Universal Orlando Creates Face Shields for Healthcare Workers Using 3D Printers

Universal Orlando Resort team members have been using the resort’s 3D printers to create much needed face-shield bands to be donated to healthcare workers in Central Florida.

  • Jessica Harned, supervisor of advanced resort technology in the parks technology department at Universal Orlando Resort, pitched the idea to use the resorts 3D printers to create these bands via text message in late March.
  • Since then, team members have created and donated over 1,300 face-shield bands.
  • Harned contacted Scott Bond, the senior director of the innovation lab for the AdventHealth Nicholson Center, to find out what would be needed and he explained that AdventHealth was in need of 20,000 face-shields.
  • Harned recruited other team members to help create these bands and has been overseeing social distance pickups of everyone’s contributions as well as managing the quality control and cleaning portion of the operation.
  • After Harned delivers the bands, Bond and his team assemble the face-shields and distribute them to campuses throughout Central Florida.
  • If you would like to help get vital personal prevention equipment to healthcare workers, please check out this resource for AdventHealth or this resource for nationwide options.

What they’re saying:

  • Jessica Harned, supervisor of advanced resort technology, Universal Orlando: “I was seeing a couple things around the makerspace of people helping out and I just thought ‘I could do that.’ ‘I’m home and I have a printer and I can maybe grab two more from the office, and try to print some of these masks.’”
  • Scott Bond, senior director of the innovation lab for the AdventHealth Nicholson Center: “The biggest way that COVID-19 is spread is through droplets. In order to protect our workforce, our clinical teams — and even non-clinical teams, we have people that are screening at the front doors — they need protection. While the N95 masks are extremely vital and important, they don’t protect the eyes or fully seal the nose. So if a patient coughs or sneezes, we need these shields to protect the entire face.”
  • Harned: “I just started the ball rolling. Before any of this, I had already formed this unofficial 3D printing co-op with colleagues who I knew were 3D printing on property. We have people from parks technology, creative, entertainment tech, the creative prop and modeling shop, and merchandise…we’ve got people from all over our parks who are motivated together around this common goal.”
  • Bond: “I think all of us are feeling how personally rewarding it is to be a part of this initiative. But then to see the community that we live in and the response so many have had to step up in a time of need. I mean you’ve got Universal providing parts to clinical teams. That’s not something they typically do, but everybody wants to pitch in and help. That 20,000 number is significant, so the faster we get there the better.”