The National Institute of Heath (NIH) has approved a variation of the Prusa RC2 face shield for use by hospital staff:
https://3dprint.nih.gov/discover/3dpx-013238
Uses standard 3-hole punch for holes. The face shield can be cut from PETG on a laser, or transparency film or report covers can be used.
2 will fit on a Prusa-sized bed and print without support (30% infill recommended). I can print 2 in about 9 hours on my Prusa I3 MK3 so the thru-put is pretty poor. This is due to the top shield which provides additional protection from aerosol droplets.
I’d recommend adding this 2nd part as bottom reinforcement if the plastic being used for the shield is thin (I modded this from another design):
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4248273
One of these, with bottom support and printing overhead uses about 55 grams of plastic. A one kg spool of plastic would yield 18 shields in 81+ hours of print time. About 2.5 weeks more or less continuous printing to make 100. Add a 100-count pack of these 8 mil sheets from Amazon (NIH recommends 2-10 mil), and the cost would be:
($16.50 X 5 for the filament + $15.37 for the shields) =$97.87
$97.87/90 = $1.09 per mask. I used 90 as the yield as you can’t quite print 100 from 5 spools.
Options:
- Clinicians and caregivers who have worn the device on service recommend the following additions to the headband to improve comfort: add a wrap of foam tape or “chest tube foam tape”, tape layers of gauze or a folded paper towel on the headband; dispose as necessary
- Before hole-punching, add tape (duct tape, medical cloth tape, etc) to reinforce the holes at top of the transparency sheet during repeat use and washings. Remove and replace tape between patients as necessary.
