing for manufacturers across the UK to help it source 1mm clear plastic, which is necessary for its visor design and is currently in short supply.