When the pandemic hit, we asked: how do we help our commuity?

Face Shield Operation

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill and PPE shortages threatened frontline workers, we responded. In just days, a grassroots movement born in a small workshop became a global network producing over 3 million face shields.

Problem Solving 3D Printing COVID-19 Response

QUESTION NO. 100-2020-03

HOW CAN WE HELP OUR COMMUNITY?

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MARCH

Shelter-in-place orders hit. Hospitals face critical shortages of PPE.

Upstate New York on a map with Syracuse highlighted

Businesses were closed. Factories shut down. Planes were grounded.

Everyone was sent home. We were living in Syracuse, NY. And at the time of the shelter in place, the epicenter of COVID-19 was in New York City.

All the resources were being sent there.

Testing Center Announced

That Friday, our county executive, Ryan McMahon announced there would be a testing center opening that Monday. He asked if anyone had personal protective equipment or could make it, to please donate.

County Executive Ryan McMahon announcing the testing center for COVID-19

WHAT COULD A 3D PRINTER MAKE?

We went through the list of PPE to see what we could make. Gowns, no, hand sanitizer, no. Face shields... maybe we could design and print those?

Prototype of Budmen 3D printed face shields

Over the weekend we started prototyping

Version 1:
It fit Stephanie's head perfectly! But when Isaac went to put it on…ouch! It cut off all circulation. Heads come in all sizes.

Version 2:
It fit both Stephanie's and Isaac's head. We attached the transparent shield and wore it for a few minutes. Pretty soon the shield started to fog up, not conducive to precise medical work! The end of the visor was way too close to our faces

Version 3:
Extended the visor outwards. It fit both heads and it didn't fog up! We kept it on our heads for a while and, it was really uncomfortable! The hard plastic kept digging into our foreheads and it left a red mark on our heads.

Version 4:
This version we made more ergonomic. We added a comfortable foam and rounded out the visor. It fit both heads and we could wear it for an extended period of time.

We turned on several of our Buildini 3D printers and got to work printing face shields.

We dropped them off that Tuesday. And after reviewing them, the city started using them right away.

Budmen Buildini 3d printed face shield close-up

First few layers of a face shield printing on a Buildini 3D printer.

then we got a phone call asking us to

...make as many face shields as you can, as fast as you can make them!

We got off the phone and realized that the need was far bigger than we had imagined.

We pulled all the 3D printers we had...

and set up a print farm in our basement, setting up printer after printer getting started 3D printing shields 24/7 around the clock.

While this was happening, a local newspaper wrote an article about us.

We got emails from around the world

The news spread like wildfire. We got thousands of emails from people all over the world in the first 6 hours alone.

Some asked for just a few face shields, while others asked for hundreds or thousands of them. From Mexico to Japan to San Francisco, our inbox was full of face shield requests.

But something extraordinary happened. People all over the world with access to 3D printers, emailed, asking how can we help? "How can we help?" This phrase kept coming up in our inboxes. Emails were flooding in and we couldn't fulfill all the requests.

The titles in red are real subject lines from emails asking for shields. The subject lines in gray are from people offering to help 3D print shields in their communities.

Mayo Clinic PPE Request

Can we help?

Face Shields for Bozeman Hospital

I want to help

Shields for UC San Diego

How can I help?

Mt. Sinai Needs Shields

Will these help?

Mass General Needs PPE

Help to donate face shields

URGENT - Medical Supply Help

Library wants to help print PPE

Straps & foam

3D Printing Help

PPE for Zuckerberg SF General Emergency Dept

Printing shields

Shields for Japan

Help with Transportation

New Orleans needs shields!

Support with 3D printing capability

3D Printing for VA

We took down our entire website and put up two forms:

one form to request face shields, the other to produce them... Then we connected the folks in need to the people who were willing to help.

Discover the impact of the Budmen Face Shield Operation

A screen capture of our live dashboard from one day of the operation. Anywhere theres a red marker, thats an organization or a person requesting face shields. Anywhere with a blue marker are producers, willing to help 3D print shields.

We look at it as a map of the world's largest distributed factory. And a map of the most generous people on the planet.

Producers all over the world stepped forward to iterate and improve upon the original Budmen Face Shield design

Something Labs optimized the Budmen face shield for Lasercutting and CNC machining.

Vestibular First designed an iteration that used velcro instead of elastic

Katie Hollenback designed the Budmen face shield to fit elementary children.

Skyler Holobach dove head first into learning a new skill, casting. She cast the Budmen face shields with resin

RBW Design reduced the material by 48%

While coordinating a global network, we didn't forget our roots.

The Upstate New York community rallied together, donating over $28,000 to protect local healthcare workers.

Every dollar went directly into materials, assembly, and distribution. Together, we donated over 27,000 shields to organizations all across New York State, from small rural clinics to major metropolitan hospitals.

Thank you to our incredible partners: American High, Greater Syracuse Soundstage, and PPC, and all the volunteers who worked around the clock to protect our community.