Applied Polymer Technologies (APT), an Enterprise Ireland-funded Technology Gateway hosted by the Materials Research Institute at Athlone Institute of Technology, has teamed up with industry to develop personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers.
APT, which was set-up to support Ireland’s €2 billion polymer industry, has donated a state-of-the-art injection moulding machine to Total Plastic Solutions, a Limerick-based company, who is using it to mass produce face visors for HSE staff.
The Total Plastic Solutions team is using the Zhafir Zeres Haitian injection moulding machine, which was originally supplied to APT by DG Systems, to “fast-track” the development of these visors. The visors will help protect wearers from COVID-19.
Sam Foley, who owns Total Plastic Solutions, explains: “The initial prototypes were 3D printed items, but as expediency was key to the struggle, we (Abbey Moulding Contractors Ltd and Total Plastic Solution Ltd) dedicated our team to design and build an injection moulding tool to enable production volumes of the visors to be produced at our site in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick.