General discussion - LASER CUT PPE/FACE SHIELDS

Laser Cut Face Shield
#62

Hi Guys,

If anyone had intentions of selling these, then the CE Approval would be the way to go, however, due to the prolonged interrogation process you have to endure to get this Technical Specification, to satisfy Annex II of the PPE Regulation EU 2016/425, the majority of people are donating these FOC to whoever needs these.

I am based in Belfast and the criteria surrounding these items are astronomical and very time consuming, by the time everything is completed to obtain the CE Certification, hopefully the issue of needing the face shields will be resolved ( fingers crossed )

The design was absolutely brilliant and you all have to be congratulated on that regard and we should all be tipping our hats to you for that. I have made a few tweaks here and there to get the best from my laser, but, overall an excellent design - well done !

I will just keep producing the face shields until the demand runs out and donating these to whoever wants them.

Thanks again for everything.

#63

Thatā€™s a bit out of order is it not?

Take a design that was rushed through by volunteers to try to meet a desperate demand for front line healthcare workers and SELL them???

Or am I over-reacting to this?

#64

hi Phillw and all.
Up and runningā€¦ my PP sheets working greatā€¦ but need some kind of printed sheet to include with the mask. Been mostly giving these to friends and relatives. Wonder if you have a info sheet that I could modify to us in the States?

#65

If you have a search on the forum someone posted up detailed instructions as a pdf.

#66

So many of us from Leicester. Iā€™m the design tech at Leicester college.
I havenā€™t been using the college laser as I went on maternity 4 weeks before lockdown.
Iā€™ve been using my home laser cutter and have managed to produce over 900 with a newborn in one arm.

@Smokey as for the design I only optimised it for my bed size. Iā€™ve been buying in pp sheet ready chopped so I can just lay one on and press go. Itā€™s so easy my husband can do it!
Weā€™ve had requests from care homes and individuals in the self employed health sector such as optometrists. Iā€™ve also provided 150 to individuals that work at the LRI. Ward 29 had 100 off me and they said they work great.
Iā€™ve slowed down as of a week ago but still get some requests.
Iā€™ve had people message me to help - obviously canā€™t have any one in My home but a guy offered to drive so we sent 200 to a care home in Kettering. I only put one post out on FB and got such a great response.
I initially formed out Ā£100 of my own money to get up and running not expecting to make any back and just gifting them but I have received over Ā£600 donations and have never asked anyone to pay for these. So this will be donated. They are so cheap to produce Iā€™ve spent Ā£160 ish.
I currently have 100 cover binding sheets left and 40 sheets of PP left.

Thanks for the support on here itā€™s a great community. Iā€™m glad to be have helpful during this time

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#67

Nice one,

Our story in terms of requests, kind offers and donations is similar.

Also some horrible stories of the shortages, and still in hospitals!!!
I shield per hospital bay, staff have to share it.

Ours slowed too, but I feel there will be an uptick soon.

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#68

Someone on the Nottingham Hackspace SLACK channel shared this story last night.

I heard about efforts at the Nottingham University and the Royal Mint a few weeks after the initial upswing in demand, though the Nottingham University Hospital Trust only stopped taking shields at the end of March. Thereā€™s a bard in the words of the PPE specialist, though Iā€™m under no illusion that these shields are an ad-hoc emergency stop-gap. I do see a lot of activity that, on the one hand, shows there is a demand outside of the key front line hospitals. Even in hospital, outside of red wards I think PPE is budgeted and highly limited? As with everything, it becomes a war of words. For me though, I wonā€™t be sending out any more shields as it seems clear there is a PPE industry back-lash against the ad-hoc emergency version.

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#69

A lot of care homes have nothing, they are grateful for anything.

To be honest the top picture in the BBC article looks like the acetate is in portrait not landscape?

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#70

I think itā€™s just to illustrate one of the tests they conduct. Theyā€™re the same visor in both pictures. Weā€™ve both said @phillw, that the laser cut visor is emergency ad-hoc. Other than the less well provisioned sectors like care homes and food banks and such. I donā€™t see any further demand for this kit. I think we can breath and say, job well done. Obviously if things go south and there are more PPE shortages, we can light the fires up and get underway again. Hopefully that will be never. For me, this is a testament to rapid, in house prototyping and the ability to flex and provide a timely ā€œgood enoughā€ solution.

If Iā€™m drowning, grab a ropeā€¦ any rope. But if Iā€™m kitting out a life boat, Iā€™ll make sure the ropes are correctly rated. The same should be applied to buying PPE. This is why Iā€™m a little nervous and weirded out by people talking NOW about CE marking and such. Why? This isnā€™t a product. It was the answer to ā€œWe need PPE now, itā€™s an emergency.ā€

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#71

Superb reply.

Mind if I nick the rope/lifeboat analogyā€¦ thatā€™s a very good one!

Some of the home brewed paperwork I have seen probably took longer to prepare than 500 visors.

Me, Iā€™m a rope chucker!

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#72

I totally agree. I have been happy to help where needed. Many people were grateful for what they received and I always told them this is less bad than not having anything. The disclaimer I did went out the window when I concentrated on making - fortunately it took me all of 10mins to make as I copied and pasted most of it :sweat_smile: Iā€™m not interested in going any further with Ce marking weā€™ve done our job when it was needed and Iā€™m happy. Now Iā€™ve got to get on with the backlog of jobs :blush:

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