Resident innovative with masks




CREATIVE—Reitman uses 3-D printer skills to make protective gear. Courtesy photo

CREATIVE—Reitman uses 3-D printer skills to make protective gear. Courtesy photo

Hospitals around the country are stretched to the limit coping with the coronavirus pandemic, and after hearing from a nurse friend that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was running out of face shields, Calabasas resident Jeremy Reitman decided to help.

Reitman, 40, owns a 3-D printer and put it to use printing plastic face shields.

He posted a photo of his selfmade mask, and the response was so overwhelming he decided to up the ante. Within days, Reitman was operating a small factory out of his garage.

“I created a campaign page and asked people to donate so I could buy more printers. I think we’re almost at $10,000 in donations,” said Reitman, a digital marketing executive. “We’ve got six printers running simultaneously right now and another nine arriving on the doorstep on Wednesday. By the end of the week we should be doing around 250 masks a day.”

As of April 1, he had delivered the first shipment of 80 faceshields to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and had 50 more boxed and ready to deliver.

HOMEMADE—Reitman’s workshop is a technological marvel. He’s building virus face masks for hospitals. Courtesy photo

HOMEMADE—Reitman’s workshop is a technological marvel. He’s building virus face masks for hospitals. Courtesy photo

He’s set up a website through which hospitals can request his help and more than 20 medical facilities around the country have reached out to him. In all, more than 2,000 shields have been ordered.

Reitman, a self-described “techie-geek,” bought his first printer to manufacture pieces for remote-controlled airplanes for himself and his two children. Once he set about using it to make face shields, he decided he needed more so he ordered the extra nine units, which he found online. He also found a shop in Tustin where he bought several more.

He operates two printer models and can churn out three masks every two hours. The machines are programmed, so the operation is relatively hands-free except for reloading the printers with the filament used for the face shields.

Filament is what the printers use as ink—rolls of plastic that are heated up and drawn through a computer-controlled nozzle. The molten plastic is laid out by the nozzle, then layered on top of itself to construct the product designed by the user—in this case face shields.

Although Reitman has ordered more printers, which will be delivered soon, the real roadblock to his production is finding more filament.

“Normally you’d just buy the (filament) from Amazon and it could be here the next day, but they’re not considering it an essential product, so it’s not prioritized,” Reitman said. “You’re lucky to get it within a week. Generally it’s taking two or three weeks to get it delivered, which is a big problem.”

Each roll of the material can make 40 face shields. He’s been buying them wherever he can find them but said there is a danger of running out before he’s resupplied.

Reitman is raising money to buy more printers and filament, but not all funds have come through. He said he is having to buy materials using his own money until the donations are realized.

“When I set up the account on Facebook (on March 27) I had to put in my bank routing number and the last four digits of my Social Security number, but that was it. I need to reach out to Facebook to see how we get paid,” Reitman said. “We haven’t seen a dollar of that money in our account yet.”

Reitman said the project is a good way to keep his family busy. One of his two children has been helping assemble the new printers as they arrive, and both kids have been writing letters of gratitude that are included in each box of shields they ship out.

The altruism doesn’t end with producing face shields. Once the pandemic ends, Reitman intends to donate his 3-D printers to local schools.

To support Reitman’s project, visit ppeforcovid19.com.

Follow Ian Bradley on Twitter @Ian_ reports.