Printing protection against COVID-19

DARIUS SHAHHEYDARI
PONTIAC May 13 2020
A man from Breckenridge is putting together homemade face shields to distribute to any essential workers and nonprofit organizations that are in need of them.
Patrick Toulouse is using his tools and production materials along with several 3-D printers to print these face shields.
Toulouse produces the mask in his home office. He started by making each mask individually, but then moved on to stacking up multiple ones in his design for the printer, saving him a significant amount of time.
He started printing on his own, putting advertisements up on social media and receiving requests even from convenience stores.
Following this, Toulouse partnered up with a group of volunteers called Covid3DQC, which are involved in similar work.
The coalition now has a website, covid3dqc.ca, where visitors can put in requests for equipment.
There are 700 members from every region in the province that are part of the group, which has produced over 26,000 masks within the province so far - with 4,000 in the region and all the masks are being handed out for free.
“We did, I think, 150 for MRC des Collines and we did 500 for the paramedics association,” said Toulouse.
Covid3DQC has someone come pick up the masks he produces from home and brings them to the person in charge of the distribution.
The group has found it difficult to manage all the email messages they were receiving so they had to look for a solution.
“[We were] trying to focus more on the printing, so now we have somebody from the Outaouais region receiving all the requests,” said Toulouse.
That somebody is Gen Charland who prioritizes deliveries based on the clients interaction with others.
Workers who need to break the two-metre distancing measure, such as dentists or eye doctors who need to deal with emergencies, are prioritized for deliveries.
According to Toulouse, it normally takes a couple of days for the deliveries.
“It depends on the hospitals,” said Toulouse. “Some of them are more picky than others, and some of them are short on materials. They are more willing to use them.”
Toulouse wants to get the masks out to the frontliners in the hospitals before anyone else, but he needs to get them approved by Health Canada before some hospitals can use them.
The process to have their model tested by Health Canada costs $2,500, without a guarantee of approval, which means they might send the model back to the volunteers to make changes and charge them again for a re-test.
“There are many different steps, it’s very complicated. I think there are two or three different norms the shields need to reach,” said Toulouse
In the U.S for instance, anyone can simply design a face shield and send the 3D model file to the health department, who in turn will print it out and test it, make the right adjustments for it to be deemed okay, and then put the file online for anybody to download, along with instructions such as what material should be used.
“Here the process is completely different,” said Toulouse. “You need to actually make the face shield and bring it to Health Canada. You cannot compare how much more complicated it is to get it approved.”
The group is now beginning to experience a shortage in materials, particularly in clear binding covers that are used as visors for the shields and is hoping furniture stores hear of their deed and help them out with this.
There are two types of binding covers, crystal-clear and partially clear. The crystal clear ones are hard to find.
“All the plastic is in big shortage now, even the thinner one for the visor,” said Toulouse. “The elements for the printer, too, are harder to find now.”
Amazon is out of stock and companies such as 3D Printing Canada’s shipments run out quickly because many people are manufacturing from home in these times, according to Toulouse.
Covid3DQC is in touch with big companies to see if they can get their materials in larger quantities.
A GoFundMe account, gofundme.com/f/covid-3d-qc, has also been set up to cover the costs of production for the team, since all the material they use is donated to essential workers. It has received over $9,500 in donations as of Sunday.
Besides the GoFundMe, some companies decide to donate to them directly.
“At the end, it’s all non-profit,” said Toulouse.