{"id":65544,"date":"2020-04-14T10:30:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T14:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=65544"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:20:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:20:28","slug":"making-protective-shields-3d-printers","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/making-protective-shields-3d-printers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau Commends Carleton Engineering Grad Making Protective Shields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Trudeau Commends Carleton Engineering Grad Making Protective Shields\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Last spring, when Felix Denomme graduated from Carleton University\u2019s Aerospace Engineering<\/a> program and got a job at Ottawa\u2019s B-Con Engineering<\/a>, he was excited about using his education and experience to fine-tune optical systems the company manufactures for communications satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a couple of weeks ago, Denomme got a chance to start on a new project that will produce much more immediate \u2014 and visible \u2014 results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Felix
Felix Denomme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After talking to an emergency room (ER) nurse he knows through his side gig playing bass drum in the RCMP pipe band, B-Con founder and owner Brian Creber decided to rejig about half of his company\u2019s operations and begin making personal protective equipment for health-care workers who are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creber had a chat with Denomme and they ruled out masks and valves for ventilators before settling on adjustable, washable and reusable plastic face shields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to connections with other local manufacturers and some Carleton students who have 3D printers at home, including Brian\u2019s son Bill, B-Con has already blazed through five iterations of its prototype, incorporated feedback from nurses, and expected to be making about 450 face shields a week by mid-April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At his daily news conference on April 22, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited Denomme and the company as an example of Canadians reaching out to support each other during the pandemic and asking what they can do to help.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility as engineers to do whatever we can to help during this crisis,\u201d says Denomme, who has two aunts who are nurses.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI love working on space systems, but you don\u2019t really see the benefits right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the huge draws for people who go into engineering is that you get to be creative and apply your problem-solving skills to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Felix<\/figure>\n\n\n

3D Printers Key to Face Shield Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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B-Con, which Brian Creber launched in 1988, has contributed to major international projects such as NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, working with larger integrators like Honeywell and MDA to supply reflective instruments for optical systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With communications satellites evolving over the years from radio to optical systems, the company has developed a solid niche. But it has also worked on other technologies, including automotive and aircraft displays, a line of commercial lenses and, in collaboration with Ottawa\u2019s Med-Eng, face shields for bomb disposal suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Bill Creber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all fairly similar,\u201d says Creber. \u201cWe\u2019re familiar with the optical uses of plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, when Denomme joined B-Con, he suggested that a lot of the components used by the company could be quickly and cheaply made using 3D printers instead of being machined. That shift is key to the health-care face shield project.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWith a network of 3D printers,\u201d says Creber, \u201cwe could easily put together a supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The yellow piece of plastic that holds the assembly together and attaches to a wearer\u2019s head is being 3D printed, with local firm Canus Plastics producing the shields. The yellow piece is attached to the shield with nylon thumb screws, allowing the shield to be removed and sanitized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents who have 3D printers are used to making all sorts of little widgets,\u201d says Creber. \u201cThey\u2019re finished classes and will have a hard time getting summer jobs this year, so it made sense to ask them. This would not have been possible 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3D printers use spools of plant-derived biodegradable PLA plastic, which is heated into liquid form and then printed layer by layer to make the piece for the face shields. It takes about four hours to make a pair of pieces on one sheet, with B-Con paying $5 per piece (which requires about $1 of material to make).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Carleton students are part of the effort: Aerospace Engineering major Bryce Lippai and Bill Creber, who is nearing the end of his Computer Science<\/a> degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got my hobby printer just a couple weeks ago to make 3D models and play around \u2014 I had no idea that I\u2019d be using it for something like this,\u201d says Bill, who, when he\u2019s not studying, does freelance software and app design, work that has dried up this spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels good to be able to help the community,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just one cog in the machine. I\u2019m not on the front lines, so this is the only way I can help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"3D<\/figure>\n\n\n

Shields Already in Use Outside Hospitals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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B-Con will be making two sizes of shields: one for ER staff, and a larger version for operating room staff who need to be protected from a wider range of potential contaminants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is working with federal and provincial health authorities to ensure the shields meet regulatory and certification requirements for hospital use, and they will sell for about $20 each, covering the company\u2019s costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some midwives in the Cornwall area are already using the shields to protect patients from potential germs, as are staff at a community lung health organization in Ottawa who visit patients with breathing difficulties in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can iterate item development very quickly with 3D printing,\u201d says Denomme, explaining that engineers can also achieve certain \u201cgeometries\u201d with 3D-printed plastics that would be difficult to do using traditional methods. \u201cYou can do a design, produce a piece, get rapid feedback and revise it right away.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201c3D printing has become a fantastic tool \u2014 you can do everything from rapid prototyping to figuring out the interplay between mechanical structures, and then make the necessary adjustments needed to get something out into the field. Seeing technologies like this get implemented could change workflows and processes in different types of industries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At Carleton, during an undergraduate research project with Prof. Alex Ellery<\/a>, Denomme worked on 3D-printed components for a robotic drill that was sent to the Arctic as part of the MICRO Life astrobiology collaboration with McGill University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlex really pushed us to find creative outside-the-box solutions,\u201d says Denomme. \u201cHe gave us problems that didn\u2019t necessarily have solutions and we had to decide what to do on a short timeline. My time at Carleton really showed me what engineering can do, and how it can help society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis pandemic is a wake-up call,\u201d says Brian Creber, who has received inquiries about B-Con\u2019s face shields from as far away as the United Kingdom but plans to limit distribution to the Ottawa area while sharing technical files and advice with other companies so they can make them on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to be able to make the health-care supplies and equipment we need within Canada. As a company, we had to do something. We can\u2019t sew gloves. We can\u2019t make masks. This is what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Quick<\/figure>\n\n\n

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Last spring, when Felix Denomme graduated from Carleton University\u2019s Aerospace Engineering program and got a job at Ottawa\u2019s B-Con Engineering, he was excited about using his education and experience to fine-tune optical systems the company manufactures for communications satellites. But a couple of weeks ago, Denomme got a chance to start on a new project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":65558,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28,25,19],"cu_story_tag":[1918,1919],"class_list":["post-65544","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_type-technology-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97227,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65544\/revisions\/97227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=65544"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=65544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}