Pella Corporation Responds To Call For Help During Health Crisis

Dedicated Production Team Members Work Around The Clock To Provide 3D Laser-Cut Face Shields For Front-Line Medical Workers

Iowa health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak are in desperate need of personal protective equipment and the team at Pella Corporation is responding. The company has turned to making facial shields in its 3D printing facilities in Pella, Shenandoah and Sioux Center, Iowa. By dedicating four full-time team members to this effort, Pella Corporation can produce over 600 clear protective face shields per day.

“We have a real drive to want to help out,” said Aaron Ryan, Senior Engineer Team Leader of the Design Assurance Lab at Pella Corporation. “Our 3D printing is a stop-gap until the usual injection-molded parts get back on the market and can meet the increasing demand. We are planning to help in this capacity as long as our community needs it.”

Members of the Pella, Iowa community are sourcing other pieces of local medial professionals’ personal protective equipment, and Pella Corporation has found they can best fill the specific need for laser-cut face shields.

Face shields are a critical part of a medical professionals’ personal protective equipment, securing the wearer from exposure to droplets, which is how COVID-19 is believed to be transmitted. By coordinating with the Marion County Health Department, representatives from Pella Corporation identified one face shield design that could be used by many different front-line workers across the county, such as first responders and hospital professionals.

The 3D printers used by Pella Corporation to manufacture the shields normally provide tailormade hardware to Pella’s manufacturing plants across the country. By following the design of a Swedish manufacturer, Pella Corporation is using 3D printers to produce one face shield every 20 minutes. The laminate used for the shields has been donated by Ricoh, one of the company’s supply partners.

“3D printing is faster than traditional production line manufacturing so we’re able to quickly create protective facial shields and get them delivered to workers who need them,” said Ryan.

Pella Corporation delivered over 400 face shields to Marion County health officials in the last few days. The company is planning continual, daily donations of 300-plus face shields to Marion County and the Shenandoah and Sioux Center-area hospitals moving forward.

About Pella Corporation

Pella Corporation designs and manufactures windows and doors for residential homes and commercial applications. The company is headquartered in Pella, Iowa and employs more than 7,000 people with 15 manufacturing locations and more than 200 showrooms across the country. For more information, call 888-847-3552 or visit pressroom.pella.com. Follow Pella on Facebook, YouTube, Houzz, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.