MENDOTA HEIGHTS, MN–Students at St. Thomas Academy High School in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, are using 3D printers in their Innovation Center to produce face shields for first responders and medical personnel who are battling the coronavirus.
The school has garnered some national exposure for the manufacturing work it has done with its 3D printers, including time on an ABC News broadcast and a nice article in the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press newspaper.
Power Systems Research is a co-founder of the Innovation Center that’s part of the company’s effort to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs at local high schools.
Power Systems Research (PSR) is committed to giving back to its community and to stimulating the growth and education of America’s future scientists and engineers now studying at the high school level.
George Zirnhelt, the founder of PSR, was a generous donor to many community organizations, especially those involving high school students interested in engineering and science. Two projects in particular attracted his interest: The Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) at St. Thomas Academy, and Lightning Robotics FIRST teams at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, MN.
Power Systems Research has been a lead sponsor of the special Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) at St. Thomas for many years. In 2017, the team won its class in the Shell Eco-Marathon international competition in London.
Mark Westlake is director of the school’s Innovation Center and the driving force behind the school’s EVT program.
Here’s a portion of the article from the Pioneer Press newspaper: “The printing isn’t exactly fast; Westlake estimates he can make between 12 and 16 a day, depending on how quickly he gets to the printer when it’s finished making one. But every mask is appreciated by health care workers on the frontlines as the nation tries to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus that has killed thousands in the United States since January.
“The truth is, we see ourselves as a stopgap,” said Doug Scott, an engineering teacher in Hopkinton, Mass., who started the nationwide network of builders almost by accident. Once word got out, people like Westlake quickly jumped onboard.
“We want to help as much as we can until some of the larger companies get behind this and start to produce the shields that we’re making,” Scott said.
Scott, 44, and Westlake, 57, met while working as master teachers for the Lemelson Program at MIT.
“I knew we could help when I showed our plans to a doctor here and he said, ‘Yeah, they’re great,’ ” Scott said. “I asked him how many he could use and he said, ‘I want 60,000 of them.’ And he wasn’t joking. I’m thinking, Well, I’ve got 29.”
Scott began reaching out to colleagues like Westlake, and a network was born. Recently, the Shield Team had members in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Westlake has become the point person in Minnesota — he can be reached at innovationcenter@cadets.com — and already had heard from about 40 makers in the Twin Cities, as well as emergency room nurses and doctors short on personal protective equipment. Requests, he said, are confidential.
Using a modified printer file, Westlake and others are making visors for face shields and attaching them to an elastic band. Clear acetate sheets then are cut into masks and attached to the visors.
Total cost, about $2 a mask. The school, Westlake said, is donating the filament and acetate, and students have helped distribute the masks to hospitals in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Anyone interested can download the program file and instructions for making the visors on a 3D printer. Anyone with a three-hole punch, Scott said, can make the shields. Westlake said he tries to provide 10 shields with every visor.
Those with smaller 3D printers can make the visors in smaller pieces.
“We make it as easy as possible,” Scott said. “You just punch in your information and follow the notes. We tell you how to produce everything. Then we have a delivery notice so you can tag and date the bags, and then follow procedures to log how many you have delivered.” PSR
