The Royal Mint has begun mass manufacturing medical visors to protect frontline NHS staff from coronavirus.

Based in Llantrisant, engineers at The Royal Mint developed a medically approved visor design which they can produce thousands of each day.

The first batch of visors are already in use at The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in south Wales.

Health care workers have expressed concern over the amount of PPE available to them, despite Welsh Government reassurance that there is enough to go around.

The Royal Mint, usually known for making money and coins, are turning their focus to helping protect people against COVID-19 by making valuable personal protective equipment(PPE).

Engineers at the site found a basic design for medical visors online. They then adapted and developed their own prototype, which was approved for medical use within 48hours.

The design will also soon be released online, enabling other companies to manufacture even more.

The Royal Mint say they can produce thousands of masks every day, subject to getting enough of the raw components.

Leighton John, Director of Operations for The Royal Mint said: "My sister works for the NHS and it really focuses your mind on the challenges they are facing, and theopportunity we have to support them.

"On Wednesday at 9am we knew nothing about medical visors, but we set our engineers the task of developing essential medical equipment which could be easily made on site -within seven hours they'd created a medical visor, and within 48 hours it was approved for mass manufacture. We'll shortly post the specifications on our website to enable otherfirms to make them too.

"We are now developing the production line, and urgently calling for help to source 1.0mm PET clear plastic which is in low supply across the UK. We believe firms willhave this in stock, and we'd urge them to get in touch with us so we can continue to support our NHS."

David adds:

To read the complete article, see:
Royal Mint makes medical visors to help protect NHSstaff from coronavirus (https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2020-03-27/royal-mint-makes-medical-visors-to-protect-nhs-staff-from-coronavirus/)

To read about a sports company doing something similar, see:
A sports company started making medical gear instead of hockey visors. It wantsothers to help. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/03/28/bauer-hockey-face-shield-coronavirus/)

For more information on the iconic poster, see:
Rosie the Riveter Inspired Women to Serve inWorld War II (https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/Story/Article/1791664/rosie-the-riveter-inspired-women-to-serve-in-world-war-ii/)