Hello, we are a team of five engineering students from WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) that are working on a project for our engineering design class. The project was to design a manufacturable and effective head strap that holds a plastic face shield that can be used to protect newborn babies from COVID-19 as they leave the hospital. This head strap is designed to be manufactured using a 3D printer.

Our design focused on protecting a newborn as much as possible while also limiting the amount of material and time it would take to produce on a 3D printer. The design is somewhat based on one of our previous designs, but scaled to fit the average head size of a newborn baby. Furthermore, since babies have soft heads we aimed to create a flexible and comfortable design that can be worn for long periods of time without bothering the newborn child. We utilized a flat section to provide them better protection from airborne bacteria as a result of a cough or sneeze above the face shield. We also designed the piece to be relatively thin to reduce production time as much as possible and to make it as flexible as possible without losing the integrity of the part. Additionally, the face shield is small enough that more than one can be printed on a print bed at the same time. The double band in the front of the head strap allows for some distance between the face shield and the user's face. In addition, the multiple holes on the back allow for multiple different types and configurations of elastic straps to be used to secure the device to your head. 

The 3D printer we used was a Sindoh 3DWOX DP200, with a build plate of 200 mm x 200 mm x 185 mm. The STL file, SOLIDWORKS file, and configuration file are all included in the zip folder.

By:

Troy Howlett

Brendan McClelland

Dexter Czuba

Thien Nguyen

Matt Michaud