A YOUNG Bahraini university student is taking part in a campaign in the UK to 3D print face shields for medical personnel on the frontline battling the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19), writes the GDN's Reem Al Daaysi.

Sami Alshaibi, aged 21, is studying International Business at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

He joined the 3DCrowd campaign, which started in England on March 23, as one of more than 6,000 volunteers making thousands of plastic face shields to be distributed to hospitals, GP practices and social care organisations.

More than half a million face shields were requested by medical organisations across the UK with 80,000 shields as the first batch of production.

Mr Alshaibi is using his Reality CR10S printer to create the 3D printed face shields along with his Scottish friend, 22-year-old Ronan Sharp, who is using the same machine along with a Tevo Tarantula printer.

“Ronan and I joined the 3DCrowd campaign at the start of April and it expanded really quickly to cover over 6,000 volunteers as of today with over half a million face shields requested by medical organisations all across the UK,” Mr Alshaibi told the GDN from Scotland last night.

“The face shield was designed by a company called Prusa in Prague and it is called the RC3.

“It consists of a top and bottom bracket that holds a plastic sheet and keeps the shape and the plastic sheet should preferably be an acetate sheet or PETG sheet A4 in size and up to 0.5mm thick.

“There is also an elastic band with holes that fits on to the top bracket allowing you to secure it on to your head and the printed parts are made primarily of PLA (PolyLactoc Acid) or PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol) which is stronger, easier to sterilise and can resist higher temperatures.”

Mr Alshaibi and Mr Sharp are working on printing 400 face shields, 250 of them for their local hospital.

They have already created 80 face shields and another 320 are underway.

Mr Alshaibi highlighted that he can print 13 masks a day on one printer each costing around one to one-and-a-half pounds.

He added in the first two weeks of the campaign shields were created in bulk and distributed to people in emergency rooms and Intensive Care Units that needed them immediately.

“We all just need to do what we can to help each other and obviously the medical staff are going to be the people taking care of us at the worst times of our lives and right now is maybe the worst time of their lives so we need to do what we can to take care of them,” he added.

For details about the campaign and to donate, visit www.3dcrowd.uk