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Why this project

This project started with a pretty simple goal: to do something to help with the PPE shortage which existed in our local Utah medical community. My wife and many of my friends are medical providers, in many different Utah clinics and hospitals. I'm an engineer and this looked like an engineering problem. My wife's clinics had a shortage of PPE so there was the first goal.

We settled on face shields for all the reasons detailed in the project document. And we decided to focus on a high-quality, sturdy, cleanable and reusable design which is far different from the much more common, flimsy disposables. They take much longer to make (by hand) but are the equivalent of 30 or more disposables, and with clear visor replacement we don't know how long they might last. The clear visors and head straps can be replaced as needed and the PETG used in the head band is very durable and withstands the most common hospital cleaning methods. They don't survive the dashboard of a car on a hot sunny day where temps can hit over 80C.

So we had a goal: face shields for the Utah CHC. However a neighbor (Dave Sandweiss) and his wife (Kris Campbell) are also docs and good friends and they did a residency at the Chinle, AZ medical facility. They knew I was working on the idea of a face shield. Dave goes down to the reservation a few times a year to help out when they need it and he went on such a trip in late March 2020 and reported back that they could use some sturdy and reusable face shields and had an immediate need. Just about this time other volunteers joined the 3D printing community for this project and the Covid-19 outbreak really took off in the Four Corners area. So we shifted our initial focus to there.

First shipment, to Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility was on April 10, and as of April 22 we have shipped over 200 May 02 we have shipped 340 May 12 we have shipped 440 April 14 500 and renewal parts have shipped to ten Native American medical facilities including Gallup and others when they were surging. From struggling to get out 35 per week we are now capable of 100+ per week in a crunch.


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