Thanks to KC’s Dimensional Innovations, you can now download designs for an open source face shield
March 27, 2020 | Startland News Staff
Editor’s note: The following is part of Startland News’ ongoing coverage of the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Kansas City’s entrepreneur community, as well as how innovation is helping to drive a new normal in the ecosystem. Click here to follow related stories as they develop.
An industry leader in design and fabrication, along with its local partners, is putting pandemic over profits — revealing Thursday an open source solution to the global shortage of surgical face shields for medical professionals fighting COVID-19.
Open source face shield
“We’ve all witnessed the devastation this coronavirus has caused around the world, so we had to find a way to help,” said Tucker Trotter, CEO of Kansas City-based design firm Dimensional Innovations. “When all the brave medical personnel working around the clock began running out of face shields and other protective equipment, this team started designing a solution that can be sourced and utilized by front-line responders. This face shield can be created and sourced anywhere and provide relief to the current shortage.”
The simple, all-plastic shield — created by InStore Design Display and in collaboration with DI, The Center for Design Research at the University of Kansas, and The University of Kansas Health System — consists of two interlocking plastic parts cut from PETG, a clear plastic sheet material, that provides significant durability, chemical resistance and excellent formability for manufacturing.
Brandon Wood, Dimensional Innovations
“There’s no foam, no elastic. It’s just very easy to produce out of clear plastic sheet material,” said Brandon Wood, Innovation Lab manager at DI, emphasizing no other raw materials are necessary to source for assembly.
DI is releasing the cut file for the face shield — along with all the other versions created leading up to the final design — as well as step-by-step instructions for how to make the various headband designs and how to assemble the masks, Wood said.
Click here to learn more or download the design.
“Anyone who has a CNC router, laser cutter — something that can cut flat sheets — can definitely use this, and you can be producing face shields quickly,” he added, noting DI’s hope that mass distribution and wide accessibility of the designs will encourage producers to make and supply the face shields to their local hospitals and medical centers.
Once cut out, the face shields can be flat packed, boxed up and shipped out immediately. Hospital staff can then easily assemble on site as needed.
DI’s Trotter is among a group of Kansas City business leaders — including Nathaniel Hagedorn, Tyler Nottberg, Dave Cummings, Andy Deister and Taimoor Nana — spearheading a local effort to combat COVID-19 in the Midwest and throughout the nation by calling on business leaders to take action.
Click here to learn more about Dimensional Innovations.
Featured Business
2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Challenging the notion of ‘entitled millennials,’ Rise Fast empowers young people
When the economy took a turn for the worst in 2008, many millennials saw their parents and grandparents laid off by companies they’d been loyal to for years. Eze Redwood said that although it’s easy to gloss over the impact that traumatic events have on a generation’s psyche, young professionals carry the weight of this…
As engagement grows, KC Women in Technology gears up for 2017
Imagine if the next Mark Zuckerberg was a young female living in Kansas City. Despite an interest and aptitude in technology, imagine she walks into a popular clothing store and seeing a shirt that reads: “I’m too pretty to do math.” Subliminal messages such as this are not an uncommon occurrence for many young women.…
KC programs become semifinalists in Harvard innovation contest
Harvard University has recognized two Kansas City initiatives as semifinalists in the school’s Innovations in American Government Awards competition. Led by the City of Kansas City, Mo., the Community Improvement District Revolving Loan Fund and Women’s Empowerment initiative both are among 100 programs vying for a shot to become finalists and the $100,000 grand prize.…
The Lean Lab continues to make an impact in KC education
As the Lean Lab looks back on its third year, co-founder Katie Boody said the program is “just getting started.” Launched in 2013, the Kansas City-based education tech incubator engaged over 900 individuals in conversation on education innovation in 2016. In addition, last year marked the organization’s first step to go international, attracting entrepreneurs that…