A group of friends and one teacher at Holy Trinity High School in Bradford have joined forces to create face shields for front line workers in the fight against COVID-19.
Bradford resident Anthony Dibella had been reading articles online about people in Italy using 3D printers to make Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and ventilator valves and felt inspired to do the same.
He and his friend John, and a few of their friends rallied together to experiment with their own 3D printer in creating protective face shields.
His friend John’s wife is a nurse and she was more than happy to hear about the group’s idea.
The only problem was, he didn’t have many supplies. So he reached out to the Bradford community through the Welcome to Bradford Facebook page asking where he could find transparent film sheets for his PPE project.
“That is when things blew up,” he described.
People were quick to donate their unused transparent film and share their information on where to find more.
He also discovered another much needed piece of equipment right now on the front lines: ear bands, which he could also make with his printer.
“Twelve hour shifts with a N95 mask… it is brutal on the ears,” he imagined.
So far, Dibella has been able to make shields for two PSWs, a fireman and his daughter (who is also a PSW), and 10 employees at Shoppers Drug Mart in Bradford. In addition, he has been able to make shields for two large pharmacies and two doctors in Toronto.
“The list just keeps expanding every day,” he explained. “It seems like every day I am now just driving back and forth from Bradford to Toronto, simply dropping off masks.”
And his innovative idea has inspired others in the community as well.
Holy Trinity high school teacher Craig McLaughlin, He saw Dibella’s post on the Bradford Facebook group and wanted to help. He has been using one of the 3D printers he brought home from his classroom to help Dibella make PPE gear.
“I think it's amazing the way people are finding ways to help out so I'm trying to help those guys out a little bit as well," he said.
So far he has made a few mask frames as well as some N95 mask relief clips. His daughter just graduated from nursing school and is working as a PSW and knows how important this equipment is to her and other frontline workers.
He noted how many of the schools have 3D printers and plans to get in touch with his principal to see if other schools in the area would be on board to help produce more equipment.
“I'm going to talk to my principal and the other tech teachers in our board to see if we can produce a larger quantity,” he explained.
McLaughlin says Bradford Valley Care Community just reached out to the group requesting some PPE equipment. Over the weekend the long term care home was identified as one of the care homes in Ontario with a COVID-19 outbreak, infecting at least 10 residents.
“We now have a group of people that are all working together on this project in Ontario,” explained Dibella. He said so far there are about 18 people across the province working together on the project and hope to soon create their own website so they can take requests.
"But it's a slow process, I'll update you when that happens," he added.
The group is using a shared file online on how to make the equipment, which was created by a man in Italy.
He says making the equipment is time consuming.
“I print the head band, this takes me three and half hours, if my printer doesn’t fight me, and then I clip a transparency film to it,” he said.
Dibella is glad he can put his 3D printer to good use and help out as much as he can.
He originally bought the printer a few months ago to print action figures for his nephew.
“ I just love tech and tinkering with things,” he said.
