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Charlotte-MEDI / Faceshields

This repository is to keep track of novel designs of face mask for medical professional to use in critical times
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Vacuum Molding the Shield? #8

Open DavidCTaylorPhD opened 4 years ago

DavidCTaylorPhD commented 4 years ago

Could we vacuum mold the shield and head covering parts? After speaking with Terence and Alex from UNCC, an MDF component would need to be milled out for support and there would be some post-processing of the parts. We could use an actual shield with a head covering from the doctors as the mold. This could possible fix the issue of the size, angle, and head covering concerns. Alex has a vacuum molding tool in his lab at UNCC.
I got the idea from talking with Tom and watching these videos about making a vacuum mold for customs/masks: https://youtu.be/Gx66mS7U2vY , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cox8fR1rUBI , and https://mods-n-hacks.gadgethacks.com/how-to/make-your-own-halloween-masks-by-modding-your-shop-vac-into-vacuum-forming-machine-0139413/.

Thoughts? This is just an idea.

JeremyProffitt commented 4 years ago

Part of the functionality of this design is the ability for the face shield to become wider and skinnier based on the user's head size, I am curious how we retain that capability on a vacuum formed part, especially given the top will be a 1/4 sphere. I wonder how a hair dryer on the user's end could be a solution?

If we can address that concern, perhaps indenting the area around the for head while adding 1/4 spheres at the top and bottom of the shield would allow not only for the face shield to stick out some from the forehead, but also allow us to add just some padding to the indented area and straps on either side, removing the requirement for the 3d printed part. Kinda like this, but perhaps like this:

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DavidCTaylorPhD commented 4 years ago

Great point! Could we possibly hole punch and use your component for attachment? This could keep the user flexibility.

JeremyProffitt commented 4 years ago

If the plastic is soft enough when at room temp, I wonder if it wouldn't stretch. Heck, we could make a big and small version too. But this is not something all people can do, but the time to make is extremely fast and we could trim with a hot knife.

DavidCTaylorPhD commented 4 years ago

That's a good point. I feel that the front load of the work will take the longest. Alex stated he thinks it would take about 5 minutes to produce the parts. I feel that having the advantage of heat gives us a lot of flexibility.

JeremyProffitt commented 4 years ago

I can likely 3d print a model, that model could be used on a cnc to generate the model to use with a vacuum form machine.

DavidCTaylorPhD commented 4 years ago

Sounds good!

tjfagan commented 4 years ago

I was emailing back and forth one of the professors at UNCC, the one who wrote the book on manufacturing. Any, thermoforming may be used in the long run for batches. I asked him if he knew any local companies.