Advancing from Additive Manufacturing to Large-Scale Production of Face Shields During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This work describes why additive manufacturing is a key technology for efficient design iterations and rapid production ramp-up with large-scale manufacturing technologies. Laser cutting, injection moulding and folding were used to increase the production capacity of face shields for health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We applied systematic learnings from the iterative processes used for additive manufacturing to these large-scale manufacturing technologies and the respective face shield designs. In cooperation with medical experts, structural and functional design requirements of face shields were identified and are described in detail in this work. The regulatory design requirements according to EN 166 are introduced, which were considered to receive a CE certification for three of the presented designs. The employed manufacturing techniques are specified and the respective implications on the design solutions are discussed. The paper concludes with a summary of the production initiative at the research campus ARENA2036 with a total output of over 13 000 face shields from April to June 2020, which were distributed internationally.