BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Personal protective equipment, also known as PPE, is vital for first responders. So, two local businesses decided to team up to make face shields by using 3D printing technology.
Sam Juda who owns several Samco Food Store locations in Kern County donated $7,000 dollars to launch the making of the face shields.
“We’ve been part of this community for the last 30 years and it’s time to give back to the community. We’re all in this together. The more that we all pitch in and do things together and help out the community the faster we can get out of this and get back to normal," said Juda.
Wawa Group, a company who creates 3D printed technology, has been running their machines around the clock creating the light weight face shields.
Tim Nesh, operations manager of Wawa Group, said the 24 machines don’t need much to operate and it takes about 5 employees to run the project.
The company is currently producing approximately 300 face shields a day. The bands are printed and the shields are laser cut. The two businesses hope to donate as many face shields as possible to local first responders.
“We thank our first responders for everything they’re doing for us, and whatever we can do for them we’re here to share our resources and help them,” Juda said.
