Camosun Innovates is manufacturing over 9,000 medical-grade face shields for frontline health-care workers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The college signed off on the contract with producer AP Plastics on Monday, March 30, and the first batch of the face shields went out to health-care workers on Monday, April 6. The shields span from the user’s forehead to their chest and are made with transparent thermal plastic.
Camosun Innovates director Richard Gale says that Camosun was able to ramp up production of the masks recently, as well as cut costs from about $15 a shield to $5. Gale says Island Health wants as many masks as Camosun can provide.
“We’re able to make about 9,000 locally, in house, and by the time those 9,000 are delivered, AP Plastics will be cranking out their manufacturing to fill the rest of the order for VIHA,” says Gale.
The face shields—which can be warn over a mask—will be delivered to Island Health ready to go; all the workers have to do is assemble them. The laser technology used to make the shields is novel, says Gale, adding that this is the kind of work that’s done all the time at Camosun Innovates.
“It’s especially gratifying to be able to provide this kind of help to local health authorities,” says Gale. “We feel like we’re really making a contribution to the efforts.”
Camosun Innovates is meeting regularly with Island Health, says Gale, to discuss Camosun’s role in the future of the fight against COVID-19.
“We have a couple of other projects that are in the queue that we’re talking about building for them, but we’re also trying to disseminate this face shield design as broadly as possible so others can start producing more masks,” says Gale. “We’ve had inquiries from as far away as the United Kingdom. There’s a place in Scotland that’s looking at producing this design in the next few days.”
Gale says the COVID-19 pandemic is “the kind of thing that you read about in history books” and says the dangers are real.
“I don’t think any of us ever expected to have to live through something like this,” he says. “The global health risks are real, especially with increased mobility all around the globe.”
Gale says technology access centres like Camosun Innovates are well-equipped to help in these circumstances.
“Whether it’s COVID-19 becoming quite rampant here in Canada, or whether it’s other kinds of health, safety, or stability problems anywhere else on the globe,” he says. “It’s practical, applied research that’s going to solve the problem, and that’s what we’re good at.”