Lawrence Tech grads, colleague donate 3,000 face shields
Lawrence Technological University graduates John McGarry and Trent Schmitz, along with work colleague Clayton Wenrick, made face shields to donate to area medical facilities, while they were at home during the state’s stay home order.
“The face shields have been a big success,” McGarry, a designer at Neumann/Smith Architecture, said in a press release. “We’ve produced and delivered over 3,000 face shields to 18 different healthcare facilities. In total, our 3D printers ran for over 2,250 hours and we used over 35,720 linear feet of filament.”
Recipients of the masks included Beaumont Hospitals, DMC Medical Group, Henry Ford Hospitals, and the University of Michigan health system.
The printers were provided by LTU’s Detroit Center for Design + Technology,
LTU’s Centropolis Accelerator, a business incubator for manufacturing companies on LTU’s campus, the Rochester 3D printing dealership Delray Systems, and the virtual reality company Mirari.
“Being part of this effort has been very rewarding. Being able to do something that we love while being able to help the community, friends and family has been very rewarding. We also can’t thank Lawrence Technological University’s Detroit Center for Design + Technology enough for assisting us in this effort! This would not have been possible without their help and generosity,” McGarry said.
“Even though we’re seeing the need for PPE reduced, we continue to produce face shields on a request basis. Since offices are opening up, we’ve shifted to producing hand’s free door openers. Also, with people wearing masks all day, we’ve been producing mask clips to help relieve pressure on people’s ears from the masks.”