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Home project produces vital protective equipment


By Pat Scott

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A local resident has turned the garage at his home in Rothienorman into a production unit for vital personal protective equipment for NHS staff and carers.

Elton Foister is making full face visors for front-line NHS and care home staff in his garage at Rothienorman.
Elton Foister is making full face visors for front-line NHS and care home staff in his garage at Rothienorman.

Project manager, Elton Foister is working from home due to the Covid 19 pandemic and realised that having access there to a 3D printer meant he could readily print the components for potentially life saving full length face visors.

Elton, (47) creates the headband part of the visor on the 3D printer from a plastic filament called PLA, which is heated and printed by the machine onto the print bed.

The design is approved across Europe and has the advantage of being easy to disinfect, so is re-usable if necessary.

Layers are built up which form the final printed head band which has four raised lugs onto which the A4 plastic sheets, which give the vital protection, are fitted.

Elton explained: "The plastic sheets are like those used for the front cover of a pamphlet, it's really simple to use although it is beginning to be in short supply.

"All of the design work and settings for the band are manipulated on a computer then transferred to the printer."

The first delivery from Elton's production line went to Badenscoth Nursing Home where there was a desperate shortage of the PPE needed to safeguard staff caring for its elderly residents.

Elton added: "ARI are screaming out for the face visors.

"I have established a contact there and they and will take as many as I can make but I was really pleased to be able to help out our local nursing home with my first batch.

"It's not much but it's something I can do and if it helps people stay safe then it is something positive that I have achieved."

Each headband takes 90 minutes to be made but Elton has managed to borrow a second printer and both have been set up for a continuous production flow which he fits in with his home-working.

To help meet the costs of the materials, Elton has set up a gofundme, fundraising page at www.gofundme.com/f/3dvisorprinting and welcomes donations.

Each reel of filament for the headbands costs about £20 and is sufficient for 30 visors.

The initial target of £1000 was raised within a couple of days but Elton welcomes continued support and has pledged that any surplus, once the demand for visors ends, will be donated to the Sandpiper Trust which he supports as a cardiac responder, providing emergency treatment in more rural or remote areas.


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