Models, designs, and documentation for COVID-19 Face Shields

COVID-19 Face Shield

Need 3D Printed Medical Supplies to Fight COVID-19?

TL;DR: Here is what the model looks like.

The government of Canada has recently come out with guidance regarding unconventional manufacturing of personal protective equipment in response to COVID-19. As there are already many sites, forums, and social media efforts organizing people with access to 3D printers to support their local healthcare workers, we wanted to help standardize the design efforts.

To avoid medical professionals and our front line workers from having to adapt to a multitude of designs from different sources, we hope that grassroots efforts adopt a common design to minimize chances of a negative user experience. As such, we are publishing our design, assembly instructions, MSDS, QC checklist, and all other documentation to help jumpstart others who want to get involved and help.

How are we helping?

We are working with local health authorities in Montréal to produce desperately needed medical supplies and protective equipment. Specifically, we are fabricating face shield to help protect our front line workers from splash and debris.

Our design and manufacturing methodology focuses on fulfilling short-term needs using additive manufacturing (e.g., 3D printing) to act as a stopgap while organizing medium-volume manufacturing (e.g., laser cutting, die cutting). This two-step approach leverages our expertise (additive manufacturing) as well as a robust and local supply chain. In this way, urgent needs due to shortages can be successfully satisfied while large-volume manufacturing (e.g., molding) catches up. As such, the chosen face shield design is optimized for both laser cutting and 3D printing.

Contents

1. Face Shield Design
2. Requirements and Specs
   • Visor
   • Frame
   • Handling
   • Packaging
3. Design Files
4. Documentation
5. Development

Face Shield Design

Our face shield design is based on the open-source work published by Georgia Tech. While the design is nearly identical, we have made the following modifications:

• Visor
  • Diameter of snap-on holes increased from 6.35mm to 7mm for an easier fit
• Frame
  • -0.25mm horizontal compensation
  • Thickness of 1/8" (3.175mm)

These modifications were done to better support our specialty, additive manufacturing, while also being compatible with future medium volume production methods, such as laser cutting.

Requirements and Specifications

Visor

• Must provide adequate coverage (CSA Z94.3 Sections 10.2.1/10.2.2/10.3/10.4)
• Should made of optically clear, distortion free, lightweight materials (CSA Standard Z94.3.1-16)
• Should be free of visible defects or flaws that would impede vision (ANSI Z87.1 Section 9.4)
• Should allow adequate space between the wearer’s face and the inner surface of the visor to allow for the use of ancillary equipment (medical/surgical mask, respirator, eyewear, etc.)
• Device should withstand impact from sharp or fast projectiles (ANSI Z87.1 Section 9.2 and 9.3, CSA Z94.3 Section 10.1)
• Material: PC, PETG, PET, Acetal, POM, Polypropylene, or PVC
• Thickness: 0.01” - 0.03”

Frame

• Device should fit snugly to afford a good seal to the forehead area and to prevent slippage of the device
• User contacting materials should provide adequate material biocompatibility (skin sensitivity and cytotoxic testing) (ISO 10993-5, 10)
• Must resist isopropyl alcohol (IPA)
• Material: PC, ABS, or Acetal
• Thickness: 1/8" or 3/16"

Handling

As it seems a person can carry the virus and be asymptomatic, it is best to act as if you may be contagious and take precautions to avoid contaminating the face shield during production.

• Wash your hands before entering the manufacturing area
• Wash your hands before removing prints
• Wipe down tools with IPA before using them to remove prints
• Wear a mask while handling prints
• Touch points on printers (anywhere you might touch the machine) are wiped down regularly with IPA every 4h (e.g., twice a shift)
• Do not enter the manufacturing area unless you are the designated operator on shift
• Prints are immediately bagged after removal from the machine

Packaging

To make the user experience as simple as possible for front line workers, the following packaging procedure is recommended:

Bag A (6” poly tubing)

• 10x elastics

Bag B (12” poly tubing)

• 10x frames
• QC checklist

Bag C (12” poly tubing)

• 10x face shield kits
  • Bag A
  • Bag B
  • 10x visors
  • Assembly instructions

Box

• MSDS
• 10x Bag C

Design Files

All design files may be found in the models folder.

• DXF files are for laser cutting
• STL files are for 3D printing
• SLDPRT and STEP files are for 3D CAD software (e.g., Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion 360)
• factory files are for Simplify3D and are designed to work for the AON-M2 industrial 3D printer

Documentation

All documentation files may be found in the docs folder. PDFs of the documentation may be found here.

• Material Safety Data Sheets (English and French) are available
• Assembly instructions

Development

PDF Generation

Requirements

• pandoc
• make
• ghostscript
• texlive

Procedure

To generate all PDFs:

make pdf

Releases

• This repo uses Calendar Versioning (CalVer), with the following format: YYYY.MM.DD
• Generated PDFs should be attached to the GitHub release