Coca-Cola Fills the Gap in Making PPE Face Shields

Coca-Cola Fills the Gap in Making PPE Face Shields

by Margie Foster

On March 31st, we realized that our PPE effort was about to get a little more complicated. The supply of of clear PETG sheets, the plastic used to make face shields, was running out nation-wide and suppliers were being told not to expect a restock until late May at the earliest. Our volunteers were combing the internet and calling every lead across the country, and every response was always the same — nothing available.

The next day, an article came out that Coca-Cola was stepping up to fill the need. The company committed to sourcing and donating 100,000 pounds of plastic sheeting to makers for the production of face shields. This was great news, but how do we get on that list as a recipient? After spending many hours lost in Coca-Cola phone trees, it turns out the answer was Twitter! Wendy Doernberg, the genius who’s been running social media for our PPE efforts, reached out and made contact with MakeIt Labs, the first and largest makerspace in New Hampshire, and the team coordinating between Coca-Cola and makers across the country. This was just the beginning; it would be another month and a half before we received our donation from Coca-Cola.

As it turned out, logistics and coordinating shipping for these donations became a full time job for the makers in New Hampshire. They set up their own non-profit organization called Makers Respond to help establish a supply chain and get resources to maker networks.

Just short of three weeks after our first contact, we received an unexpected email that Coca-Cola was donating more rolls and we were at the top of the list! The tricky part would be shipping; we Nova Labs | June Newsletter | Page 7 could either pay for delivery or coordinate multiple deliveries along the way to justify Coca-Cola providing shipping for free. Jeanne Marshall rose

to the occasion! She pulled out her makerspace rolodex and found other teams who were eager to receive a donation of the shield material. Jeanne was able to place eight rolls all around the area, from Hacksburg in Blacksburg to RVA MakeitThru Alliance in Richmond, up to University of Maryland’s makerspace and out to Makersmiths in Leesburg. Nova Labs signed up for three rolls for our own PPE building and with the intention of making the supply available to other makers in the DC area.

But that’s not the end of it! Once the order was locked in, we had to wait for Coca-Cola shipping to schedule delivery. We also had to figure how to get the rolls from the delivery truck into Nova Labs. Each roll is approximately 1,000lbs, the delivery truck didn’t have a liftgate, and we don’t have a loading dock. So what did we do? Jeanne called Penske, explained our predicament, and they generously provided us with a liftgate truck for only the cost of insurance! With a team of Nova Labs crew, we rolled two tons of plastic from the big delivery truck to the smaller truck, pulled the smaller truck around back and used the liftgate and forklift to get it into Nova Labs. We had the rolls! But what the heck do you do with a half-ton roll of plastic? Leave it to a community of makers to figure that out.

The following week, one of our PPE volunteers offered to borrow his neighbor’s spool trailer and set of roller jack stands to respool the plastic into more manageable rolls. You never really know how big a 1,000lb roll is until you spend a whole day in the hot sun with a team of eight, and only get through two-thirds of a single roll. With one roll down to about one-third its original size, another set up on a spool stand welded by Shane Smith on the fly, and a third stashed in the hallway, Daniel Vrolijk and Aaron Goldstein began cranking out shields on the laser cutters. Their work continues.

Most recently, Nova Labs began working with Print to Protect, a student-led maker group in DC also donating PPE to hospitals in the region, to provide enough shield material to fill requests for over 3,000 shields.

We are so grateful for the donation from The Coca-Cola Company and the massive coordination efforts of Makers Respond, who coordinated dozens of deliveries over 14 states — getting materials in the hands of makers so we can help keep safe those on the pandemic’s front line. We look forward to supplying DC-area maker initiatives, as well as our own, with the shield material needed to keep production going as long as needed!

Thank yous go to:

The Coca-Cola Company for their hefty donation.

Make It Makerspace and Makers Respond for all the coordination.

Penske for the wonderful truck and for being so flexible with rental timing.

Our members:

Brian Jacoby and Dave Fritts for picking up and returning the Penske truck.

Rob Moore for bringing his neighbor’s cable rolling equipment and making this whole process possible.

Curt Welch, Brian Jacoby, Karen Shumway, Nick Lattanze and Daniel Vrolijk for getting the spools from the truck into Nova Labs.

Shane Smith for welding on the fly and setting up the spool stand.

Frank Hum, Brian Kidwell, Daniel Vrolijk, Shane Smith, Jeanne Marshall, Rob Moore, and Brian Jacoby for spending their Saturday in the hot sun, pushing a 1,000 lb roll of plastic around a spool.

Curt Welch for delivering Makersmiths’ roll.

Wendy Doernberg for making sure we recognize our donors on social media at key phases in the production cycle.

P.S. Hackersburg shared how they broke down their roll. After setting up a spool stand, they used a drill to quickly turn the receiving rod. We love their maker ingenuity!