Mondelez International, makers of the UK’s favourite snacks including Cadbury and Oreo, has joined forces with engineering company, 3P Innovation , to help produce thousands o medical visors every day to protect thousands of frontline NHS staff.
The food manufacturer is repurposing its 3D printing technology, which is normally used to make chocolate sculptures at Bournville, the home of Cadbury, to help print the medical visors.
This builds on a fascinating history of Cadbury’s Bournville factory stepping in to help the nation in times of need, having set up Bounville Utilities Limited in the 1940s to make gas masks, jerricans, service respirators and aeroplane parts for Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers during World War II.
3P launched an industry-wide initiative to bring together businesses and individuals who can help produce, assemble and distribute the visors to hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and clinics across the UK.
Mondelez is helping to produce the hard-plastic bands which connect the top and bottom of the visor. It has also invested money into the project so 3P can buy injection mould technology, which will mean that the visors can be mass produced.
3P have already delivered the first visors to a Warwickshire NHS clinic and will be scaling up their operations, with the aim of making and delivering up to 10,000 units every week.
Louise Stigant, UK MD at Mondelez International, said: “The NHS and other essential frontline services are doing an incredible job and we want to help them wherever we can.
“I am extremely proud that our research and food engineering teams have come up with a creative way to repurpose our chocolate making skills and technology, so we can make and print parts for the medical visors.
“By working in partnership with 3P and other businesses we can scale our operations and help protect those who are working so hard to protect us and beat coronavirus”.
The Managing Director at 3D innovation, Tom Bailey, said: “We have now set up the production line and the finished products are on their way to end users.
“Thanks to the generous support from Mondelez, we have purchased an injection mould tool which is set to make a huge difference to the volumes we can produce. We are now looking for on-going funding, which is essential to make sure we can continue to purchase components and run the production line”.
3P is appealing for other manufacturers and businesses with 3D printing technology and logistics services to support, so that they can continue to make and supply the medical visors to more NHS workers and other frontline services such as care homes and prison staff.
Mondelez is also contributing over £2million in the UK to help local communities, charities, food-banks and people working in the NHS and other frontline services.
