Protective Face Shields Against COVID-19

Frontline healthcare workers are running out of personal protective equipment (PPE). Many hospitals have a limited supply of PPE or have run out, leaving healthcare professionals without the necessary resources to perform their job safely and raising their chances of infection.

This page describes efforts originating in the US. Find out more about the development of mask adapters in France.

Disposable plastic face shields are intended to be worn over a healthcare worker's mask to protect against patients' coughs, sneezes, and sweat. 

Face shields limit aerosol and splatter exposure from the front, protecting a broader area of the face compared to standard safety goggles or glasses, while providing top ventilation. By reducing aerosol and splatter exposure on N95 and other face masks that cover the mouth and nose, shields also allow healthcare workers to wear those masks longer.

Face shields consist of a transparent shield, a horseshoe-shaped strip of plastic that serves as the frame of the shield, and an elastic band to wrap around the head. The horseshoe-shaped strips can be 3D printed, while the rest of the parts are widely available off the shelf components.

Face shields are one of the most popular applications of 3D printing to create PPE.

Formlabs user Luiz Maracaja worked with his colleagues at Yale School of Medicine and University of Mississippi to devise a novel face shield frame called OxyFrame. The 3D printed device combines a traditional face shield framework with a novel air channel system that allows inflow of oxygen or compressed air behind the ear and outflow above the nose-bridge.

Using OxyFrame, continuous air flow allows the provider to breathe comfortably inside a plastic hood, while simultaneously defogging the clear shield film. The design is specifically optimized to print vertically on an SLA printer with minimal supports, enabling users to tile 24 frames onto one build plate. Each frame uses only 9.7 mL of the resin material, so one liter of the resin can generate approximately 100 frames.

Luiz Maracaja and his colleagues prototyped their design using Draft Resin. Prints in Draft Resin provided sufficient surface quality while printing with remarkable speed and efficiency; the team was able to print ten prototype frames in three and a half hours. 

To learn more about the work Luiz Maracaja and his team are doing, along with other non-medical parts being created to combat the COVID-19 crisis, read about our Community Parts Library.