Since the times now are anything but normal, Winfree has temporarily switched those resources to fabricating face shields. The two processes are similar, so the switch was easy. Using an open-source design listed on the National Institutes of Health website, Winfree is now printing face shields on 3-D printers from five NAU labs\u2014his, SICCS professors Fatemeh Afghah <\/strong>and Abolfazi Razi, <\/strong>and mechanical engineering faculty John Tester<\/strong> and Sarah Oman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The collaboration allows them to print about 30 shields a day, with students volunteering their time to get the work done.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working on different ways to more reliably print these shields, but this 30-per-day is about the rate we expect with all five printers running as we move forward,\u201d Winfree said.<\/p>\n The team has supplied 40 shields to local health care providers so far and have about 100 more ready to ship out. Many of the shields are going to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe.<\/p>\n The idea started a few weeks ago with Winfree and doctoral student Felicity Escargaza<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we started talking about it, we realized this wasn\u2019t just an idea; this was something we could put into place quickly,\u201d Winfree said. \u201cBy the end of that day, she had a print in hand. We\u2019re printing a slightly different mask now, but it\u2019s important to note that we went from concept to product in about nine hours.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heidi Toth | NAU Communications <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Northern](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514.png\")
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\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n