Jaguar Land Rover has commenced production of 3D-printed, NHS-approved protective visors for medical staff. 

The firm plans to produce 1,300 of the reusable visors each week, but has an ‘aspiration to develop operation for mass production’.

The only reusable visor of its kind, the design has been created in consultation with a team of NHS healthcare professionals. The visor was then created at the JLR’s Advanced Product Creation Centre in Gaydon.

Ben Wilson, additive manufacturing and prototype design manager, said: “It’s been a real team effort, we’ve trialled different materials and improved the design over several iterations in consultation with real doctors and nurses on the frontline – this has allowed us to create something unique and truly fit-for-purpose. 

“While this is a small effort, it is vital we help as many people as we can by utilising our resources. Collaborative teams working at Jaguar Land Rover, along with the wider computer-aided design and 3D printing community will continue to do what we can to help healthcare workers.”

Thanks to a collaboration with companies such as Pro2Pro, Jaguar Land Rover aims to produce 5,000 visors a week for NHS workers across the country.

Engineers have worked through several different concepts in a week, and are now in discussion with suppliers and partners in order to scale up production. 

The visor has been designed to be reusable, and can be dismantled and cleaned.

Once the individual parts of the visor have been produced, they’re assembled by a team of four Jaguar Land Rover employees in a specially designed clean area. 

Each visor is fully reusable and has been designed to be dismantled and cleaned before being used again.