Alumni engagement and philanthropy



QUEEN’S PROVIDES NHS WITH PROTECTIVE VISORS  

27 March 2020

Academic researchers at Queen’s are pursuing two parallel technologies to help meet the demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the fight against the coronavirus Covid-19.

Dr Eneko Larrañeta, Dr Juan Dominguez-Robles and Dr Dimitrios Lamprou from the School of Pharmacy have designed protective visors that can be produced using a 3D printer.

The experts have modified designs developed by a group of Spanish engineers, in order to help meet the demands of the healthcare staff across the Belfast Trust in supporting patients with COVID-19.

The 3D printer is normally used to manufacture a range of drug delivery systems and medical devices including catheters, microneedles and tablets.

Dr Lamprou said: “Everyone is thinking how they can help in this crisis situation. I’ve worked with 3D printers to produce a number of pharmaceutical devices to help patients, so together with my colleagues we decided to work on the prototype already developed in Spain to produce a visor that would work for healthcare staff here.

“We have already produced over twenty this week, which we are delivering to the Belfast Trust.

“The visors can be produced relatively low-cost and we are providing these as a donation to the NHS in these crucial times.”

The team plans to continue producing the face shields, and ask that others with 3D printers do the same in order to increase supplies.

Professor Brian Falzon, from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is also working to meet the demand for PPE through pursuing high volume production of face shields using laser cutting technology of polymer sheeting.

Professor Falzon said: “Simplicity is at the heart of these designs for ease of manufacture and assembly.

“We now have a few prototypes ready for field testing. We believe that we have the capacity to produce these at a rate of between 100 and 200 per day.”  

Details of the University’s overall response to the coronavirus – including the latest search for a cure – can be found here: https://www.qub.ac.uk/coronavirus/

COVID-19 RAPID RESPONSE INNOVATION FUND 

Your support will help our work to produce innovative protective equipment for healthcare workers as well as using simulation-based training to equip our students in the healthcare professions with the skills and confidence required for their early entry into the mainline workforce. If you would like to find out how you can support the University in its efforts to tackle the pandemic, click here.

Media enquiries about this story can be sent to comms.officer@qub.ac.uk at Queen’s University Belfast

 

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