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Face Shield Making Challenge
Canutillo ISD making 3D printed face shields for District essential workers
Posted on 04/07/2020
This is the image for the news article titled Canutillo ISD making 3D printed face shields for District essential workersNorthwest Early College High School was given a challenge by the Canutillo ISD administration to help protect employees during the public health situation – create face shields using the school’s 3D printers for the District’s child nutrition workers and bus drivers who deliver meals daily to the community.

With the help of Northwest computer science teacher Catherine Tabor, senior Alondra Baquier worked on a prototype of a face shield in a small printer she had at home while she is preparing for a competition. She created and tested it and sent Ms. Tabor a proof of concept. Back at the campus, they tested it on the 3D printer. After several trials and a number of failed attempts, they finally got a working model.

“After hours of adjustments, we had a working prototype and have been printing around the clock ever since,” Tabor said. “By April 6, we were able to deliver almost 30 shields to our food service workers and bus drivers to help protect them from aspirated droplets.”

Tabor says that at this time, they are currently still printing. Each visor takes about 2.5 hours to print including cool down and extraction time. The 3D printed visors use laminating sheets for shields and elastic or rubber bands for around the back of the head to create the finished product.