These days, nothing is the same as it was a few weeks ago. And yet the coronavirus crisis has made one thing very clear: companies in Germany and Europe are showing solidarity to help quickly. On the initiative of the German plastics machinery manufacturer Arburg, the Swiss specialty chemicals group Ems-Chemie, the German safety eyewear manufacturer Uvex and Arburg have been thinking about how they can provide quick help to rescue services, hospitals and medical personnel in the current situation.

The answer: producing protective goggles to protect the eye and conjunctiva tissue from contamination, intended for specialist personnel such as doctors, nurses and emergency responders.

Regarding the protective goggles, it quickly became clear that with some coordination measures between the three companies, which had already been working together intensively as partners for a long time, these articles could be produced at Arburg in relevant quantities and with relatively little effort. It was therefore logical that the production of an initial batch of 20,000 pairs of goggles at the parent plant in Lossburg (Germany) should begin as quickly as possible in order to remedy the immediate shortage.

The goggles are produced in one piece on an electric Allrounder 570 A with a closing force of 2,000 kN and Gestica control in a cycle time of around 50 seconds. Handling and depositing are carried out by a six-axis robot. Bad parts are sorted out and good parts are deposited on a cooling station. The packaging is done downstream by hand. The packaging is carried out downstream manually by a packaging station of the packaging machine manufacturer Packmat from Villingendorf (Germany), which also entered the production chain completely unbureaucratically.