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Innovations help support local York community

Matt Simms with the head bands

A spark of inspiration came from our innovation centre on how to help the community in York.  

The Innovation team in the Nestlé Product Technology Centre (NPTC) at the Nestlé site in York is now making parts for safety visors for key workers. 

The innovative idea came from Sam Dixon who wanted to put his design skills to another use to help his local community, and after seeing a group, Covid-19 Visors York, calling out to those who had the right equipment, Sam set to work.  

Sam Dixon working from home

Sam, along with colleagues Matt Simms and Nas Maqsood, have been working in the NPTC alternate weeks to safely produce parts for the visor head band.  

He said: “I saw the group in York were after people with 3D printers and laser cutters, and we have ones we can use. The laser cutter is usually used for prototyping packaging and personalisation concepts, so it’s great to be able to put it to another good use. We are making 3 parts for the head band part of the visor and then delivering them to the University of York for sterilisation and assembly.”  

Technicians BioArCh Laboratory Manager, Matthew Von Tersch and Biology Research Workshop Manager, Mark Bentley at the University of York’s Departments of Biology and Archaeology, along with 10 other colleagues,  have been working with the community effort and receiving the headbands from Sam, Matt and Nas.  

Assembly at the University of York

The team are the in NPTC to produce the visors and then the ‘Covid-19 Visors York’ group then distributes the finished visors to anyone working on the frontline who has requested them – from the NHS, to care workers and cleaners.  

The visor head bands