3D printed face shields

Dr. Sanjay Kurani of VMC with Maker Nexus face shield

Regional Medical Center San Jose with MN face shields

Face shields are used by health care professionals to protect them when working with patients. Hospital supplies were running low. While they prefer to use commercially manufactured ones, in this emergency they were looking for alternative sources.

Visit COVID Shield Nexus for additional information on the overall program.

Overview

Front View

Side View

Top View showing wrap over

Maker Nexus has wrapped up our efforts on this project. With the help of over 600 volunteers around the country (and Canada) we have made and given away over 80,000 face shields. We also partnered with a local philanthropic company to make and give away 170,000 more. Over 250,000 face shields in total from this project! Other groups are still working on face shields. If you want to get involved you should contact them.

• Masks For Docs
• Get Us PPE

The headband portion of these shields is made on a 3D printer. If you have a 3D printer, you can make these. We delivered them to local hospitals.

In the News

• A mini documentary about MN and The Exploratorium
• A TV segment from KPIX
• Watch a short KTVU news report about our efforts.
• A blog by one of our community print team talking about his experience.

Our press kit

How much do they cost?

​We gave these away, paying for them from donations. We did not sell them. Promises of donations or actual donations did not affect who was prioritized to receive the PPE. The allocation team was not told who has donated. However, they cost us about $5 each to make. Donations were critical for us to be able to keep producing. We were pleased that so many donated to support the effort. ​ Was there really a need?

• We heard from friends that "nurses are cutting up plastic soda bottles to make face shields, using saran wrap on top of N95 masks to allow for multi-use."
• One local nurse said they are making face shields from cut up shower curtains and hot glue guns.
• In reviewing the current design: "The nurses were over the moon about how easily the shields can be disassembled and sterilized."
• A nurse from Marin called us and I got her hooked into the allocation process and told her they were free. She started crying on the phone. - JimS

Some photos of front line workers with Maker Nexus face shields.

See stories from those who have received face shields from us.

How do I get some?

We stopped our efforts because there are now shields available from many retail outlets. Do a web search on "face shields".

If you need them for free, you could contact one of the following organizations:

• Get Us PPE
• Masks For Docs

A link to Other COVID Projects

3D Print Parts At Home

Use Your 3D Printer for good

Maker Nexus has ended this project. We appreciate all the work the distributed team has done. With your help we have been able to make and give away over 250,000 face shields across the US.

3D Print Directions

Materials

Filament

These face shields are best done with PETG filament. A 1kg spool can make about 20 units. They can be done with PLA but it is difficult to get them strong enough to handle all the bending.

The face shield stiffener at the bottom of the plastic shield can be printed in PLA. A 1kg spool can make about 180 units.

Instructions

Printer Settings

Print with PETG for ease of sanitation - IPA, Hydrogen Peroxide, Bleach, and Acetic Acid up to 10% can all be safely used with PETG. If you don't have PETG, using ABS and PLA is also an approved option.

Print settings:

• Temperature based on filament selection.
• 3 perimeters
• 100% infill
• 0.3mm Draft settings in PrusaSlicer work fine
• we are running our Prusa's at 130% speed

Parts

We use a modified Prusa design. Our headbands maintain compatibility with the placement of the pins to mount the shield. After consultation with two local hospital teams, we made several changes to the original Prusa design.

• The shield mounting pins are moved up to the middle of the headband to eliminate a potential entry point for aerosols. When the shield is mounted to lower pins the hole in the shield is not completely covered by the headband.
• The flex points between the headband and the "wings" have a radius added. This makes it easier to clean. The original design had a narrow angle in that area.
• The headband is made narrower to print faster. We find that using PETG these headbands are very strong.
• The shield has an over-the-top dome that protects against droplets falling down onto the face.

Our design is, of course, released back to the world under the same CC licensing as the original. Links to our design files are on this page.

What to print now

Please do not print additional parts for us.

Historic

Files for the parts we used to make our face shields

Bottom Stiffeners

On one build-plate of a Prusa, we are able to fit 34 (might be a little bit more with more squeezing); it takes a little bit more than 8 hours, which is great for night-shifts, as there is no lost time. This also means that in optimal situations, we can get around 100 per day per printer.

