In less than a year, over 23,000 people have become part of history by engraving their name, or the name of a loved one, on to the iconic Heart of Steel.
This has helped raise half a million pounds for the British Heart Foundation (BHF), helping the BHF fund ground-breaking research into new treatments and cures for heart and circulatory diseases, including heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia and their risk factors like diabetes.
Standing at 2.4 metres high, the Heart of Steel is an art sculpture that has around 150,000 spaces for people to engrave their name, or the name of a loved one, for a donation of £20.
Chrish Perera, Head of Field Operations at the BHF, said: “We want to say a huge heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped the Heart of Steel raise over half a million pounds. This is an incredible amount of money that will help us to fund lifesaving research into heart and circulatory diseases – the world’s biggest killers.
“We think it’s fantastic that so many people want be a part of history by permanently etching their name, or the name of a loved one, on the Heart of Steel, whilst also helping to fund the British Heart Foundation’s vital research.
“However, heart and circulatory diseases still devastate the lives of more than seven million people and their families all over the UK. We rely on projects like the Heart of Steel along with the public’s generous support to help us on our mission to beat heartbreak forever.”
The Heart of Steel is being displayed at Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield and has been carefully crafted with the generous support of Yorkshire businesses.
The home of the Heart of Steel is particularly poignant, as it represents the long heritage of the steel industry and the new technologies and specialised manufacturing that has redefined South Yorkshire.
Here at PES Scanning we’re proud to have played a part in this project both in terms of 3D scanning and design for manufacture.
As part of the fundraising activity for the project the concept for the Heart of Steel was developed; a metal heart that would go inside the Steel Man, and with the names of thousands of supporters engraved on it.
Sculptor Steve Mehdi designed a heart sculpture that was faithful to the Steel Man’s strong design and used a classic heart shape that would be easily recognised.
Firstly, a precise representation of the original 300mm heart model which Steve had designed in brown packing tape was required. The PES Scanning team used our 3D optical scanning equipment to accurately capture the model, and from the data captured, a CAD model was produced so that our engineers could start to adapt the model design for production.
The design from the PES Performance engineers was manufactured by Doncasters Bramah Ltd, using Inconel supplied by Maher Ltd. Names of the donors are added to the Heart each month by Pryor Marking Technology.
Whilst the Heart has been installed in Meadowhall shopping centre, in the short-term, the long-term goal is for the metal Heart to be placed inside the Steel Man statue overlooking Sheffield & Rotherham.
