IT Carlow designers and scientists producing face shields for front line health workers

Billy House, a product designer for Design+ at Institute of Technology Carlow, initially used two large-format 3-D printers at the Institute to print headbands for face shields but switched to his own design in order to increase production.

“Due to the size of the headbands, 15 components was the most we could get on the machines combined, which had a 37-hour print time”, says House.

“After two days, we had only produced 15. I had a conversation with my colleague Jack Gregan and, after drawing up a few sketch models, we came up with a quicker way ourselves using the headband template, clear micron binding covers, polystyrene plastic, closed cell foam, elastic, staples, hot glue and a hole puncher. The resulting design is simple and reusable owing to the closed cell foam.”

The team are now able to produce 70 in one day and pre-cut and additional 90 for easy assembly. Design+ say they will happily produce what they can to help protect frontline workers.

“We’re using the skills we have to help the real heroes, who are the frontline healthcare workers”, commented Mr. House.