Wireline Issue 48 - Summer 2020

so I thought: ‘What could I do?’. I had heard about a volunteer group who had set up in the UK so I joined to see how I could help. I knew how quick 3D printing was, so it’s a great solution to rapidly provide products.” The campaign, organised via 3dcrowd.org.uk, has sought to raise over £250,000 in crowdfunding and volunteer makers to supply face shields for NHS Trusts across the country. Christopher says he personally made around 200 face visors over six weeks of lockdown, contributing to the 10,000 made in the Aberdeen area and 3D Crowd’s 190,000 nationwide. These were delivered locally to hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and care homes, from Stonehaven to Elgin. For its part, RelyOn was able to pay for Christopher’s raw material costs, meaning more funding remains available for others to produce supplies via the centralised pot. Working remotely has also allowed him to manage the production process: He adds: “As I have been working at home I can easily monitor the printing as I work as normal. As a business we provide e-learning and software services so not 3D Crowd raised over £150,000 to produce and deliver 190,000 3D-printed face shields.

that our stores still had boxes of PPE left over from previous campaigns which we didn’t currently need, and as a team we decided to reach out to the wider community and see if the items we had would help protect key workers,” TSG Marine managing director Erika Leadbeater told Wireline . The company successfully distributed more than 30 boxes of items including chemical protection suits, paper coveralls, overshoes and contact safety gloves to the NHS and local charities. “It’s a small gesture, but anything people can do to help protect the frontline key workers during this crisis is helping protect our vital services,” she added. The success spurred the group to start the “Pass the PPE” campaign, prompting donations to key worker groups from across the sector including companies such as Petrofac, Bilfinger Salamis UK, Wood and Well- Safe Solutions. Leadbeater noted that the success of the campaign has been encouraging for the whole organisation: “The team at TSG Marine have been delighted to be able to do something proactive to support those putting themselves on the front line in the fight against this pandemic. It’s not in our nature to sit back and watch, we’re all about finding solutions to problems.” In the meantime, it says it continues to work in line with strict social distancing and safety measures to keep vital marine services going. Even those without PPE directly to hand were able to help. Christopher Toothill, a senior software engineer at RelyOn Nutec, was one of the thousands who joined a nationwide campaign to use 3D printers to produce protective equipment from their homes and offices. As Christopher told Wireline : “I came to participate as I had a printer that was idle and my girlfriend is an ITU nurse. The prospect of her and her colleagues not having enough PPE was a worry for everyone,

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