A lecturer from Ayrshire College has been busy making much-needed personal protective equipment for NHS staff in Ayrshire.

Aeronautical engineering lecturer Will Morton has been putting two Ayrshire College 3D printers to good use – by printing visor parts for NHS Ayrshire & Arran.

As part of a collective effort with GE Caledonian, Emergency One and East Ayrshire Council Education, Will has been printing an approved design from his home, before delivering them to Crosshouse Hospital.

Earlier this month, the group got together with an NHS contact over Zoom video conferencing and email to establish what particular style of visor was required at Crosshouse.

The engineers and technical teachers then decided what was within each of their capabilities with the equipment they had at their disposal.

Ayrshire College lecturer Will Morton, GE Caledonian and East Ayrshire Council are all 3D printing headgear for visors, while Emergency One is 3D printing and assembling the complete visor.

Will, with the college’s two 3D printers set up in his garage, contacted two suppliers of polylactic acid plastic – iDig3Dprinting and Rapid – who kindly donated spools of the material.

He has now printed 150 of the approved design, with a printing time of two hours and 12 minutes for each piece.

Will said: “It is fantastic that we can collaborate and utilise our engineering resources to help our local NHS.”

There has been many instances of businesses and the public stepping up to help the NHS and care workers who have been reportedly lacking the vital equipment.

Along with our sister paper the Cumnock Chronicle, we reported last month how staff at Marr College and Carrick Academy and been collaborating to produce hundreds of pieces of PPE.

  **************

Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. We're not exaggerating when we say that the future of the Ayr Advertiser, and the vital local news service we've provided since 1803, is under threat.

Please consider supporting the Ayr Advertiser in whatever way you can – by paying just 90p for a copy of the paper, when you're shopping for essential supplies for yourself and others, or by subscribing to our e-edition here.

Thanks – and stay safe.