Since April 1, FABLab staff have made and collected donations of 3D-printed bands as part of an effort to produce face shields — based on open-source designs approved by the National Institutes for Health — for use by Michigan Medicine staff fighting on the frontlines against COVID-19 in southeast Michigan. Collaborators producing the bands offsite have been dropping them off at a station set up at Taubman College. The FABLab prepares the prints for assembly and also cuts the shields (the transparent protective face cover) using the college’s ZUND knife cutter. Stratasys, the company that made the FABLab’s 3D printers, donated material to support the effort.
FABLab staff clean and label the 3D-printed bands, cut the appropriate shield (they’ve been producing both three-hole and five-hole shields), assemble the finished product, and then package and deliver it to Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan hospital just over a mile down the road.
The FABLab is set up to produce about 50 face shields per day and process 50 to 100 donations a day on average. As safety during the pandemic is critical, staff are monitoring the printers remotely and only utilizing one onsite staff member per day.
As of April 23, 2020, FABLab staff collected, produced, assembled and delivered approximately 1,300 face shields, representing a substantial portion of the total number delivered from the local community to the University of Michigan PPE dropoff.
“It has been an incredible team effort,” said Wes McGee, director of the FABLab and associate professor of architecture.
