Getting shield ready

Face shields are an important piece of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health care workers. When a person coughs, many tiny, aerosolized fluid droplets are created and propelled into the air. If the person has COVID-19, then these droplets can be inhaled by people in the area or when they land in eyes or mouths and can cause others to contract the disease. Face shields protect the wearer from these droplets by creating a barrier all around the face. 

This spring, most of the world was facing dire PPE and medical-supply shortages. Now global supply chains have begun increasing production. Despite this global supply rebound, many still can’t secure the items they need. This can be the result of customs hold-ups, import fees, shipping costs, or lack of funds. This isn’t a problem unique to PPE in this moment- global supply chains don’t effectively serve all regions equally. Shortages could become even more pronounced since experts have predicted that we could see hundreds of thousands of new cases a day in both developed and undeveloped countries.

So it’s still highly useful to be able to make and distribute face shields locally. 

Field Ready has vetted multiple face-shield designs that are manufactured in a variety of ways. Which design and manufacturing method should be used will depend on where the face shields are being made, how great the need is and local people’s availability to lead the manufacturing effort. If a person or organization wants a small number of face shields to fill a need, then they are best suited to source the raw materials and just make them by hand, as seen in the video below.

If there’s a pressing need for thousands of face shields and the expectation that the need will continue, then the best solution will be partnering with a local injection-molder or die cutter and investing in the tooling to get a mass-manufacturing operation off the ground that can make thousands of face shields a day. We also have designs that are well suited to manufacturing quantities somewhere in the middle. 

Field Ready is eager to help people make needed items locally. Going from recognizing a need to manufacturing an item can be a confusing and technical process. Given our experience manufacturing needed items in the field, we can help you.

All you need is a sense of what and how much PPE is needed in your community and to whom you will distribute the PPE. Please see the flow chart below to help you figure out what process will work best for you.

If you have any questions, please each out to us here and we can help you gauge your needs.