UK firm begins exporting production equipment that can produce up to 10,000 COVID-19 swabs per hour

A UK based company has developed, manufactured and started exporting production equipment that can produce up to ten thousand COVID-19 medical test swabs every sixty minutes.

Managing Director and owner of Campbell Coutts, Andrew Campbell, realised that the delays in COVID-19 global testing were somewhat due to a shortage of the unique collected swabs required to collect the biological specimens, with demand exceeding the production volume of the few current manufacturers earlier this year. Thus, Campbell had the concept of designing state-of-the-art machines for the rapid processing of swabs suitable for collecting samples for COVID-19 testing.

To help speed up the production and design, Innovate UK has granted the company a government grant. Customers in South Africa, Israel, Denmark, Australia and China have already bought both large and small models of the machinery.

Campbell stated: “My small team of 3 colleagues and myself worked flat out, within the social distancing constraints and other limitations of lockdown, and within 8 weeks we had built and tested a prototype and orders were coming in from customers around the world. It was a very challenging, complex project, partly because we knew we had to produce the equipment very quickly to help meet the global need for swabs. Another hurdle was the shortage of the polycarbonate sheeting needed to enclose parts of the equipment as the demand for protective, perspex screens being used in public environments had used up all the stock in the UK. The equipment had to be suitable for use in a cleanroom sterile environment, which was a particular challenge, especially when dealing with millions of minute nylon fibres flying around. I’m really delighted that all our hard work has paid off and that we are making a positive contribution to the global fight against Coronavirus.”