Colleagues from John Crane used 3D printing technology to produce vital equipment

To help frontline healthcare workers during the height of COVID-19, colleagues from across John Crane’s UK sites in Slough and Manchester and sites in the Netherlands used 3D printing technology to manufacture critical components for protective face shields.

While the team in Slough partnered with Sulzer Mixpac U.K. Ltd., to manufacture and assemble face shields, other individuals worked closely with various 3D printing organisations to print parts. Once assembled, the brackets were shipped to the National Health Service trusts free of charge. To date, more than 1,000 completed visors have shipped to healthcare workers.

A Senior Engineer at John Crane, who started designing and 3D printing visors for local health professionals, shifted production to create oxygen ports for CPAP machines. The breathing aid was being used extensively in hospitals to help Covid-19 patients with serious lung infections to breathe more easily, when oxygen alone is insufficient.

John Crane's Slough and Netherlands sites have been using 3D printing technology to help keep employees safe. Team members came together to print door handle attachments that allow people to open a door by using their arm, reducing exposure to their hands. The team has printed a variety of different handle sizes for the most used doors around the sites.

John Crane also provided operational assistance to a company making soap and other hygiene products, to switch their usual production to hand sanitisers to meet growing demand from the NHS.