In the fight against COVID-19, time is of the essence – just ask Luka Miljanov.

Luka, a Grade 11 student at Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School, wasn't content to spend the pandemic sitting on the sidelines at home, particularly a home equipped with a homemade 3D printer. So, he decided to put his resources to use, helping local retirement homes, including Chartwell Aurora which is battling an outbreak of its own.

After hearing about shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) over what turned out to be an extended March Break for students across Ontario, Luka began looking for ways he could help, and he's now producing clear plastic face shields for frontline workers.

“I just love the engineering side of things, tinkering with stuff and experimenting,” says Luka of looking for ways to help. “I was looking at COVID from the beginning and thinking, ‘How can I possibly help out with something of this scale? I have two 3D printers sitting there doing nothing all day, so if I have that, why not put them through as much use as I possibly can?'

“I looked online to see what other people were doing and they had different designs of parts they were printing. People were printing stuff like tools [to stop] face masks cutting into doctors' ears, but the one that caught my attention was a different initiative printing face masks. I thought I could do something similar and experimented with a couple of different designs that were available, and I settled on the one I am using now.”

Settling on the current model was a matter of trial and error.

Initial concepts required approximately twelve hours to complete on a standard 3D printer, requiring nearly 30,000 lines of computer code. Experimenting with different models, Luka was able to reduce the print time of one mask to approximately 60 minutes.

“It took two or three days of experimenting, mostly trying to keep speed high while maintaining structural stability for it because the less you print the less quality you have,” he explains.

But, it was a winning formula.

Setting a personal goal of producing 100 masks during the pandemic, the first batches have been distributed to Chartwell Aurora and Chartwell Hollandview Trail.

“Hollandview Trail took five because they don't have COVID cases at the moment and they have another staff member's husband who is making some,” says Luka's mom, Natasha. “We went to Chartwell Aurora where they actually have COVID cases and they did not have face shields, they had everything but. They were grateful to get anything like a face shield; they had their hair covered, their masks on, full gowns, but nothing that would cover the eyes or the face.”

Now that the first batches of masks are in the hands of the frontline workers that need them the most, Luka says he's proud to have made a difference.

“It means a lot to me to know that something I build and put a lot of time and effort into is potentially going out and saving lives, especially because I have a family member – my grandmother – who is in the health care [sector] and I know how caring she is. She is very involved and that rubbed off on me. I wanted to help as much as I can. If I was a person on the frontlines, I would hate to be without protective equipment. I can't even imagine how terrible that must be, so I wanted to do anything I could.

“100 masks is just the goal, but I am going to try and make as many as I possibly can. I am getting offers for materials just from a lot of different people, so I would like to make as many as possible depending on the length of the COVID-19 pandemic and everything that is needed.”

If you have access to a 3D printer from home, Luka encourages people to visit Print to Protect initiative at printtoprotect.wixsite.com for ideas on what they can do to help fight the pandemic.

By Brock Weir