Thermwood machine owner Rind Routing, (www.rindrouting.co.za) located in South Africa, was initially devastated to be forced to close down their business due to COVID-19.  According to owner, Rayno von Schlicht, “Although the initial feeling was that this wouldn’t last very long, as a business owner, I was terribly concerned of the knock-on effect that a three week down-time would have on my business”

After the first week of the shut-down passed, Mr. von Schlicht noticed the 3D-printing “maker-community” designing face shield brackets and distributing them to first responders.  He was intrigued by the idea and thought that Rind Routing could do something similar on a larger scale.

They located a dental distributor who loved their design, and after some small tweaks, developed a PPE product to manufacture on their three Thermwood CNC routers (Model 40, Model 43 and MTR 21) that was not just effective and comfortable for the end-user, but also allowed Rind Routing to return to work as an essential service!

PPE face shield created by Rind Routing on their Thermwood CNC routers

According to von Schlicht “Since first starting this new venture, we have been able to churn out 5,000 face shields on our Thermwood Routers within three weeks and still have orders pouring in for more!  This is proof to me that with a little vision & creativity, the willingness to try something new, and of course the correct tools to do so, you can achieve great things!”

PPE face shield created by Rind Routing on their Thermwood CNC routers

Thermwood MTR 21 at Rind Routing

Thermwood is a US based company with dealers and distributors worldwide.  In addition to machine manufacturing and software development, Thermwood has a technical service organization that provides support, machine installation, training, retrofits, custom programming and production assistance.  Please visit www.thermwood.com, call 1-800-533-6901 or email sales@thermwood.com for more information.

Thermwood machine owner, Bednark Studio (located in Brooklyn, New York), has engineered a disposable PETG Face Shield for health care professionals.  They are sharing CNC router files and production information to any other manufacturers across the country who would like to supply these to hospitals, etc. that are in need.

Thermwood is here to assist anyone who would like to produce these face shields on their equipment (including non-Thermwood CNC routers).  If you need help, or would like to do something similar, please contact us at 1-800-533-6901 or email at program@thermwood.com.

Download Face Shield Production Files

Please click here to download a .zip file with instructions, machine code files, tooling and material information.

Included in this download:

• Bednark Studio Face Shield Production Document
• MasksV3 - 27 per sheet nest.dxf
• MasksV3 - 27 per sheet nest TABBED.MCX-7
• MasksV3 - 27 per sheet nest TABBED.NC (tailored for Cut Centers)
• MasksV3 - 32 per sheet nest.dxf

Material Required (supplies may be scarce):

• PETG / Polycarbonate with 0.02” or 0.03” thickness in 4’x8’ sheets
• 1” Plank Foam or Stacked Adhesive Weather-stripping
• ¾” Flat Elastic Chord

Recommended Tooling:

• Amana Tool 46225-K
• 1/8” down spiral plastic tooling

Notes (from Bednark Studio):

1. This thinner material is very difficult to hold down with vacuum.  We used tabbing to prevent the parts from moving.  Once most of the machining was done, the machine removed the tabs.  Please refer to ‘MasksV3 - 27 per sheet nest TABBED.MCX-7’ to see how we accomplished this. 
2. The matching NC file is the program Bednark Studio is running on their Cut Center.

More Information

Bednark Face Shield Story from the New York Times

During these unprecedented times, we wanted to reach out and thank all of our customers, and to let you know that Thermwood has been classified as an essential business for our involvement in critical manufacturing, logistics and the defense industrial base.  

As such, we are operating as normally as possible to support our customers.  We are available to support and assist via phone, email and virtual service.

Free Live Demonstrations Available

For new machine purchases, our CNC Router and Additive Manufacturing experts can still evaluate your production needs and determine how you can best reduce costs and increase efficiency.  We offer free live demonstrations of our equipment and software to qualified companies.  These demonstrations can be done via Webex, Skype, as a time study, via dedicated hosted video and/or by completing your project and shipping it back to you for verification.

If you have any questions on how Thermwood can help improve your business, or if you need support, please give us a call at 1-800-533-6901 for sales (1-800-221-3865 for service) or click on the Request More Information link below. 

We are all in this together and Thermwood is committed to doing our best to rise to this new challenge and support all of our customers both existing and new.

About Thermwood Corporation

Thermwood is a US based, multinational, diversified CNC machinery manufacturer that markets its products and services through offices in 11 countries. Thermwood is the oldest manufacturer of highly flexible 3 & 5 axis high-speed machining centers known as CNC routers.

Thermwood has also become the technology and market leader in large scale additive manufacturing systems for thermoplastic composite molds, tooling, patterns and parts with its line of LSAM (Large Scale Additive Manufacturing) machines that both 3D print and trim on the same machine. These are some of the largest and most capable additive manufacturing systems ever produced and are marketed to major companies in the aerospace, marine, automotive and foundry industries as well as military, government and defense contractors.