Engineering firm Hanbury-Autogil has joined forces with packaging company PFF Group to create protective equipment on a large scale.
Hanbury-Autogil
With huge production targets to meet, PFF turned to the Devon-based engineers and designers in an effort to increase their output of protective aprons.
PFF was using imported industry-standard machines but needed to step up their game to meet huge production demands. They therefore commissioned Hanbury-Autogil to design and build two bespoke converting machines.
The Hanbury-Autogil team applied their extensive experience in material handling and design to create a machine that is on target to be one of the world’s fastest.
The ground-breaking, roll to roll Apron converting line, which can produce millions of aprons a week, is now being installed at PFF’s factory in Washington, Tyne and Wear.
This has created 250 jobs for the duration of the contract that has ramped up to 24-hour production.
The government has expanded its UK PPE supply to more than 58,000 different settings across the country. The Department of Health and Social Care has distributed more than 3.5 billion PPE items for use by health and social care services in England.
Kenton Robbins, group managing director of PFF Group said: “We worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on due diligence ahead of our appointment as part of the government’s ‘UK-Make’ initiative to source PPE from Britain. “Demand for PPE has soared globally, with more than 210 million plastic aprons needed weekly by the NHS.
“In just six months, amidst a pandemic ... we worked ... to set up a new capability and capacity to manufacture disposable aprons.
“We have been able to design and build, two innovative, all-British machines that are the fastest and most reliable in the world, enabling us to significantly increase production.”
The PFF Group has invested more than £2m in custom-built machines to manufacture PPE for frontline NHS staff and social care workers, the first project was to create the world’s fastest apron machine.