BY KAREN BOSSICK
Oliver Guy has never been one to twiddle his thumbs. So, when Boise State University closed to stop the spread of coronavirus, he decided to put his energy into one of the places it’s needed most.
The 2018 Sun Valley Community School graduate created more than 60 face shields using the school’s 3D printers. Then, he distributed them to Wood River Fire and Rescue to distribute among local emergency services.
“I was hoping to do something to help slow the spread and help out front-line workers,” said Oliver, a sophomore at BSU. “And this seemed like an activity where I could use my skill set to potentially save lives and prevent other people from catching the virus. The school happened to have the right kind of printers for this project.”
The school gave Guy the funds to purchase supplies to create the shields. And it loaned out its two printers to Guy to take home.
Each shield took about four hours to print. Guy made six to eight a day over 10 days.
The headband of each shield is made of 3D-Printed ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), or PLA (Polylactic acid) plastic. The clear shield is made of standard report covers that have been hole punched to fit on the head band. Each shield is reusable and able to be sterilized.
“Oliver is really smart, really skilled at 3D printing—he used to print amazing things for science class projects,” said Hannes Thum, a science teacher at Sun Valley Community School. “And he’s a nice person who likes helping out.”
Thum put Guy in touch with Lt. Eric Mathieu at Wood River Fire and Rescue, who also had been researching how he could print shields for EMS ambulance workers with his 3D printer.
“We certainly have a need,” said Thum, who works part-time for Wood River Fire and Rescue. “The local EMS agencies have been doing pretty well with personal protective equipment overall. But sourcing PPE and keeping up has been a very busy job for many people in the valley. So, shields like these are amazing, and an important part of our PPE protocol during this whole situation.”
Lt. Eric Matthieu said his agency and other emergency services would use Guy’s face shields as soon as they run out of the ones they have.
“We’re using shields every day, much more than we ever used them before,” he added. “It used to be we just used them for really sick patients who we thought might have something contagious. But now we figure that with any call we take the patient is potentially contagious. And what’s great about Oliver’s face shields is that they’re reusable. All we have to do is disinfect them.”