As hospitals, clinics and other similar agencies work to acquire adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for their staff, 3-D printers from around the area are being used to meet that need locally. About two weeks ago, Manning teen, Kaui Jenkins, heard about other Iowans using their 3-D printers to make face shield headbands and decided to give it a try herself. Unfortunately, she says their first attempt didn’t quite go as planned.
Once the headbands are printed, plastic sheets and elastic are cut to size by hand assemble a ready-to-use face shield. After seeing the potential of this, her mother, Dawn Meyer, reached out to Jim Blankman from IKM-Manning about the possibility of using the school’s 3-D printers to increase production. Blankman says the district supported the idea right away and started running their machines almost continuously.
About 115 face shields have been created in 12 days with more being produced daily. Carroll Public Library Director, Rachel Van Erdewyk, says they were contacted following Jenkins’ success by Sara Anderson, the county’s emergency management coordinator, who asked them to begin producing headbands with their 3-D printer.
She estimates the library can print around eight per day, in addition to the ones Carroll and Kuemper can produce. While PPE is in short supply nationwide, county officials are hopeful these efforts will be enough to fill the local need for face shields. Video of the Carroll Public Library’s 3-D printer in action can be found included below.
