fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

SUNY New Paltz 3D printing lab is making face shields for COVID-19 frontline workers

by Frances Marion Platt
April 28, 2021
in General News
3
SUNY New Paltz 3D printing lab is making face shields for COVID-19 frontline workers

Rachel Eisgruber, an intern working in the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center at SUNY New Paltz and a senior mechanical engineering major from Highland.

Rachel Eisgruber, an intern working in the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center at SUNY New Paltz and a senior mechanical engineering major from Highland. (Provided)

Recently profiled here for its project helping Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County to prevent the spread of the spotted lanternfly by making life-sized acrylic models of the insects, the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center (HVAMC) at SUNY New Paltz now finds itself with an even more dangerous bug on its hands: the novel coronavirus. This time it’s not the organism itself that’s being simulated with the help of 3D printers, but protective face shields for healthcare workers.

In less than a week of frantic activity, 340 of them had already been manufactured and delivered, mainly to Ulster County’s new COVID-19 testing center at the Tech City site in the town of Ulster.

“It became very clear about a week ago that there was a dramatic shortage of personal protective equipment, beginning with hospitals and then first responders,” said HVAMC director Daniel Freedman last week. “They were all trying to order more, but everybody was sold out.”

Freedman found himself getting calls from the likes of deputy county executive John Milgrim, Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation president Mike Oates, and Cornerstone Family Healthcare chief of staff Mike Limperopulos. They wanted to know whether HVAMC could lend a hand — and an array of printers — to fabricate plastic face shields. Currently in short supply, these face shields are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in coronavirus patient contact situations. Paired with surgical masks, face shields keep aerosol droplets away from the face when N95 respirator masks are not available.

Research into how Europe has been coping with the COVID-19 outbreak revealed that plans for 3D-printed components for a makeshift face shield had been made available online by inventors in the Czech Republic. Ingeniously, the design repurposed old eight-and-a-half-by-eleven-inch transparency films of the type formerly used for laser printers, copiers and overhead projectors. The HVAMC team — which includes Kat Wilson, Aaron Nelson and intern Rachel Eisgruber as well as Freedman — was able to obtain donations of an ample stock of the films in short order. “The invention of PowerPoint and smartboards kind of made them obsolete,” Freedman explained. “Pretty much every K-to-16 educator has a package of them sitting in a closet.”

Kat Wilson, the assistant director of the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center at SUNY New Paltz. (Provided)

The clear plastic sheet needs to be held away from the face so that it doesn’t fog up from breathing while in use. The team used 3D printers to manufacture biodegradable polymer headpieces with two crescent-shaped bars. One hugs the forehead. The other, studded with nubs that fit through holes punched in the sheet of film to hold it on, stands further out. Smaller plastic pieces link up at the back of the head using rubber bands.

“We modified the design to make it print faster,” explained Freedman. “The shields are considered single-use items, so we had to figure out how to print them as fast as possible.”

R&D happened on the fly, with each batch sent up to Tech City for field testing. Milgrim reported the feedback from the test-site workers to Freedman, who then tweaked the design. “We went through nine prototypes in about three days, trying to make them more comfortable and easier to assemble,” said the New Paltz engineering dean. “It’s a lot like writing. Your first draft is unlikely to be your best.”

While the transparency films were a quick and easy fix that “work in a pinch,” in Freedman’s words, HVAMC is now switching over to using “higher-end” 0.005-inch-thick PETG polyester sheets for the face-protection component. He regards HVAMC’s creation of the prototype as a stopgap operation in a time of urgent need. He has hopes that IBM might take over local 3D printing and assembly on a larger scale, and that large plastic-packaging companies should be able to convert to printing them.

The Novo Foundation and Central Hudson are helping to pay for the initiative at SUNY. Several other entities in the mid-Hudson have joined in the manufacturing effort, including Schatz Bearing Corporation in Poughkeepsie and the STEM labs at Arlington and Rondout Valley high schools. The latter is already supplying face shields to Ellenville Regional Hospital.

About 20 individuals with home-based desktop 3D printers have also volunteered to participate, and anyone who wants to get involved can download design templates at the HVAMC website. “If you’ve got a 3D printer, we’d love your help,” Freedman said. “We’ll keep cranking them out until somebody much larger can start supplying them.”

The demand for these devices is not going to drop off anytime in the immediate future. As of yesterday, production at SUNY’s Engineering Innovation Hub was up to about 200 pieces per day.

Besides the initial orders for the Ulster County/Nuvance testing site, additional batches have been sent to Cornerstone Family Healthcare facilities serving disadvantaged populations in Orange County. More were being printed to send to Woodland Pond in New Paltz. And Tops Markets had just announced that its associates interacting with customers would begin wearing protective face shields at all its 162 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, including three in Dutchess and Ulster Counties.

For Dan Freedman, the nimble response to this need made possible by the recent popularity of 3D printers is a public affirmation of the modern economic model of distributed manufacturing. “It’s unfortunate that we had to have a health emergency to make it happen,” he said, “but I’m really glad that we could help with this.”

The design templates for the masks are on the HVAMC website at www.newpaltz.edu/hvamc/covid19faceshields.

Read more local coronavirus coverage here. Sign up for regular updates with our dedicated COVID-19 in the Hudson Valley newsletter. 

Tags: coronavirus
Before you click away... grab a free month of HV1. Get unlimited access. Get the news you've been missing. Get connected to your community. Keep local journalism alive at $5/mo., or cancel anytime. And enjoy summer!
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Woodland Pond employee tests positive for COVID-19

Next Post

Ulster County confirms two more COVID-19 deaths

Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

Related Posts

The puzzle of post-pandemic real estate
General News

Woodstock Housing Alliance receives non-profit status

August 11, 2022
Second testing disproves Covid cluster at Woodland Pond
General News

Senior living facility shows unwillingness to pay recreation fees

August 10, 2022
Kingston considers upping reservoir’s capacity
Environment

Kingston declares Drought Emergency with watering restrictions, boil water near Stony Run

August 2, 2022
Elting Library Fair honors Sally Rhoads and Carol Roper
General News

Defending against lawsuit will cost taxpayers 25k

August 1, 2022
CCA program comes to a premature end…for now
General News

CCA program comes to a premature end…for now

August 1, 2022
Central Hudson construction project upends struggling businesses
Business

Central Hudson construction project upends struggling businesses

August 1, 2022
Next Post
Letter: Vote “yes” on Ulster redistricting ballot prop

Ulster County confirms two more COVID-19 deaths

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Mayor encounters “biggest black bear I have ever seen” 1.6k views
  • Sawyer Ice Cream is your grandfather’s shake shack 876 views
  • Phony crosswalk covered over 842 views
  • Senior living facility shows unwillingness to pay recreation fees 642 views
  • Development vs. conservation: Glasco Turnpike plan aims to strike a balance 559 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
64°
Sunny
6:04 am7:56 pm EDT
Feels like: 64°F
Wind: 1mph E
Humidity: 79%
Pressure: 30.01"Hg
UV index: 2
TueWedThu
86/59°F
81/59°F
84/59°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing