In the Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology, a place usually buzzing with student scholarship and discovery, a different type of innovation is happening: information technology staff are building face masks and shields with 3D printing technology.
The library’s third floor has been transformed into a makerspace for the masks, which are being distributed to the campus community to protect against respiratory droplets that may spread COVID-19. Tables normally used for textbooks and term papers have been positioned the recommended six feet apart, and 10 3D printers beep in unison.
But the printers only produce the pieces for the masks and shields — it’s up to Instructional Designer Kenny Wilson and Director of Engagement and Support Ahmad Khazaee ’05, donning lab coats and safety wear, to put together the final product. Two tables in an adjacent space, covered with elastic, glue, and household air filters, serve as a makeshift production area. The staff has the capability to produce 12 masks and 40 shields each day. Each one is cleaned thoroughly, several times, during the production process.
The setup is steps away from Wilson and Khazaee’s offices in the University’s IT department. They’re hoping to reduce the spread of the virus by staying put in Case. “We know we have power. We know we have light ... we’re not creating a liability by going somewhere else,” Khazaee says.
The 3D printed masks begin with a three-dimensional model created with computer-aided design software. The model comes out as a stereolithography file, which is then translated into a set of instructions for the printer in a process called slicing. “That has its origins in the idea that these things are built up layer by layer or slice by slice,” Wilson says. Finally, the printer, loaded with plastic, prints the object at about 220 degrees celsius.