GCode:

• bottoms-PETG-Prusa.gcode PETG for Prusa MK3s
• bottoms-PLA-Prusa.gcode PETG for Prusa MK3s
• plate-full-of-bottom-supports.3mf 3mf Project file for prusa-slicer
• bottom_reinfocement.stl STL do manually fill your build-plate and slice.

Head bands

Most important change in our headband design is that the pins are centered in the headband, so that there is something covering the shield punch, making a better seal. Also, the radii in the crevices are larger than the original to facilitate easier sanitation.

Latest release is v1.9 (2020-04-06)

This archive contains (next to the source files) the following files used used to print, which you also can download here:

• Ready-to-go GCode: T9-PETG-Prusa.gcode (right click, download or save link as...) for PETG, T9-PLA-Prusa.gcode for PLA. This prints two headbands and two bottom stabilizers. Using print-speed of 130% on the Prusa seems to work fine. If you use ABS, please use the files below to slice for your printer. These print with little 'D-shaped' supports in front of the pins, that should break off easily.
• 3MF slicer project file thin_shield.3mf for PETG and thin_pla_shield.3mf for PLA. This allows you to choose placement, temperatures, select which parts to print on the bed etc.
• slice yourself thin_shield_with_support.stl (right click, download or save link as...) for PETG, thin_pla_shield_with_support.stl for PLA. There is also a no-support stl version in case you want to add support for the front-pins yourself in your slicer. If you _do_ print with build-in supports, make sure to enable the 'Detect Thin Walls' feature in your slicer.

Also please print one bottom_reinforcement.stl per headband (sometimes it is more efficient to do that separately). If you slice the version with built-in support, make sure to have 'enable thin wall detection' in your slicer. The 3mf files already have that enabled.

If your printer can't fit a headband, you can still help and print the bottom parts, stabilizing the shield plastic: Print as many bottom_reinforcement.stl that you fit on your print-bed: we need them as many people with larger print-beds focus on the headbands itself right now. Here is a plate-full-of-bottom-supports.3mf file to load directly into a slicer. Sometimes it is a good idea to use the night-time shift to print these.

More files, 3mf and STL you get directly on Github: https://github.com/makernexus/prusa-covid19-shield-remix#cut-to-the-chase-gcode-ready-to-use

Laser Cut Parts

• The SVG file for laser cutting the shield part SVG File
• The SVG file but 4 at a time.

The shields are cut from 0.020 inch thick PETG sheets. We have successfully used 0.030, it is more expensive. 0.040 is too thick and will not snap onto the headband.

PETG Sheet

One 4x8 foot sheet can make 24 shields. Our base design fits into sheets of 24"x32". If we get donations of larger sheets, then we cut it down before using it. Sheets come in different thicknesses.

• .020 inch CLR VIVAK PETG JFM is the best. This typically comes with a protective skin on each side.
• .015 inch PETG can be used. It often comes without the protective skins, so you will have laser cutter residue on the shield.
• .030 inch PETG can be used with 3D printed headbands. However, for injection molded parts the shield holes have to be modified slightly or the shield will pull too flat.

We believe both APET and RPET can also be used.

Elastic Band

Each shield uses approximately 8 inches of button hole elastic, 3/4 inch wide.

Sources

• Home Sew

Assembly and Disassembly

Each box of face shields contains a QR Code that links to Covid-19 Shield User Instructions

Assembly

Assembly requires about 8" of 3/4 wide button hole elastic.

• A short video on how to assemble the Maker Nexus face shield version RC2

• A nice graphic on assembly also here PDF

Disassembly for cleaning

These face shields can be taken apart for cleaning.

The sheets are made of PETG and can handle alcohol and UV. The head band and spreader could be made of PETG, ABS, or PLA. These all resist alcohol but are heat sensitive. We are not experts in how to sanitize equipment. You, as user, take responsibility for appropriate sanitization. See this page from Prusa Research for information on sanitization methods currently being tested.

A short video on how to take the Maker Nexus face shield apart

External Links

Information & Discussions

- External slack for Prusa Shield discussions

Other Alternatives

We sincerely hope that all health care workers get the PPE that they need. However, in some parts of the world this may not happen. We believe the design we are using is the best for our team to make. There are, however, other solutions and we will list some here.

• Low end for complete emergency use. Tape, sticks, and a sheet protector.
• NIH exchange has a number of different designs
• The original design Prusa RC2 STL- On this page
• A design using only a laser cutter