RICHARDSON – A Richardson family that is quarantined inside their home decided to start a project to bring them closer together while giving back to the community, they are making masks for local clinics and hospitals using 3D printers.
It’s their effort in the fight against COVID-19. The family is part of a group called Team of Richardson Builders. It was created by a sixth-grade student and shared on social media. Rod Slattery, an engineer decided to join the group and help.
“I love building stuff and the cool thing about 3D printing is if you can think it and you can draw it in some type of 3D designer, then you can print it,” he said.
The family has been following a design that was created by doctors in Montana. They downloaded instructions through a website and immediately started making the masks. The 3D highly effective filtration masks can be fitted to the provider’s face and sanitized between uses.
Other members of the family are creating masks of their own, using a variety of fabrics.
“If somebody can actually get any use out of it, I feel like it would make me feel pretty good because I like to help people,” said 19-year-old Riley Slattery.
It takes the family about 4 hours to create one mask using the 3D printer. Right now, they are using 5 printers and have already created 40 masks.
If you are interested in donating material such as filament used to produce the 3D masks or if you want to get involved with making the masks visit http://www.richardsontx-makethemask.weebly.com
