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Bowdoin College staff and faculty producing face shields for local hospitals amid COVID-19

Staff and faculty worked with their counterparts at Bates and Colby colleges to identify organizations in need of their help and to make the project happen.

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Using a 3D printer, staff and faculty at Bowdoin College have begun producing NIH-approved visors for personal protective equipment (PPE) face shields amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A first batch of more than a dozen has been delivered to LincolnHealth in Damariscotta.

The 3D printer is working around the clock at the home of staffer David Israel, who works in Bowdoin’s Academic Technology & Consulting Group.

Israel says it takes two and a half hours to print a visor and is producing about eight per day. Bowdoin is now preparing a second 3D printer to join the effort.

The visors are paired with the clear plastic dividers used in three-ring binders to compose face shields. Shields are being cut on campus by Erin Johnson, visiting assistant professor of art and digital and computational studies, who is also making the deliveries.

Israel and Johnson worked with counterparts at Bates and Colby colleges to identify organizations in need of their help and to make the project happen.

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