CHENNAI: To protect health professionals and police, who are at the forefront of the fight against the novel coronavirus, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has developed a face shield and is distributing it for free.
“This is a dangerous period for us all, and we cannot afford any of our health professionals or police contracting the virus and falling ill,” said Hari Ramachandran, a dual degree student at IIT-M. Keeping this in mind, Hari with his friends Pranit Mehta, Anuj Khandalkar and Denil Chawda, professor Satya Chakravarty and alumni Ravi Santhanam and Suyash Singh decided to create a face shield that protects the eyes, nose, and mouth of the wearer from splashes and sprays of infectious body fluids.
“We had the plan ready, but had to scout for manufacturers who would make these shields without taking long,” said Hari. The students later got in touch with Padmaja Padarthi, co-founder of NexGen 3D printers to manufacture as many masks as they could.
“We are also looking at providing other medical equipment required to help combat this outbreak,” said professor Satya Chakravarthy, from the department of IIT-M’ aerospace engineering.
While the face shields will be provided free of charge to government doctors and police officers, private institutions have to pay a nominal amount of Rs.100 per shield and the price for the reusable ones is around Rs.150.
“It is much lesser than what is charged outside,” said Hari. But to provide free masks the students are also raising funds online. Their target is 6 lakh rupees, but they have managed to collect about Rs. 16, 900 so far.
Recently Mahindra and Mahindra had announced that they would be manufacturing a face shield for medical service providers to combat the virus. The shields will be designed by Ford.
“But these face shields have high design and will take anywhere around 10 days for manufacturing and distribution. But our shields are easier to make and can be made available whenever the need arises,” said Padmaja.
-
Download
The Times of India News App for Latest City News
-
Subscribe
Start Your Daily Mornings with Times of India Newspaper! Order Now
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/iit-madras-team-gives-free-face-shields-to-doctors-cops/articleshow/74958425.cms
