Solidarity stories: Making protective face shields on 3D printers for the medical staff in Brussels

In exceptional times, people do exceptional things. Solidarity and voluntary actions by those who can help each other are sprouting during the fight against COVID19. We share one of those positive stories and we are happy that WeLoveBrussels and our community contributed to a great initiative that was started by Louis Borsu – making protective face shields on 3D printers for the medical staff in Brussels. Read the story by Ellen Salomé.

I know Louis Borsu since we studied at the same university, 10 years ago. He is an electronics engineer who provides tailor-made solutions to different companies. He uses 3D printing to make prototypes. When he heard that Belgium’s medical staff was lacking face shields to protect themselves from Covid-19, he decided to print the shields for them.

Three days ago, Louis posted a message on Facebook asking for people that have a 3D printer to help him with this amazing project. I don’t own such printer, but I have a somewhat big community on Instagram so I offered him to post an Instagram story on my account @Lwbh. I also tagged @WeLoveBrussels, hoping they would share this information with their huge audience and happily they did it.

And that’s when the magic happened – so many new people joined the initiative! Thanks to all the 3D printer owners that joined over the past 2 days they went from printing 60 shields a day to printing more than 2000 per day! More than ever, Unity makes strength!

Now there are even several teams that are divided in “zones” for different parts of Brussels region in order to provide the protective shields to the hospitals in need. The goal is to also provide support to the communes and their service staff (nurses working on the field, staff at senior homes, creches etc).

If you have a 3D printer and want to help, or if you have PLA 3D filament (1.75m), you can contact Louis by email sat@satprod.net (the printers are connected through Fablab’s network).

And if you don’t have a 3D printer but still want to help: you can share this article.

Medical staff, feel free to contact Louis as well if you need face shields.

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Ellen Salomé runs an instagram account Life with Blond Hair (@LWBH). If she’s not travelling or dancing, she’s probably walking around Brussels, keeping her eyes wide open and looking for the best picture opportunities or for new restaurants to try 🙂