24 | MAY 14 • 2020 

Spartans collaborate 
to create 3D-printed 
medical face shields

MSU is helping local health professionals on 
the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic 
caused by the novel coronavirus by making 
3D-printed personal protective equipment.

To address the critical need for donations, 
medical face shields are being jointly 
produced with colleges across MSU’
s 
campus, including Osteopathic Medicine, 
Engineering, Natural Science, Agriculture 
and Natural Resources, and Arts and Letters.

While MSU departments and labs already 
were donating existing supplies, one faculty 
member wondered whether new protective 
equipment could be created from scratch.

“This all stems from 
the Office of 
Environmental 
Health and 
Safety effort to 
bring together 
any and all PPE 
supplies that were 
unused in our labs to 
help local hospitals,” says 
Nathan Tykocki, assistant professor of 
pharmacology and toxicology in the 
College of Osteopathic Medicine.

With access to a 3D printer and time at 
home instead of at his lab, Tykocki was 

inspired to act. After searching the 
3D-printing community online, Tykocki 
discovered a group in the Czech Republic 
that made a medical face shield validated 
by its government. The group’
s design has 
been shared globally online. 

“I just started emailing,” Tykocki says. 
“Brian Smith of EHS put me in contact 
with other professors and technicians 
from a myriad of different colleges and 
departments. I suggested that we should 
do these shields. The nice thing is these 
shields are reusable — the plastic can be 
disinfected without harming it in any 
way — so the shields are by no means 
a ‘
one and done.’
”

While the frame of the medical shields can 
be created with a 3D printer, the devices still 
require other components, including the 
clear plastic shield itself. Aaron Walworth, 
laboratory manager in the School of 
Packaging, had just the thing — a laser 
cutter to make the clear plastic pieces.

Walworth says he cut 132 shields one 
afternoon while others on the team with 
laser cutters were purchasing more of the 
plastic sheeting used to make the shields.

Brian Wright and John Papapolymerou 
of the College of Engineering have 
coordinated with Tykocki to use their 3D 
printers to create the frames. Tykocki 
also heard from the MSU Library, where 
someone suggested using the clear plastic 
covers for binders as one of the materials. 

MSU St. Andrews, a STEM education center 
in Midland, also stepped up with a daily 
capacity to print about 60 frames a day. 

A final and crucial component needed for 
medical face shields is the elastic strap. Enter 
the Department of Theatre in the College of 
Arts and Letters. When Tykocki shared the 
need with his wife, Abigail Tykocki, theatre 
communications specialist in the college, 
she suggested contacting the MSU 
Costume Shop.

“We had a ton of elastic, because we buy 
stock to keep for whenever we need it,” 
says Angie Wendelberger, the costume 
shop supervisor. “I had four industrial rolls 
of elastic just hanging there that no one 
really could use.” 

Wendelberger retrieved the elastic from the 
costume shop and brought it to the 
Tykockis’
 home. “I was just glad that I could 
help in any way,” she says. “I’
m not scientific, 
and I can’
t make face shields with a 3D 
printer, but I can provide elastic.” 

Tykocki is pleased with the collaboration. He 
says everyone involved in the production 
hopes to eventually make the shields 
available to health care providers statewide. 

“This really shows me that collaboration is 
not limited at all to research,” says Tykocki. 
“It expands to every aspect of the university, 
and the willingness of people to work 
together to help when it’
s needed. This is 
a true example of ‘
Spartans Will.’
” e 

Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses. 
However, LARA has set up a temporary 
license for students preparing to become 
registered nurses to allow MSU’
s nursing 
students to become available as practicing 
registered nurses before taking the exam. 
At the end of their program in May, these 
graduating nursing students will have 
completed 740 contact hours through the 
nursing program.

“Nurses are on the front lines of this 
pandemic, so it makes sense that the 
governor would create this opportunity 
for new nursing graduates to enter the 
workforce during this time of desperate 
need,” says Randolph F. R. Rasch, dean of 
the College of Nursing. “We need all the 
help we can get to provide the necessary 
and increasing amount of care for Michigan 
residents, and this is a bold first step by 
the governor.” e

GRADUATING MSU HEALTH CARE STUDENTS continued

MSU has one of the largest training programs 
for health professionals in the nation.

