3D Printed Face Shields
3D Printed Face Shields
From April 2020 to September 2020, I organized a group of volunteers from Arnold O. Beckman High School to manufacture, clean, and donate face shields to local nursing homes in need of PPE. We created a total of roughly 2,000 3D printed face shields.
Tracking Nursing Home Data
To determine what nursing homes were in the most need of face shields, I tracked Covid-19 case numbers from each of the nursing homes using the LA Times daily tracker. Every day I uploaded the results onto a spreadsheet and tracked the number of new cases from every nursing home. Whichever nursing home had the biggest spike of cases we contacted and donated face shields to.
In addition to nursing homes, we donated face shields to local elementary schools and even to the Children Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
The Face Shield
For the face shield we used a design created by Erik Cederberg of 3D Verkstan, which was approved by National Institute of Health's Covid-19 Supply Chain Response. I along with a few other volunteers 3D printed hundreds of these face shield bands and then attached a plastic sheet to the front of the band.
Assembly and Cleaning Process
Every week I organized a small number of volunteers to assemble, clean, and package the face shields for deliver. Through research and the current guidelines at the time, we designed a full procedure to assemble and clean all the face shields. The process including handwashing, rinsing, soaking the parts in a bleach solution, and drying.