In the drive to supply personal protective equipment, UTSC staff are pitching in at home

David Chan
David Chan from the Centre for Teaching and Learning is using his 3D printer at home to make parts for critical medical equipment.

Don Campbell

When David Chan started his 3D printing hobby a little more than a year ago, he never could have imagined it would one day lead to printing parts for protective equipment.

 

“It’s definitely surreal,” says Chan, an educational developer at U of T Scarborough’s Centre for Teaching and Learning.

 

“On the one hand it’s unifying a lot of people towards the goal of creating protective equipment for our health care workers, but at the same time it’s scary that we’ve reached this point where we need to leverage all these sources to meet demand.”

 

Chan had seen the stories about dwindling hospital supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), but when he saw a hospital in Waterloo looking for 3D printers in order to print parts for equipment, he started looking for similar initiatives closer to home.

 

He soon connected with the PPEDrive, an initiative organized through Michael Garron Hospital calling on the 3D printing community to come up with 10,000 visor frames. After downloading the specs for the parts, he started printing.

 

Last week he was able to print 81 visors (which is the part that wraps around the head and connects to the face shield) using his two 3D printers at home. He’s relying on donations from friends to help supply the resin.

 

He has since pivoted one of his printers to make plastic ear guards for surgical masks. He can make one visor in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and six ear guards in about two hours.

 

“Doctors and other healthcare workers have been wearing face masks non-stop the past few weeks, and for many it’s incredibly painful – some are even bleeding because their ears are so raw.”

 

Chan is just one of several staff members at U of T Scarborough chipping in by using their 3D printing skills to make parts for critical equipment needed by healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19.

 

Elizabeth O’Brien, U of T Scarborough’s Makerspace librarian, is using 3D printers in her home to create visors along with Adriana Sgro, library technician and Makerspace assistant, who is printing from her home as well.

 

As the pandemic continued spread and the need for PPE began to emerge, O’Brien brought all of the Makerspace 3D printers home before connecting to an eastern GTA collective making visors for healthcare workers.

 

“Makerspaces at university and college libraries are really getting behind this initiative, which is great to see. Thankfully the printers are relatively small and portable, and since we’re isolating, this is a great way to help out.” 

 

Tom Meulendyk
Tom Meulendyk and his daughter check on the progress of their 3D printed visor at home. 

 

The visors made by O’Brien and Sgro are being collected at Durham College where they're shipped to a licensed local manufacturer where they’re properly assembled and sanitized before being sent to hospitals. The pair are printing about 20 visors a day.

 

“We don’t have industrial printers, so it can be a slow process, but every little bit counts,” says O’Brien, who has learned how to operate a 3D printer over the years working in the library.

 

Tom Meulendyk, a lab coordinator with the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, is using their printer – which is normally used to make landscape models, fossil replicas, microscope mounts and other teaching tools – to also print visors.

 

Chan encourages everyone to pitch in, whether it’s donating money or using their own 3D printer to connect with approved organizations that are creating, collecting and donating PPE. 

 

“This is just one small act, a drop in the bucket really, but every little bit counts,” he adds.

 

“We have to be thinking about our health care workers because they don't have the privilege of staying home. They're the ones keeping us and our society healthy and safe, so we owe it to them.”