Robocracy 4-H Club Making A Difference

The Robocracy 4-H Club is making and delivering re-usable face shields to local hospitals and other first-line workers including food pantries, food delivery volunteers, and home health aides. They chose a model, the Prusa Face Shield, which is NIH approved for PPE, and are 3D printing with PETG filament which resists high temperature for heat sterilizing, and also can be disinfected with sanitizer or alcohol. They also improved on the design, providing additional protection, by extending the shields by an additional 12% to better utilize the form factor of material available in the US. They use our 4-H club’s 3D printers and CNC machines to print and cut parts, and then the senior team members who have their driver’s license pick up bags of parts and deliver them to their respective 4-H families for final assembly. Switching to remote learning is hard and the 4-H club team members are missing the busy social life of their High-Schools. However, this project is a rewarding experience for each 4-H club team member involved, and it is the best way to utilize their skills as designers and engineers to make a little difference in our community, At this stage, they have distributed 250 shields to hospitals and communities within the epicenter of the pandemic, and they plan to distribute a total of 1000, printing and assembling as soon as materials arrive.

Last updated October 23, 2020