SW Iowa Times

Pella Corporation in Pella, Shenandoah and Sioux City is producing face shields for the local hospital to assist during the coronavirus pandemic.

“They reached out to us late last week to see what we could do with the 3D printers we’ve got down here,” Jedidiah Falk, Shenandoah Pella facility engineer, told the Daily Nonpareil. “When I was asked about it, I took it to the plant manager and he jumped on board right away.”

Pella Corporation is asking any of its facilities with 3D printers to make face shields that can be distributed locally. 

“The first round is going to go out to (the Shenandoah Medical Center),”  Falk said. “Then there will be a separate facility the second round will go out to. Then we’re going to start giving them to the local Page and Fremont County health departments as we get them produced.”

The first 100 face shields were delivered to the Shenandoah Medical Center on April 8. 

The shields that will be given to the Page and Fremont County health departments are going to be distributed to medical facilities as needed. 

Pella Corporation is completely covering the cost of creating these face shields. Falk said they are aiming to produce 400 shields a day. 

The 3D printers at the Shenandoah facility are usually used for low volume parts, jigs, fixtures and other parts as they are needed.

Falk said the design for the face shield is one that was found on the internet and downloaded for free. Before finding this pattern, the device Pella was printing took significantly longer to create.

“They found this one that cut the print time down from three to four hours to less than an hour,” Falk said. “Depending on the printer, it’s  varying from about 20 minutes up to an hour per part.”