MEDICAL equipment manufacture at Intersurgical is now totally automated. Lt-Governor Sir John Foley was shown the new state-of-the-art, robotic equipment during a visit to the company.

‘I am enormously impressed with the reaction time of the firm to user demand and what the medical specialists want. The firm has made a big capital investment and is not afraid of technological boundaries,’ he said.

The company, which manufactures respiratory medical equipment for use in hospitals, has recently invested about £1m. in production machinery. It now produces an anaesthetic mask that is not exposed to human contact until worn by the patient.

‘The product is essentially sterile; there is no microbe contamination because no one touches it,’ said regulatory affairs director Roger Le Poidevin.

He said that the company had a new focus on automation.

‘We are moving away from manual processes and developing new skills in our engineering processes in order to remain competitive in the world market.’

Traditionally the component parts of the masks were glued together manually.

But the robotic process now makes, inspects, tracks and packages the product without human intervention.

While there are high costs in buying and developing the machinery, it cuts out expensive labour.

‘We think manufacturing costs are as low as they can be,’ said managing director Mark Levrier.

‘We don’t think there is another automated process for mask production anywhere in the world and we have already had a lot of positive feedback about the product.’

Mr Levrier said that the company was keen to exploit its position in the global market. It already produces three million masks a year of the potential 15 million worldwide.

Commerce and Employment deputy minister Carla McNulty Bauer was also on the tour and said that the machines did replace people, but the advances were a good thing for the island’s employment opportunities.

‘Where young people are interested in a career in manufacturing, this is a great opportunity for them.

‘The new investments are fantastic state-of-the-art technology.’