Soon after the COVID-19 Virus became international news, Prusa Research realized a need for 3D printed face shields. It didnt take too long and they had posted an open source design for face shields that could be 3D printed by the masses, but the design took a lot of material, were slow to print and required that you use a 4 hole punch to poke holes into A4 transparency sheets. 

This makes perfect sense for those in Europe, but in the United States it makes far more sense to print use Letter sized transparency, and use a three hole punch. 

Prusa’s answer to this problem is to ask makers to laser cut the A4 transparency down to the US Letter size. The truth is a very small number of makers own a laser cutter. This is not only inconvenient for makers, but also delays delivery of these important health care  supplies. 

A better answer is to create a new design that is designed to use easily available materials found in the US. 

Andy Andresen saw this need and designed a new shield that was intended to be three hole punched on easily available letter sized transparency sheets. He generously shared this design with me so that you can print it too. 

NIST has two printers that are cranking out this design in addition to many printers that Andy is running to make these units available. As of March 31st, 2020 our local Genesis health hospitals have taken delivery of 100 units and were very happy with the design. Trinity is also requesting units as is Mercy in Clinton. 

To build these you simply print the frame, and three hole punch the widely available 8.5 x 11 transparency sheets and these units print in a third of the time of the Prusa frames. 

Download the STL to print these frames on your own printer. 

Below is an image of a fully assembled frame.