Remember the man that brought you the AutoDIY series on our YouTube channel, alongside local actress Jasmine Suraya Chin? He’s back and the founder of KakiDIY alongside various other organisations and communities have come togther to produce DIY face shields and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) boxes for our gallant frontliners.
It all started more than 3 weeks ago when these good Samaritans came together to produce DIY face shields as supply struggles to cope with the demand of hospitals around the country. From merely using foam to 3D printing now, since the initial designs, the face shields have seen over 20 different iterations in order to reduce production time.
What began as a small initiative has blossomed into a large network of local face shield producers. Some have even offered their laser-cutting services, which as a result, has seen production of face shields triple. A 3D printed face shield takes 30 minutes to make, while a laser cut unit only takes 10 minutes.
Some quarters are even utilising plastic injection molding and are capable of producing 1,000 face shields a day.
With the support of students from University Malaya who call themselves “Covidvengers”, Taylor’s College, a robotics company from Penang and healthcare NGO “Rumah Kita“, efforts have diversified to construction of PPE boxes used by frontliners as incubation cubicles. Unlike the face shields, these boxes where 50 are made per week, can be reused multiple times after thorough disinfecting.
With sufficient aid and support in the construction of face shields from both private and corporate entities, focus will now be on producing sampling/swapping shields for medical personnel working at the front desks.
This not only protects those who deal with initial enquiries of the potentially infected but also reduces their need for face shields and other protective equipment – a valuable commodity for the front liners at the moment.
“With the increase in support on the production line, there have been some hospitals receiving more equipment than they need while some hospitals are completely neglected due to their location and such,’ said Founder of KakiDIY, Johnson Lam.
“There needs to be consolidation of data to better channel our resources and attend to whichever hospital needs the most support. The students of University Malaya have been actively contacting hospitals to determine which of them requires more help than others, in order to efficiently distribute their stockpile of protective equipment,” he added.
Source: KakiDIY
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