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3D Printing Optimization for Environmental Sustainability: Experimenting with Materials of Protective Face Shield Frames.

ABSTRACT: The motivation for research on 3D printing of protective face shields was the urgent societal demand for healthcare in the fight against the spread of COVID19 pandemic. Research is based on a literature review that shows that objects produced by additive technologies do not always have consistent quality suitable for the given purpose of use. Besides, they have different effects on the environment and leave different footprints. The overall goal of the research was to find out the most suitable thermoplastic material for printing shield frames in terms of mechanical properties, geometric accuracy, weight, printing time, filament price, and environmental sustainability. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology was used for 3D printing, and three different filaments were investigated: polylactic acid (PLA), polyethylene terephthalate (PETG), and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). The weighted sum method for multi-objective optimization was used. Finally, PHA material was chosen, mainly due to its environmental sustainability, as it has the most negligible impact on the environment.

SUBMITTER: Zgodavova K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8585375 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19) pandemic has pushed health workers to find creative solutions to a global shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE). 3D-printing technology is having an essential role during the pandemic providing solutions for this problem, for instance, modifying full-face snorkel masks or creating low-cost face shields to use as PPE (Ishack and Lipner, 2020 [1]). Otolaryngologists are at increased occupational risk to COVID19 infection due to the exposure to respiratory droplets and aerosols, especially during the routine nose and mouth examinations where coughing and sneezing happen regularly (Rna et al., 2017 [2]; Tysome and Bhutta, 2020 [3]). The use of a headlight is essential during these examinations. However, to our knowledge, none of the commercially available or 3D-printable face shields are compatible with a headlight. Hence, using a face shield and a headlight at the same time can be very uncomfortable and sometimes impossible. To solve this problem, we have designed a 3D-printable adapter for medical headlights, which can hold a transparent sheet to create a face shield as an effective barrier protection that can be used comfortably with the headlight. The adapter can be printed in different materials with the most commonly used nowadays being the cost-efficient PLA (Polylactic Acid) used for this prototype. The resulting piece weighs only 7 g and has an estimated cost of $0.15 USD. The transparent sheets, typically made from polyester and used for laser printing, can be purchased in any office material store with a standard price of 0.4 USD per unit. After use, the transparent sheet can be easily removed. We trialed the adapter in 7 different headlights. All of these headlights accommodated the printed blocks extremely well. The headlights were used in many different settings, including the ENT clinic, the operating room, the emergency room, the ENT ward and the COVID19 intensive care unit (ICU) for a two weeks period. All doctors using the headlight felt they were fully protected from respiratory droplets, blood, sputum and other fluids. The face shield with the headlight has been found very useful for treating epistaxis, changing tracheostomy cannulas and during routine nasal and oral examinations. The headlight face shield adapter was designed to solve a specific problem among the ENT community; however other specialist can find it useful as well. Nonetheless, manufacturers should take care of specifics problems like this and provide commercially available products to protect the ENT workforce in this new era.

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3D Printing Optimization for Environmental Sustainability: Experimenting with Materials of Protective Face Shield Frames.

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