Protecting the City’s front-line workers
AUCKLAND PARK – UJ will now be able to produce around 800 face shields a day to help curb the spread of Covid-19.
UJ and Investec handed over 7 000 face shields to the MMC for Public Safety.
While many have the luxury of working from home or remotely, the same thing can’t be said for the front-line workers of the City of Johannesburg. The City healthcare workers and law enforcement personnel have had to fulfil their duties but unfortunately are starting to struggle with keeping themselves safe due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). A collaboration between the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Investec has allowed the university to create and donate around 7 000 face shields using a laser-cutting method. The shields will be allocated to the City’s front-line workers most exposed to Covid-19 .
MMC for Public Safety Mally Mokoena was present at UJ’s Bunting Road campus to receive the donations and express her gratitude on 24 June, “The safety of the City of Johannesburg’s front-line workers during the Covid-19 response is of paramount importance. Those brave men and women who tirelessly and with great personal risk and sacrifice engage in the fight against this pandemic deserve the best possible protection. We thank the entire UJ collaboration network for the face shields and for supporting us so swiftly.”
With funding secured from Investec, UJ’s team, including staff from the Library and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture’s Laboratory (Fablab) heeded the call from the City and embarked on a mass manufacturing of a new technique plastic face shields to meet the high demand. Project manager at UJ, MakersSpace Rudie Strauss explained, “The face shields have to be made rapidly and at low cost because it needed to be adjustable, sanitisable and, if needs be, disposable. Our technique combines low-cost materials with a high-rate manufacturing that has the potential of meeting the current need for face shields.”
Strauss’ team spearheaded the development of the technique in collaboration with UJ’s Fablab, a cross-faculty initiative, and the University of Witwatersrand, who came up with the initial design of face shields made entirely of plastic using laser cutters. Thanks to at least nine different designs for the shields, the final one was selected for being cheap, fast and easy to make with quality results and effectiveness once used. The team is now able to manufacture 26 shields in 12 minutes and around 800 a day in total.
