Supporting our NHS, Oliver Beardsall & Oliver Hitchings have produced over 1600 face shields. They began the project at the beginning of April, dropping off their first batch to Twyford Surgery. Since then, they have produced over 1600 more. These face masks have gone to various front line workers in schools, hospitals, pharmacists and more.

All of the masks were produced using 3D printers, machines that extrude hot plastic to create a physical recreation of a computer model. These have been used to create huge numbers of the bright orange bands needed for the masks (seen above) at which point, a sheet of acetate is cut to form the plastic shield.

Most impressively, the team have managed to provide all of the face masks at no cost thanks to the generosity of local companies and the Twyford & District Round Table.

The people of Twyford donated money to purchase raw materials as well as replacement parts to keep our printers up and running.

I hope that together we have managed to keep Twyford and surrounding areas a little safer during the pandemic.

Lilli Hitchings, Oliver’s Mother