(Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Red Deer man applies to make face shields for COVID-19 pandemic

Mar 26, 2020 | 4:34 PM

A Red Deer man is trying to obtain federal approval to start mass producing plastic face shields to help doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Curtis Wazny has run Laser’s Edge Design in Penhold for about five years.

His laser CNC machine can manufacture about two shields per minute — shields that are comprised of three pieces which easily click together, he describes.

“The Canadian government has said they want to mobilize industry to come up with innovative ways to be the supply chain in the event we run out,” says Wazny. “I applied to the Canadian government’s website which says they need surgical masks and N95 masks.”

Perhaps the biggest upside to Wazny’s innovation is that the product can be shipped flat, meaning he could box and send away hundreds, if not thousands of pieces at a time.

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Earlier this week, hockey gear maker Bauer announced it is also manufacturing face shields, though theirs are 3D-printed. A company is Waterloo is doing the same thing.

“They just need to meet a few requirements, such as sitting on your head properly, it can’t let anything onto the person that’s wearing it,” he explains. “Mine is designed so that if you’re coughed on directly, it would hit the face mask and go down the front, and that includes the forehead piece.”

BuyAndSell.gc.ca, where the items needed are listed, require products to have certain levels of resistance to splashes of fluids including blood, and flames.

Wazny’s lightweight shields would ideally be used to see one patient before getting recycled. They are made of 4.5 mm thick plastic, and each costs about $5 to make.

Wazny says if the government provided the material, he’d cut non-stop and sell them for 10 cents apiece just to cover power costs.

“My mother is a nurse working in an ER right now, so I understand a bit about how scary it is in there. If they don’t have the proper personal protective equipment, we all go down,” says Wazny. “It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but it works. There are a lot of solutions out there, and I just want to be able to contribute a little bit if I can.”

With friends who could assist, Wazny estimates they could make 5000 shields per day. Wazny has connected with Staples Canada about possibly being a supplier of the plastic he needs to get going.