Amazon is applying its drone knowledge to produce face shields with a 3D printer. In early March 2020, a group of mechanical design and hardware engineers from the Amazon Prime Air drone division joined a group of 3D printing enthusiasts in Washington who were designing and building open-source face shields by hand. In one week, the engineers, in coordination with the open-source group, took the initial design and improved it, including by making it reusable.
Amazon will start mass-producing these face shields and aims to make hundreds of thousands available over the next few weeks, at-cost, on its site. Based on the capabilities of its supply chain, Amazon says it will be able to list the face shields at one-third of the cost of other reusable face shields currently available to frontline workers. Amazon is looking to prioritize frontline workers and then eventually open up the shields to all Amazon customers.
“We have amazing teams creating and building every day. Watching them quickly adapt to the community’s needs during this stressful time and develop a face shield that we’ve heard from medical professionals is one of the best has been such a rewarding experience. We are committed to leveraging our scale for good and putting our ability to innovate quickly into use to support communities.” – said Brad Porter, VP robotics, Amazon.
