Rapidly Produced Faceshields for Health Care Workers
The Bay Area is experiencing a massive shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using digital fabrication techniques available to students at the Laney College FabLab, our team is on the verge of mass producing them.
Medical facilities, nursing homes, and other organizations in need*:
*We expect face shields to start being available at the end of May.
We have successfully delivered 500 LaneyShields to hospitals in Oakland. Hospitals need a reusable faceshield that can be produced even faster.
Our answer:
An injection molded visor that is faster and cheaper to produce than the LaneyShield and can be easily sterilized for repeated use. We’ve ordered the mold and once it arrives and is ready to go, we expect to be able to manufacture 18,000 per week to meet the massive needs of Northern California
We've come a long way
We sought to bring hospitals PPE as fast as possible. We responded by creating the LaneyShield, a faceshield made from plastic and foam. In 2 weeks we have put over 500 faceshields in the hands of doctors, and we're just getting started!
We have a goal to supply the Bay Area with 18,000 shields per week. We're ready to meet the challenge.
Based off proven designs
The LaneyShield is based off work done by Delve, a design firm in Wisconsin. Their faceshields are being manufactured by Ford Motor Company and are being delivered to hospitals in the Midwest region. Our design branches off from theirs, allowing doctors and nurses to adjust the strap for fit and comfort.
The LaneyVisor is an iteration the visor design from Stratasys. We've modified it so that it is more comfortable and durable for health care professionals who have to wear them for long work shifts. It is intended to be reusable and sterilized, which increases supply in hospitals and reduces waste. We are partnered with injection molding firms to transform this design from a 3D print project to something that is ready to be mass produced
Open source is critical
During a world wide crisis, all solutions should be open source. We hope that other manufacturers will take our design and produce as many shields as they can to support our doctors and nurses around the country.
Please see our GitHub page for our most current release and production notes.
Our partners
Injection molding
Support and prototyping
Foam supplier
PET supplier
Contact us
rrothbart@peralta.edu