Rotork’s Global Response to COVID-19

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, employees from Rotork are doing everything within their power to aid in the production of face shields. These have been distributed to vulnerable people in care homes and hospitals, where there is an urgent need for PPE.

In total, more than 2,600 face shields including nearly 4,000 reusable visors have been delivered from our Bath team so far, with more of them being produced every day. RUH Bath, Wiltshire Air Ambulance and Cepen Care Lodge are just three of the places to have received a delivery of face shields from Rotork.

Additionally, 1,400 reusable visors have been provided to the local group, Hack the Pandemic, who are working to create an emergency popup PPE factory through online crowdfunding. Their goal is to bring together everybody with access to a 3D printer in the Bristol/Bath area, with a view to creating a coordinated response to the situation and ensuring that as many NHS and frontline workers as possible are given the PPE they require.

Meanwhile, our Leeds team has also been active in the struggle against COVID-19 and have successfully delivered more than 400 face shields and 3,600 reusable visors to vulnerable people. These have been vital to hospitals, nursing homes and volunteer groups working around Yorkshire and also to the Royal Free Hospital in London. The Royal Free Hospital is one of London’s leading teaching hospitals and has one of the lowest mortality rates in England.

The efforts are not limited to the UK. When the City-Management of Langenzenn, Germany reached out to local companies with access to 3D printers and urged them to help with the production of face shields, Rotork Schischek answered the call immediately. Working in cooperation with FabLabs (a local company who provide workshopping spaces and resources for those who need them) Rotork has been both sending FabLabs the resources they need to produce the face shields, while also producing their own hand bands for face shields. Once completed, the face shields made by Rotork and FabLabs together are then distributed to hospitals, medical practises and charities.

Outside of Europe, Rotork employees in India donated £10,700 equivalent for the Prime Minster Relief Fund to fight COVID-19. Half of this was raised by employees agreeing to donate one day’s pay, while the other half was donated from the Rotork India CSR provisioned fund. With help from local vendors, they’re working to produce 5,000 face shields to be distributed among health workers once they are ready, with 4,000 already delivered to the office of the Chief of State’s Medical Centre.

We are proud of our staff in India who were able to quickly adapt the Bath designed face shield to something that could be mass produced (5,000 units within a week and for a unit price of INR 50, 0.55 GBP covered by Rotork as a part of CSR) in close collaboration with a premier institute of India (IIT Roorkie) and their injection molding supplier. These masks also received the acknowledgement for medical use by a premier medical institute of India (AIMS). At the end, the final baton was taken up by our Chennai Factory Manager who took the responsibility to reach out to the right authorities for proper distribution of these shields to the medical fraternity fighting and treating the COVID-19 patients. The state authorities holding high office thanked and appreciated Rotork’s genuine interest and care in coming forward to supporting the fight against COVID-19.

Rotork employees in Rochester, US has delivered 5,746 assembled frames with contributors from all over the county. All transparencies and elastic material which holds the frames in place has been provided by Rotork. In total, the Rochester office have delivered 900 transparency films, and 232 frames over the past 2 weeks. They took the time to ensure they had a design which wouldn’t create any discomfort to the wearer and which could be produced as simply and conveniently as possible. Since then, they have been able to produce them like clockwork and are continuing to print as many as they can every day.

During these hard times, we are proud of all of our employees for the spirit of help and cooperation which they have displayed. These qualities will be essential for overcoming the hardships of this pandemic.