BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – With the COVID-19 outbreak, many people are trying to keep busy and stay safe. For some, it’s getting more exercise, cleaning the house and ensuring they have the essentials to get by until things get back to some sort of normal. For one Airman with the Michigan Air National Guard, it’s finding a way to help any way he can.
Staff Sgt. Jacob Rader, an operations intelligence analyst, 110th Operations Group, Battle Creek Air National Guard Base, has come up with a way to provide comfort to those on the front line by using a 3D printer to create face shields.
Rader says he bought the printer for Christmas and when all of this started, he decided this would be a good way to put it to use.
“I had been reading about others who had been creating masks and other equipment and decided to start printing a few test models to see how they turned out and to have on hand,” Rader said.
A 3D printer is very much like an inkjet printer operated from a computer. It builds up a 3D model one layer at a time, from the bottom upward, by repeatedly printing over the same area in a method known as fused depositional modeling. The printer creates a model over hours by turning a 3D Computer-Aided Design drawing into lots of two-dimensional, cross-sectional layers – effectively separate 2D prints that sit on top of each other, but without paper in between. Instead of using ink, the printer deposits layers of molten plastic or powder and fuses them with adhesive or ultraviolet light.
“The face shield model I downloaded from the internet took about eight hours to print a single mask at the fastest print speed my printer could manage. I further edited the model and pared down the size to be able to print eight masks in one continuous 24-hour print session,” said Rader.
He has printed 12 face masks at a cost of about $3 each.
Rader donated them to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo after learning one of his coworkers had a family member working there and they were in need of more personal protective equipment.
“It started with just trying to see how they would turn out and to have on hand, but after hearing about the shortages of personal protective equipment for the medical field, I feel it is the right thing to do,” he said.