3D Printing Face Shields And Ear Savers

What Are They?

This was when we made 87 face shields to deliver! With your help, we can accomplish our ultimate goal of 1,000 masks delivered!

Face Shields are clear plastic sheets held in front of your face by another piece of plastic. Doctors, nurses, and others in the medical field use these for extra protection against viruses that can easily be passed between people. For many, they are the only way to protect themselves because medical grade masks aren’t widely available at this time.
Ear savers are for the people who already have medical grade masks available to them. Wearing a mask around the ears everyday for hours can cause extreme pain and bleeding to the back of the ears, which is where ear savers come in handy. These plastic hooks grab on to the straps of the mask and hold it to the back of one’s head to relieve and “save” the ears.

These are the designs of ear savers that we use! We designed this ourselves after many designs failed to print the right way.

Why Print These Items?

As I said before, for many people, face shields are the only product that can offer protection because medical grade masks aren’t widely available. Many doctors have said that they don’t have enough masks where they work, or that they only have enough masks for some of the people who work there. Also, for people who use a medical grade mask everyday, the pain may be extreme and cause delay to their work. Since doctors are helping us, we want them to be as comfortable as possible while they are helping us by doing their jobs.We can not let isolation become an excuse for not helping out. If there is any way to make face shields for doctors, then we should do it!

How?

To make a mask, there are many steps involved. First comes the printing process. Currently, we have one printer that can print about 4 masks in an hour. By masks, we mean the part of the mask that attaches to one’s head (the frame of the mask). Once we have printed the sufficient amount of frames for a delivery, we attach clear sheets of plastic to the 3D printed frames. After this, we cut off the sharp edges of the clear sheets and deliver them to those who need them. Making ear savers is more simple. With ear savers we can print around 40 an hour, and then we deliver them.

So How Can I Help?

Although you can’t exactly put together the masks with us, there are plenty of things you can do to contribute with this project from a distance! Donating money will fund for the clear plastic sheets, filament for a 3D printer, and even more printers for efficiency. With your help, we can provide ear savers and face shields for those in need!