A TEAM of designers and engineers has launched a major project to equip every healthcare worker in Cornwall with protective face shields during the coronavirus crisis.

Sam Lanyon, who has his Concept Shed studios in Falmouth, has teamed up with Shawn Brown, who works with him as a creative engineer and technologist, and Francis Dufort, a designer of more than 40 years who founded his Wadebridge-based product design and development company Dufort Associates in 1997.

Together they have set up CoVisor, a non-profit team that aims to give all healthcare staff in Cornwall access to face shields.

They have set up a Crowdfunder for the project, which at the time of writing was nearing £11,000. It aims to get to £15,000 to allow it to produce 2,000 units per day.

On the fundraising page, the team said: "When Covid-19 hit the UK, like lots of makers across the country, we started 3D printing face shields to donate to our local doctors and healthcare workers.

"However we quickly realised that as it can take several hours to 3D print one face shield, and as those printed shields are not able to be cleaned for reuse, that we needed to look at a way to mass-produce a version that can be easily cleaned and reused if necessary."

The project is a collaboration between Concept Shed and Dufort Associates, brought together by 3D printing company 3D Kernow CIC.

The plan is to develop an injection-moulded face shield that can be mass-produced in Cornwall.

The design was developed with input from Cornwall's NHS staff and the team said it had been "inundated" with enquiries – with requests for 1,700 units before production had started.

The team said: "There is a shortage of face shields to protect our NHS and care staff against Covid-19.

"This Crowdfunder is raising funds to support the manufacture of thousands of our face shields, here in Cornwall, to supply at cost price to organisations who are able to pay, or for free to organisations such as hospitals who are unable to buy them.

"We are already working on our next face shield version for use in Intensive Care Units, and are aiming towards doubling our overall production in a week. Your support will help us to achieve this and to equip as many healthcare staff as possible; helping them to save lives and reduce the spread of Covid-19.

"We are making the design of our injection mouldable face shield open source and freely available to everyone, so that other manufacturers anywhere in the world can mass-produce them to meet the huge global demand.

"The CoVisor is inspired by the Prusa open source 3D printed face shields and designed for high volume production."

The team said that if Cornwall's needs are met they will supply workers across the UK and donate any additional stock to theNEAD.co.uk, which distributes PPE donations to the country as a whole.

They concluded: "We've also had requests from the NHS in Cornwall for other essential protective equipment, so we're also going to use some of your donations to supply additional kit including protective gowns, which we're able to source at a crazily good price through an international shipping agent."

To support the project visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/covisor