Cosham dad makes 650 face shields using 3D printers and donates to key workers
THE boss of a city firm is swapping his usual job for the manufacturing of equipment to help people working on the front line.
Pete Turner who runs Portsmouth-based Testtech Global, has spent the last three weeks creating plastic face shields using 3D printers.
The family-run business, which manufactures wireless charging equipment and tests software for finance and retail markets, uses a small 3D printer.
Pete, from Cosham, took the printer home when he began working from home and decided to use it to manufacture the masks after hearing of someone else doing the same.
So far, the 67-year-old has supplied around 650 face shields to several organisations around the area, including Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Southampton General Hospital, Westlands Medical Centre in Fareham, as well as to delivery drivers throughout the area.
He said: ‘I started off on Saturday and asked some of my friends that are doctors or nurses and said “have you got a use for them?” and they jumped at it so I supplied a lot into St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester first, then started supplying QA Hospital with some and it went from there.’
Pete was handed money to buy a second printer to allow him to make more shields, as it takes around two hours for each shield to be made.
He sets alarms in the night to wake up every two hours to ensure there is an around-the-clock rotation of production.
He then set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to buy a third printer and has raised almost £3,000, which will be used for materials to allow him to continue production.
His daughter, Hayley, who runs home-based baking business, Cakey Bits, is doing cake deliveries and donating all of the profits to her dad to make sure he can continue making the shields.
Pete said: ‘I felt that if I could help, I certainly would. We’ve all used the NHS, my mum was looked after for a couple of years and I think these people across the sector do such a good job and I wanted to give something back to them.’
You can donate to Pete’s fundraiser at crowdfunder.co.uk/pt-cov19-face-shields-for-the-community