Supporting frontline NHS staff by 3D printing face shields

When the call went out from the online 3D printing community that frontline NHS staff had requested over 186,000 face shields through the 3DCrowd.UK website in just 1 week – the IT team at Downe House leapt at the chance to get involved.

By signing up as a 3DCrowd UK volunteer, we are playing a small part in a huge operation to kit out our frontline NHS staff with much-needed personal protection face shields. It’s a huge operation and with over 3400 volunteer 3D printers already signed up, the first batch of 80,000 face shields are already in production. And, some of the UK’s largest courier companies, are ready and waiting to collect and deliver the precious cargo to the NHS distribution hubs across the country as they are produced.

Based on independent medical advice, the visors are being printed using PETG filament, which is food-safe, less likely to harbour the Covid-19 virus and means that they can easily be cleaned – they can even go in the dishwasher!

It can take up to 4 hours to print just one of the much-needed visor sets, so our 3D printer will be certainly be kept busy over the coming weeks! Here it is in action…

To find out more about this initiative, to volunteer your 3D printer or to donate to the distribution campaign visit 3DCROWD.UK