Adapting on the fly in virus fight

The four 3D printers at the Blackstone Valley Education Hub, or the Ed Hub, in Whitinsville are “running day and night,” said Jeannie Hebert, president and CEO of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The Ed Hub’s efforts, spearheaded by Hebert and Mark Lyons of Advanced Educational Technologies Labs have resulted in the production and distribution of about 500 face shields to area hospitals and health care facilities, which are very much in need of personal protective equipment (PPE) while combating the coronavirus pandemic.

“I talked to a doctor and showed her the design,” Lyons said. “She thanked me for saving her life. That’s how important these things are.”

Local companies and community members are joining the fight against COVID-19, finding new uses for equipment like 3D printers, and shifting traditional production and making items like the barrier screens/cough guards STAS Picture Hanging Systems in Webster is manufacturing, and the hand sanitizer Nashoba Valley Spirits in Bolton is churning out.

“It takes a village,” Hebert said, “and we are so pleased to be able to help.”

The Blackstone Valley Education Hub has delivered face shields to UMass Memorial Medical Center, St. Vincent Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Milford Regional Medical Center, Cornerstone at Milford Assisted Living, and Notre Dame Health Care in Worcester.

Lyons mobilized the program to include about 35 schools he works with through AET. Locally, Blackstone Valley Tech in Upton and Uxbridge High are using 3D printers to produce face shields.

“We’re printing what I would call the visor of these shields with the 3D printers,” Lyons said. “Once they are printed out, we need to assemble them with a piece of clear plastic sheet.”

The Ed Hub has four types of 3D printers. As Hebert explained, one takes five hours to print four face shields, another three hours to print two, for example. “So we change them over throughout the day,” Hebert said.

Lyons said Medtronic, a medical equipment manufacturer in Beverly has generously donated boxes of clear plastic sheet, and the project has started a GoFundMe page — www.gofundme.com/f/1ypaflwrxc — to help purchase supplies, including filament.

“The demand (for face shields) is so much greater than the supply right now, that we can’t stop,” Lyons said.

Lauren Monroe, co-executive director of Technocopia, a nonprofit makerspace in Worcester, said that among Technocopia staff and members, seven 3D printers are running in individual homes and printing head bands, and the goal is to get 1,000 face shields made to help support local healthcare facilities.

Technocopia’s 11,000-square foot facility, which includes a wood shop, glass shop, metal shop and fabrication lab, is closed due to the state order for non-essential businesses, so Technocopia’s 3D printers were moved to staff members’ homes.

After a recent conversation with Robert Sanstone of Rhode Island, who, Monroe said, is single-handedly distributing about 20 face shields per week to Central Mass. health care centers, she was inspired to move quickly on a grassroots effort to support 3D printing face shields from home.

“Technocopia felt with its 100 maker members, we could exponentially grow this effort,” said Monroe, who has a 3D printer going in her home.

Technocopia planned to deliver shields to a COVID-19 unit in Worcester on Saturday, and expects to deliver another 50 shields to a health care center near Milford on Wednesday.

Monroe said Amanda Barker is taking the lead in the Technocopia community on another design that is not 3D printed, but uses a plastic sheet and a foam head band.

Through its website — technocopia.org — Technocopia, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is accepting donations to its PPE efforts for COVID-19.

The idea for the clear plastic barrier screens/cough guards STAS Picture Hanging Systems is making to separate cashiers and clerks from customers, came from a newspaper article STAS CEO Matthew Fraioli’s colleague in the Netherlands — where the STAS parent company is located — sent him.

“It was about basically a shower curtain a local grocery store was using to try to keep cashiers protected,” Fraioli said. “We kind of looked around and our main business is picture hanging systems, so we have all the equipment to hang things from the ceiling except for the plastic screen, so we came up with a way to mount those to the ceiling and here we are.”

STAS has made more than 1,000 of the 39-inch-by-32-inch screens, and has sold locally to places like the Cake Shop Café in Millbury, and nationally to Dunkin’ Donuts and gas stations.

“Basically anyone with a retail presence,” Fraioli said.

On Friday, Fraioli had an order of 500 screens going to post offices in the Albany, New York, region.

“We’re shipping them as fast as we can make them,” Fraioli said. “We went from concept to production in three days.”

Fraioli and his small and hardworking on-site team serve the U.S. market. STAS in the Netherlands is doing the same thing for the European market.

“Our biggest issue right now is trying to find the clear plastic panels because they’re being used for a lot of things right now,” Fraioli said.

Earlier this month, Nashoba Valley Spirits produced the distillery’s first batch of hand sanitizer.

The first yield was 18 gallons and for use by staff and guests.

Nashoba Valley Spirits is producing about 50 to 100 gallons of hand sanitizer a day, COO Justin Pelletier said, and has started to sell it to area hospitals, healthcare facilities and essential businesses.

“Right now, we’re starting to get in the groove of things,” said Pelletier, who, along with his father, Robert, and other employees, have been working 12 hours a day.

“We’re focused on providing these health care workers,” Justin Pelletier said, “the people battling this pandemic on the front lines and the essential businesses that are still needed in place to keep the supply chains intact and be able to provide products to healthcare workers that they need to be able to combat this.”

Pelletier said they are focused on selling the hand sanitizer in Massachusetts.

“A lot of other distillers around the country are doing the same thing,” Pelletier said. “We’re trying to come together and do what we can to help people who are in desperate need of this.”

Hueson Wire, a wire and cable manufacturer in South Grafton, received an order Thursday morning for 350,000 feet of wire that will be used in the manufacturing of 5,000 ventilators, Hueson general manager Brian Hanlon said in an email.

“We stopped production lines to immediately process this order,” Hanlon said, “and will have it completed and out the door Monday afternoon. Based on our attentiveness to this, we are in the process of a re-order to supply product to wire another 10,000 ventilators.”

Hanlon said Hueson is also working with Hill-Rom Hospital Beds, Haworth Healthcare Furniture (making wire to power the divider panels in the makeshift hospitals) and Hubbell Temporary Medical Lighting.

“At this time, we are proud to contribute in any way we can to do our share in manufacturing wire and cable products that will ultimately be used in the fight against COVID-19,” said Hanlon, adding that the company is taking extra safety precautions with its employees.

The sales and engineering teams are working from home and the factory team is continually briefed on recommendations from the board of health.

“We have an incredible, dedicated work force working 48-hour weeks pushing order through,” he said.

Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Followe her on Twitter at JenTandG.

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