A relationship that started with friendship and drones is now helping produce face shields for first responders, a critical piece of equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淭his is an emergency situation, but we鈥檝e been doing projects with WPD for (almost) three years now,鈥� said Nathan Smith, Project Innovation Hub manager for Wichita State University鈥檚 College of Engineering. 鈥淭he existing relationship was exactly why I was able to be contacted so quickly.鈥�
On Thursday, Sergeant Teddy Wisely of the Wichita Police Department and Smith delivered around 30 reusable face shields to the WPD. Wisely, on his , calls the work a 鈥淐ommunity Effort to tackle a Community Problem.鈥�
鈥淢any conversations have occurred on how to slow the spread of COVID-19, and what could be done to help protect our front-line workers who are face to face with the potentially infected members of our community,鈥� Wisely wrote. 鈥淲e are community members who have banded together to come up with solutions to combat the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).鈥�
The project is growing quickly, Wisely said, as word spreads and more people and groups pitch in.
Ascension Via Christi, Wisely said, provided a major boost to the supply chain by offering to help with funding, final assembly and sanitizing of the shield. With that help, Wisely bumped the goal up to 7,000 face shields as soon as possible.
Wisely said the group has most of the materials needed. They need more 3D printers 鈥� his goal is 100 - and people who can sew the elastic headbands. Wisely can be contacted through the gofundme.com page.
鈥淚t鈥檚 100 percent a collaborative effort,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a mom and her 14 鈥搚ear-old son with a small printer. It鈥檚 all ages. We are growing every day.鈥�
The relationship between the WPD and the College of Engineering started with Wichita State College of Engineering graduate Ron Augustine, a reserve WPD officer, who knows Smith and Andy Stallard, director of the Senior Design Experience in the College of Engineering. Over the past three years, the College of Engineering helped the WPD develop a cheap and reusable method for tracking and monitoring vehicles and with drone projects.
Wisely, a Wichita State graduate, is a 3D printing hobbyist. As he watched news of the virus spread, he began thinking about ways to help. When he started on the face shield projects, Augustine and Stallard directed him to Smith. Smith has around 20 3D printers available to help, both in the College of Engineering and at GoCreate / A Koch Collaborative, because most students are no longer on campus.
鈥淎s soon as this started, we realized all PPE is at a shortage right now,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淔ace shields are something we can easily print.鈥�
Wisely found a design. Smith worked with the design and printer settings to boost production speed.
鈥淣athan was the second link in this big chain,鈥� Wisely said. 鈥淗e may have been the most beneficial to helping me believe this was going to actually happen. He started printing Day 1. It wasn鈥檛 a 鈥業 don鈥檛 know if we can do this.鈥� He said 鈥楬ow can I help鈥� and immediately started working.鈥�
The production plans moved quickly.
鈥淗e met me on Tuesday afternoon,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淏y Wednesday morning, we had come up with a decent way to get more than just one print out every six or seven hours. I was able to get about 25 the first day and 50 (Thursday) and hopefully by (Friday) we鈥檒l have about 100.鈥�
Gregory Inc., of Hutchinson, Groover Labs, McConnell Air Force Base鈥檚 XPX Innovation team and Pittsburg State University are also helping, Wisely said.
Wisely breaks the project into three parts 鈥� production and distribution, followed by testing and then decontamination.
鈥淲e are working around the clock to print the components for face shields,鈥� Wisely said.
