I was speaking with Nick last Friday in a bit of a wrap up on the week. I was telling him about a friend of mine who was using his 3D printer to produce protective face masks to use in local Care Homes where he lived when Nick asked how much such a printer would be. We looked it up and they didn’t seem that expensive and so we decided that I would speak to said friend over the weekend and identify what the costs might be. Nick was feeling that his charity golf day team entry fees wouldn’t be getting used this summer and so perhaps we could use the money elsewhere.
It turns out that the printer wasn’t too expensive, including the materials needed to produce the visors, so in for a penny in for a pound – we jumped and placed an order on Monday. Our consumables are ready to go and the machine arrives today. The picture shows my friends new identical machine set up on the kitchen table after being unpacked and the other picture shows the complete product that we intend to produce.
The visor won’t stand up to the heat that the NHS would require for sterilisation, but it’s better than the nothing our local care homes and GPs currently have and as a free gift, we hope they will be well received. It’s probably not what you would expect from a firm of Chartered Accountants, but these are strange times and one in which we need to support our local communities if we are able.
Our printer will produce around 14 masks a day and we have material for a batch of 100 which will keep us busy for a few days. Our IT guru Mark will be setting up and getting us going at his home office (some guys have all the luck!) before we transfer to Unit 1 at our Braintree office. We hope that some of our furloughed staff will volunteer to help in the project.
We will be looking to support Braintree and Maldon areas first whilst the lockdown continues, so if you are in need of donated PPE, or know of organisations that do, please get in touch by calling reception on 01376 326266 so that we can make contact with you.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the Author and other professionals may express different views. They may not be the views of Lambert Chapman LLP. The material in the article cannot and should not be considered as exhaustive. Professional advice should be sought in connection with any of the issues contained in the article and the implementation of any actions.