Coronavirus impact: Jaguar Land Rover scales up face visor production in UK
In another effort by the British brand to control the spread of COVID19 in its home country of UK, Jaguar Land Rover has scaled up production of protective face visors at its Advanced Product Creation Centre in Gaydon.
With new tooling developed by WHS Plastics of Sutton Coldfield, Jaguar Land Rover will be able to produce 14,000 visors a week. This injection mould tooling will allow JLR to make one polypropylene headband generated every 30s, and the 2,000 visors in a day. This is much quicker than the 3D printing tools the firm was using so far. Each face visor has been designed to be reusable and can be easily dismantled and cleaned before being used again, safeguarding against future shortages.
Visors have been produced and shipped to NHS Trusts across the UK, including the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. National Health Service(NHS) is the publicly-funded healthcare system of the UK.
Following the success of these efforts, Jaguar Land Rover is also releasing its NHS-approved CAD design in the hope that businesses with additive manufacturing facilities will join the global call for more Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
Apart from this, the firm has also deployed over 160 vehicles across the world to aid health workers. Parent Tata Motors has also been involved in numerous CSR activities in India to help with the COVID19 cause.
Ben Wilson, Jaguar Land Rover additive manufacturing and prototype design manager, said: "We hope that by providing the files for download, many more companies will be inspired to use their 3D-printing facilities to print vital PPE equipment for our networkers. Every effort, however small it may seem, is a contribution to a collective effort that will ensure our emergency services have what they need to continue their vital work."