Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Engineering Forum => Topic started by: lynn oliver on May 13, 2020, 08:03:57 PM
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lynn oliver
I need your help. My intent is to make as many face shields as I can. I feel I can use 6 mil clear plastic sheeting as the base for the shield. I just need for someone to locate and name a very “inexpensive, ‘clear’, hardening/firming agent” I could use to apply to the surface to create a firm shield. I would be very appreciative and would begin immediately working to put out as many face shields as possible before the huge outbreak that is to come this fall and winter. I also need to know rough diameters of face shields needed by hospitals and other organizations. I can then create similar diameter, drying platforms to both dry and form those coated, plastic sheets. I don’t need any money, just the information for an inexpensive hardening agent and approximate diameters needed. I am thinking 11” X 15” but not sure about the diameter. I hope to put out as many as possible on my own, and if others see what I am doing and like the items, they will begin working to put out face shields also. Again, the face shields will be free for all. I know there are many other persons who would volunteer their time to do the same thing I am hoping to do.
mod edit remove email address per forum rules
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Hi lynn oliver,
what do you mean by "hardening/firming agent"? You would like a film easy to bend that stiffens by applying something on it?
That would be difficult. The closest I imagine is to glue several films over an other to obtains a stiff sandwich.
Of better, take a thicker film, and form it by heat over a round hot iron part using a metal belt with handles, like wood is bent.
What outbreak do you fear with fall? Covid-19? It's not sensitive to the temperature, and my bet is that it's over. Unless the virus mutates enough to contaminate the same people again, like flu does.
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The industrial production would inject the transparent shields to final shape, or extrude the curved profile and cut out the shields.
Here under are explanations for craft methods.
The bending process is adapted from bending thin wood. The tools must be optically smooth hence stainless and polished. Chromium or nickel layers should achieve that. Maybe silicone oil prevents adherence.
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The glueing process needs few layers since the individual stiffness depends on the cubed thickness. Soft materials like paper can protect the sheets' smoothness.
A bubble-free glue layer hopefully results from pressing a drop or a line from the centre with training. Remove the protective films from the transparent sheets at last moment. MMA is runny, it polymerizes under a fluorescent lamp and binds PMMA perfectly, but it irritates the eyes brutally, so excellent air flow is mandatory. I succeeed with a similar process.
PC resists shocks and can make the deep layers, but detergents and hard objects damage it easily, so PMMA is preferred at outer layers. Maybe transparent sheets exist with anti-reflective coating.
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A craft casting process may be possible too. It needs a mould with optically smooth big faces, curved in this case, normally made of glass, supposedly covered with an unmoulding agent. Silicone rubber can make the small faces. MMA is introduced, better from the bottom, and cured by exposure to a fluorescent lamp.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
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The plastic is 6 mils , so thats 0.15mm. extremely thin stuff. A the coating would probably have to be thicker than that.
You can use old 2lt soda bottles. Make a head band. Bit of glue. Obvioisly you would need a jig. To hold the plastic to the head band.
Maybe even some of those metal snap together popper things, 3 on the head band, 3 on the shield. Then it can be removed for cleaning.
Sorry i cant help more. If you where to ask me to make it out of metal then maybe i could lol.
But thankyou for your question. I wish you well and god bless.
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A the coating would probably have to be thicker than that.
Antireflective coating can be a quarter optical wavelength thin.
You can use old 2lt soda bottles.
Nice, but how many pieces? The question was "as many face shields as I can."