Help Make Face Shields & PPE for LA Hospitals
Donation protected
Dear Friends,
Covid 19 has created a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals across the United States. We are addressing this shortage in a direct way by 3D printing PPE with our 3D printing design studio located in Venice, Los Angeles. We have teamed up with medical professionals in the Los Angeles community to distribute face shields, and build on-the-fly design solutions for the respirator shortage and forward thinking PPE solutions.
Our primary mask consists of a design generously made available by Prusa, based in Czech Republic. This design has gone through multiple iterations and has been developed in conjunction with the Czech Health Ministry. We feel, as they are a leader in the 3D community, this design has high design value. Further, based on input from LA USC, ICU Dr. Leejoe Pallickal, and Kaiser Permanente West LA, we continue to develop and refine the design to better serve the needs of medical professionals. We are using FDM PLA printers for the headband and bottom reinforcement, .01" cellulose film for the face shield, and elastic / rubber bands for the head strap. After testing in multiple scenarios, we feel the build of our shields is both protective and sturdy for hospital use.
Kapow! 3D is a 3D design and 3D printing studio located in Los Angeles. We have served the Los Angeles community for the past 5 years designing products in the medical, fashion, art, sports, furniture, entertainment, toy, and consumer fields. We have built thousands of prototypes for professionals across the city, and within the medical field we have worked with UCLA Radiology, LA USC, SC Hospital Culver, multiple medical device companies, and others.
We have 10 3D printers running at any given time. Our 3D printers run in FDM and SLA processes. We have capacity to create custom prototypes and can also generate small batch production. We will keep our machines running at full capacity during this shortage, and have set up a mini production line to continue producing face shields, as well as newly invented PPE we are designing and prototyping each day.
Please consider donating to the cause. It costs around $7 to produce each face shield, not including labor, machine time, or overhead. All donations will go directly to the materials cost of the masks. In addition, we are in development of a snorkel mask for ICU doctors, which is a new invention via Dr. Pallickal and our studio. Although we are patent pending this design, we will release design files to those with printers and produce as many as possible during this shortage. This mask costs around $40-$45 in direct material costs. Any overage on donation will go to a fund of our choosing that supports the hard working medical professionals who are so brave during this crisis and are keeping us safe.
Thank you,
Nathan Looyenga - Founder, Kapow! 3D
Dr. Leejoe Pallickal - Partner and Project Advisor
St. John's Santa Monica staff with our modified SCUBA masks, and plastic face shield.
Stack print processing of Covid Headbands from Prusa's Face shield design. We run these in batch over night - approximately 10 hrs print time per stack of 4.
Stack printing of headbands for face shields. At full capacity, we can print approximately 40 per day. Although, we are printing other PPE in conjunction and are not exclusively printing face shields.
Covid 19 has created a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals across the United States. We are addressing this shortage in a direct way by 3D printing PPE with our 3D printing design studio located in Venice, Los Angeles. We have teamed up with medical professionals in the Los Angeles community to distribute face shields, and build on-the-fly design solutions for the respirator shortage and forward thinking PPE solutions.
Our primary mask consists of a design generously made available by Prusa, based in Czech Republic. This design has gone through multiple iterations and has been developed in conjunction with the Czech Health Ministry. We feel, as they are a leader in the 3D community, this design has high design value. Further, based on input from LA USC, ICU Dr. Leejoe Pallickal, and Kaiser Permanente West LA, we continue to develop and refine the design to better serve the needs of medical professionals. We are using FDM PLA printers for the headband and bottom reinforcement, .01" cellulose film for the face shield, and elastic / rubber bands for the head strap. After testing in multiple scenarios, we feel the build of our shields is both protective and sturdy for hospital use.
Kapow! 3D is a 3D design and 3D printing studio located in Los Angeles. We have served the Los Angeles community for the past 5 years designing products in the medical, fashion, art, sports, furniture, entertainment, toy, and consumer fields. We have built thousands of prototypes for professionals across the city, and within the medical field we have worked with UCLA Radiology, LA USC, SC Hospital Culver, multiple medical device companies, and others.
We have 10 3D printers running at any given time. Our 3D printers run in FDM and SLA processes. We have capacity to create custom prototypes and can also generate small batch production. We will keep our machines running at full capacity during this shortage, and have set up a mini production line to continue producing face shields, as well as newly invented PPE we are designing and prototyping each day.
Please consider donating to the cause. It costs around $7 to produce each face shield, not including labor, machine time, or overhead. All donations will go directly to the materials cost of the masks. In addition, we are in development of a snorkel mask for ICU doctors, which is a new invention via Dr. Pallickal and our studio. Although we are patent pending this design, we will release design files to those with printers and produce as many as possible during this shortage. This mask costs around $40-$45 in direct material costs. Any overage on donation will go to a fund of our choosing that supports the hard working medical professionals who are so brave during this crisis and are keeping us safe.
Thank you,
Nathan Looyenga - Founder, Kapow! 3D
Dr. Leejoe Pallickal - Partner and Project Advisor
St. John's Santa Monica staff with our modified SCUBA masks, and plastic face shield.
Stack print processing of Covid Headbands from Prusa's Face shield design. We run these in batch over night - approximately 10 hrs print time per stack of 4.
Stack printing of headbands for face shields. At full capacity, we can print approximately 40 per day. Although, we are printing other PPE in conjunction and are not exclusively printing face shields.
Organizer
Nathan Looyenga
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA