A widespread shortage of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, has led many organizations to step up and acquire or produce this equipment to donate – including a new initiative called Triangle Fighting COVID.
Triangle Fighting COVID is a group of local people with 3D printers who are actively working to produce things like face shields and other PPE to be distributed in the community.
Mike Swimm is a Chapel Hill resident and an active member of Triangle Fighting COVID. He has been with the initiative since the beginning and has quickly seen it grow after he started printing masks.
“Once I started printing them [masks], I started finding other people on Twitter, and through the Triangle COVID group and through the Masks for Docs organization nationally a whole bunch of us came together and just started producing as many face shields as we possibly could,” Swimm said.
According to Swimm, what started as a group of five or six has spurred into dozens of volunteers in a short amount of time. He said you can get involved with the initiative even if you don’t have a 3D printer.
“We also have dozens of other people that are volunteering in other ways that are driving, and picking up and delivering supplies and coordinating and working on websites,” Swimm said. “So it’s dozens if not hundreds of people at this point.”
Swimm said the process to create these shields is actually fairly simple. Triangle Fighting COVID recently adopted a simpler design for their masks, approved by the National Institutes of Health.
These protective face shields not only help protect against the virus, but also increase the life-span of the mask that is designed to be worn in conjunction with them.
“It’s a very simple piece that is flexible and can kind of wrap around the front of your forehead and is pretty comfortable and can be printed very, very quickly,” Swimm said.
He said with this new design, frames for the face shields can be printed in about 25 to 30 minutes and cost about a dollar a piece to make.
“A lot of us are 3D printing as many of these frames, as we call them, as possible and then we have a number of other people in the community who have access to laser-cutters and water jet cutters that are cutting the actual shields that go onto the front of these frames,” Swimm said. “So it’s very much a group effort – some people working on the shields, some people working on the frames, other people just doing assembly”
So far, Triangle Fighting COVID has distributed over 1,200 face shields throughout the community. Swimm said he has personally produced about 160 of them with another 200 in the works.
Originally most of these shields were being delivered to local hospitals, but now that local facilities have been able to increase their own supply, Swimm said they’ve been able to expand their reach.
“We’re kind of going to a lot of the other smaller medical offices, assisted living facilities, rehabilitation centers – places like that that are still in desperate need of all PPE,” Swimm said.
Swimm said they are doing everything they can to show their appreciation and to do their part in serving others during this tumultuous time.
“We just want to let all the medical professionals and other people on the front lines of this know how much we appreciate the work they are doing and certainly if you are in a situation in a medical office or something like that where you need PPE also please let us know and we’ll make sure we start getting some supplies your way,” Swimm said.
More volunteers are still needed to 3D print, to clean and assemble shields and to deliver the completed masks to the community.
To get involved in the process or to donate to the cause, visit Triangle Fighting COVID’s website.
Lead photo courtesy of Triangle Fighting COVID.
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