Topic: What we've been doing about COVID
I've mentioned this in some of the threads, but here's what we've been doing as a company and what I've been doing personally during this unprecedented situation.
Besides my regular jobs, I've been spending evenings and weekends working with a local Dan Diego group to make faceshields and expanders, using both my personal 3D printers, a printer belonging to a co-worker, and the six printers my employees owns when they're idle.
The other main part of the face shield is the clear plastic sheet. My local group bought a *lot* of plastic of various thicknesses, and I used my company's CNC router to cut the mounting holes and round off the corners. I've probably done about 20,000 sheets over the last several weeks.
In addition, I took one of the more common 3D printer designs and modified it for mass production using injection molding. I worked closely with a plastic prototyping company we frequently use here, Rapid Cut of North Carolina, and commissioned the manufacture of a mold in China. We then placed an order for 10,000 face shield head bands - the first batch of 2,500 were delivered this morning.
Half of these units came to me in San Diego, where they have been delivered to the local group to be assembled and distributed as donations to health care workers and first responders in Southern California and Baja Mexico.
The second half went to my brother in Orlando where he manages another operation under "wgfaceshields.com". These units are being delivered as donations today to hospitals in Central Florida.
The rest of the 10,000 are still on their way across the Pacific.
