CORONAVIRUS

Teachers use district 3D printers to make face shields

Rachel Ettlinger
rettlinger@th-record.com
Minisink Valley Middle School technology teachers Rich Budd, left, and Jonathan Clemmons, right, voluntarily make face shields using a district 3D printer.

SLATE HILL - From their home or classroom, local educators are creating face shields as personal protective equipment for those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rich Budd and Jonathan Clemmons, technology teachers at Minisink Valley Middle School, came up with an idea to use equipment the school already had to make much-needed PPE that is short in supply statewide.

“Thursday at 4 p.m. we started printing, and we haven’t stopped since,” Budd said.

They aren’t alone. Through a SUNY New Paltz program, two Pine Bush high school technology instructors took home a total of 11 3D printers to make face shields for essential workers, like nurses and first responders, that will be used with a face mask to create an added barrier for any small or micro-droplets from COVID-19 positive patients.

“It’s really cool,” said Tim Mains, Pine Bush schools superintendent. “It’s the community helping the community.”

They’re pushing their machines to the limit. Budd and Clemmons created 318 face shields as of Tuesday, completing them by three-hole-punching see-through sheet protectors that are traditionally used with projectors.

The Minisink technology department has orders for more than 500 additional face shields, and the Pine Bush schools had 18 requests for over 250 face shields as of Tuesday, within the first two full days of the project’s operation.

Each head band for a face shield takes between 45 and 90 minutes to print, and they are recommended for single-use. They’re being given out free of charge.

Minisink has up to 15 desktop and two commercial-sized printers going at the same time, so they can spit out about 90 face shields a day.

Dan Freedman, dean of the School of Science and Engineering at SUNY New Paltz and director of the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center, said they have at least a dozen organizations, including the Rondout Valley High School, working to provide the additional PPE to major medical facilities, police departments and senior homes, including Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall in Newburgh, Orange Regional Medical Center and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.

SUNY New Paltz, with help from corporations and organizations like IBM, has made more than 2,640 shields so far at a rate of 350 per day, Freedman said. They hope to make more than 20,000 in the next couple weeks.

“I’ve been amazed by the response,” Freedman said.

Those who want to request face shields should contact the districts directly to inquire. Like a lot of PPE, there’s a list of people waiting, but the local educators say they aren’t stopping until the pandemic is over or their supply runs dry.

rettlinger@th-record.com