Prusa RC3 Protective Face Shield | How You, Can Help The Effort

It's no secret that this is a troubling time and the need for protective equipment is at an all-time high due to the recent shortage of N95 face masks and other protective gear for our healthcare and critical care worker globally.

I can't imagine having to leave my own home and family, some critical care workers have young babies or families so literally have left home for around twelve-weeks. It utterly breaks my heart to even contemplate how hard that must be for them, and, the worry that they may not return. Seems quite dramatic for sure but that's just how this pandemic is affecting us all. The truth here is that Covid-19 takes lives. Critical care workers are more at risk and I've even said to Elyse that these workers are similar somewhat to those who went off to WWII. They are opting to put themselves at risk to keep our country safe from an unknown terrorist.

This is where you can jump in to help ease-up some of the pressures brought on by this.

Source: Prusa

Providing you have a 3D printer at home and have the capabilities to do so, you can 3D print the top and bottom parts of the Prusa RC3 Protective Face Shield and send them off to be assembled.

The Prusa i3, for those who do not know, is the third 3d printer created by Josef Průša, the founder of Prusa Research the company where he manufactures "self-replicating" printers, where 300+ printers (Collectively called "The Farm") work to build parts for more printers, which is a pretty awesome concept!

It's very important that if you are showing signs of the virus that you do not print these parts with the intention of sending them as, obviously, that would be very stupid.

Great care must be taken when preparing these parts as these will ultimately be going to people who require them to shield themselves and, anyone else they might be coming into contact with, from getting infected. The use of gloves and face masks is very important when preparing these parts and pre-washing your hands (Proper steps can be found here -the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice, is long enough!) is an absolute must, to avoid any contamination of the parts.

Steps for the preparation of these parts can be found on the Prusa Website and stp, dxf and other file types are available to download under a non-commercial licence, so don't be a prick and sell the parts/completed shields (If you have the panelling, too) on eBay for more than production cost, as that's a sure-fire way to get yourself hated by everyone.

If you have the means to help this effort, then jump in! The more people helping our medical workers, the better. With them being better protected, then we can rest assured that they will be able to continue doing their jobs and putting their lives on the line.

People are already putting their 3D printers to the task and companies such as Pi Supply and Linus Media Group (huge fan of Linus tech tips!). have also answered the call, putting their printer farms to work.

Let's keep our NHS and critical care workers safe!