During the summer of 2020, Devin and a group of other students from Beckman High School set out to donate 3D Printed face shields to various retirement homes in Orange County. From June to August, they printed and assembled an average of 100 face shields a week, meeting once every week in a member's garage to clean and assemble the face shields.
The face shield design was sourced from MatterHackers. It is was designed by Erik Cederberg of 3D Verkstan and has been approved for clinical use.
It consists of a 3D Printed headband and a clear plastic sheet. The clear plastic sheet must have holes cut into it so that it can be inserted into the headband's knobs.
During peak production, the volunteers had 4 members running 3D printers, with each printer producing 4 headbands every hour.
In order to ensure cleanliness of the face shields, every part was cleaned before assembly and delivery. The volunteers wore face masks and gloves to prevent contamination.
They developed a procedure and assembly-line-style process to speed up cleaning and assembly. This allowed them to produce approximately 100 face shields in 2-3 hours (excluding headband 3D Printing time).
The first step is to punch 3 holes into the plastic sheet. After punching holes, the corners are rounded to avoid sharp angles.
After the sheets are prepared, they are washed and scrubbed in a solution of dish soap and water.
After being scrubbed, the sheets are sent to a separate station to be rinsed. They must be rinsed in a separate water bath to prevent soap spots.
After being rinsed, the sheets are further hand dried to prevent water spots. After this, they are hung on a clothes line to air dry.
During the other steps, a batch of approximately 25 headbands are submerged in a bleach and water solution for 20 minutes. After the cleaning, they are hung to air dry.
Once the headbands and plastic sheets are dried, they are assembled and bagged in bags of 10. The bags are sealed and stored away for delivery.