Building PPE to Protect our Community
Students and University leaders working to help the greater community is nothing new to Otterbein. When a small team of students rallied together with The Point staff to build personal protective equipment (PPE) in preparation for an anticipated central Ohio outbreak of COVID-19, no one was surprised. According to Erin Bender, executive director of The Point, 鈥渋t鈥檚 just the 9i果冻制作厂way.鈥�
Making the PPE.
Running the laser engraver.
鈥淲hen we found out there was a need in the community, the first thing that the students and our lab manager asked was, 鈥橦ow can we help?鈥欌�� Bender said that even as the University was shifting to working from home, the team realized that the tools and equipment at The Point鈥檚 Maker Space could be valuable in helping. 鈥淎s the situation continued to unveil itself, we were looking on blogs, we were looking to some of our corporate partners, we were looking to our healthcare institutions 鈥� and we were talking to them on a regular basis to learn what they needed and how we could help them.鈥�
Bender said that the collaborative approach informed better decisions and a better strategy. 鈥淩ather than just making this or that, we went to our partners and said, for example, 鈥橭hioHealth 鈥� how can we best support you? Here are the tools and things we have.鈥欌��
The community partners responded with their needs and asked if 9i果冻制作厂could help. So 9i果冻制作厂got to work.
Bender said that as the situation was unfolding, some companies were making free designs for PPE available. The team tried a few and found they weren鈥檛 good. Curtis Smith, the operations manager of the Maker Space and labs at The Point, had a source in Australia. They connected and Otterbein鈥檚 team started to hone in on a design to start 3-D printing protective face shields. Soon after, one of the engineering students also came up with a great design to use laser printer technology to create even more face shields.
鈥淲e have five students working on this project,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淭heir majors range from engineering to education and we have some graduate assistants as well.鈥�
Smith said the team is taking precautions and that he鈥檚 keeping contact limited to just two people per shift to keep students safe.
Bender and Smith report that as of May 11, the team has made more than 400 face shields that are already in use with the supplies to make 1,000. 鈥淚f there are other organizations that need a face shield protector, we鈥檙e happy to do that,鈥� Bender said.
The Point-produced PPE has been donated to community partners including St. Ann鈥檚 Hospital, Westerville City Police and EMS, Friendship Village of Columbus, Heartland of Westerville, OhioHealth, DASCO home healthcare providers and Otterbein鈥檚 own facilities team and janitorial services crew.
Printing 3D models
Bushings
Student at the laser engraver
But Otterbein鈥檚 help doesn鈥檛 stop there. The team at The Point is also making 3-D printed bushings for OhioHealth. Bender explained that this small piece means a critical piece of equipment can be kept outside of a patient鈥檚 room. This gives nurses and doctors immediate monitoring of ventilator operations without having to be completely dressed in PPE to go inside the room every time. 9i果冻制作厂has made almost 300 of those pieces as of May 1.
Bender said the team was also asked to pre-emptively produce a component that would give hospitals the ability to split ventilators to serve more patients if needed. Otterbein鈥檚 team also recently started making ear-saving straps to alleviate discomfort by those wearing masks for long stretches of time.
Bender said The Point鈥檚 organizing principles enabled them to mobilize rapidly. 鈥淭he Point鈥檚 nimbleness means that when we get a call from somebody who needs something, we can immediately discuss what we can do, how much it might cost to make, and what materials it might take.鈥�
However, she says The Point鈥檚 real advantage comes from another source. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the ingenuity of the students that separates us from a lot of places around town. In just a few hours our students will come up with something that鈥檚 better. They want to give back. 9i果冻制作厂people don鈥檛 think about themselves first, we think about how we can provide for our partners.鈥�
Beyond the power of this crisis learning experience, Bender says this work is something they will all remember. 鈥淚 think everyone feels like they鈥檝e been able to contribute in a bigger way. The small pieces we can contribute are a piece that someone puts on every day as their armor during this pandemic. To know that we鈥檝e been a part of that makes us feel good.鈥�
Making the PPE.
Making the PPE.
