How Leeds tech distributor is helping tackle PPE shortages

The Leeds-based firm is helping firms to develop essential devices and has donated over £40,000 of 3D printing equipment to create more PPE amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Farnell is supporting a number of customers who are making PPE for use in hospitals and care homes around the UK.

They include a customer in Leeds who has turned his home into a visor manufacturing plant to produce face shields for hospitals, doctors and pharmacies.

Nick Pearson and Lauren Rooney have recently moved to 24-hour-a-day production, meaning that they can now print around 3,000 visors a week.

Farnell has assisted with the donation of printers and filament to enable Mr Pearson and his team to produce over 5,000 visors for healthcare workers across the UK.

The firm has also launched a critical medical order process to expedite the dispatch of components for the production of medical equipment and it is donating equipment to organisations created to tackle the global shortage of PPE.

Mathew Thorpe, Farnell’s regional sales director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, said: “Demand for components for medical devices has surged.

“If you consider the amount of ventilators that are needed globally, demand outstrips the supply that any one distributor will have in stock.

“Our product and sales teams are working very closely with suppliers to access additional stock to fulfil orders and support our customers as they produce medical equipment at scale.”

In the UK, Farnell is working with a Government-backed coalition of businesses, including major household names, which have repurposed their production capabilities to design and manufacture new ventilators.

In Italy, Farnell has supported a company producing the first 1,000 pieces of a new open-source, pulmonary mechanical ventilator.

In the Netherlands, it is supporting customers participating in Project Open Air, a global volunteer movement to provide equipment, supplies and services needed by hospitals. Essential products include ventilators, respiratory masks, and home monitors to measure patients’ temperature, heart rate and oxygen levels.

Farnell has also provided UK customers with components for Covid-19 testing kits, non-contact viral temperature monitoring instruments as well as PPE for paramedics, power cords and power solutions for hospitals.

To support health care workers facing a shortage of protective gear and equipment needed to care for critically ill Covid-19 patients, Farnell has identified groups and individuals who are using 3D printers to create visors and ear protectors for health workers and parts for field respirators.

Farnell is helping a number of volunteer groups through donations of 3D printers and filament, including a pop-up manufacturing plant in a customer’s home where printers are working around the clock to support the needs of hospitals across the UK.

A new manufacturing hub has also been launched specifically to support the UK’s first Nightingale field hospital.

Safety first for Leeds business

The Leeds-based firm says it has put safety ahead of productivity following the coronavirus outbreak.

Fraser Forbes, Farnell’s director of European operations, said: “In an ever changing world, Farnell in Leeds has continued to support orders for electronic components since the UK lockdown kicked in at the end of March. Working with the staff, we have systematically developed safer ways of working to accommodate social distancing, putting safety ahead of productivity.”

Mr Forbes added that he was delighted with the support and feedback from his teams at the Leeds Distribution Centres.

Nick Pearson's Go Fund Me page is available at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/3d-printed-face-shields-for-the-nhs/donate?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet