State-of-Art of Face Shields Manufactured through Additive Manufacturing, Issues and Mitigation Approaches

Abstract

Recently, protective medical equipment like face shields and face masks played a vital role during the pandemic situation. Even international health organizations also suggested using face masks and face shields. The medical equipment manufacturers were not ready to fulfill the sudden market demands due to this pandemic. As a result, medical institutions faced a shortage of such protective equipment. In this situation, additive manufacturing turned into a supplementary manufacturing process to fulfill the touchy needs and to facilitate the wellbeing around the world. This study is disclosing the present state of art with respect to face shields manufactured through additive manufacturing. This study found that face shields manufactured through additive manufacturing approach were lacking in the technology intervention and also observed that anthropometric dimensions were ignored while manufacturing such face shields. The unique contribution of this study is to propose a technological advanced face shield by introducing electronic sensors into it and that too by considering anthropometric dimensions of Indian male and female head size.