Volvo turns 3D printers from making truck parts to making face shields

Apr. 30--GREENSBORO -- Emmanuel Fargeon has been 3D printing truck parts for Volvo for 23 years, but he never imagined he'd be creating personal protection equipment on one.

But that is what many companies are doing as they pivot operations to provide the gear to health care workers to protect them from the coronavirus.

Fargeon, operational efficiency manager for the Greensboro technology department of Volvo Group Trucks of the Americas, has been overseeing for a month the creation of white plastic visors for face shields that have gone to Cone Health.

"I've never made PPE before, but we are glad to jump in," Fargeon said.

The effort began when Cone Health contacted Volvo asking the company if they could help create PPE for its workers so they could be prepared when the pandemic peaked at its hospitals.

Martin Weissburg, president of Mack Trucks and chairman of Volvo Group North America, said it was a call he couldn't have imagined in his 15 years with the company that he would get.

"I've been a business leader for more than 25 years and I've been through a variety of crises and never seen one like this," he said.

Weissburg said Volvo, being a large employer in several mid-size cities, has a history of helping the community. He turned to his engineers to see how the company could help during a pandemic.

"If we can build the best trucks and power systems in the industry, we can sure help out with some plastic parts for face masks," he said.

Volvo previously donated to the hospital network several thousand pieces of PPE, such as safety glasses, gloves and various types of masks from its internal stock. Company executives also have retasked plants in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Canada to making needed protective gear.

Volvo's chief engineer, Steve Barnhardt, helped coordinate the local effort.

"We were able to shift some of our production tools and start producing," Barnhardt said. "When you say people are really in need, it's really easy to get people motivated to work on this."

Aided by a computer design, a 3D printer uses laser technology to build a three-dimensional object from a liquid photopolymer. Micrometer layer by micrometer layer, the object takes shape from the bottom up. In this case, the object was a plastic visor that holds a clear face shield that could save lives.

And it seemed everyone at Volvo wanted to be involved.

"I had people come see me and say, 'Hey, I have a printer at home. If you want, I can print stuff for you,'" Fargeon said.

Those Volvo workers are using their home-based 3D printers to create adjustable clips for masks that take the stress of the mask's ear loops off the user's ear. Fargeon said a home printer can produce about 70 "ear savers" in four hours.

The company's main 3D printer has been working around the clock turning out plastic visors that will be fitted with clear plastic shields. Producing the visors takes longer and the machine can produce only about 24 a day. Fargeon has been going in on his own time to keep the printer running. Volvo has produced hundreds of face shields.

Between donations of shields from Volvo and other sources, Cone Health is at capacity, according to Mary Beth Halprin, Volvo's vice president of PR and corporate affairs. So the company is turning its efforts to other health care facilities and even offering the shields to its own employees.

That keeps the company's 3D printers busy as they create one visor at a time.

Like Volvo, many regional businesses also are helping produce personal protective items.

Culp, a High Point textile manufacturer, has converted equipment to make the needed supplies for health care and other essential industries.

Textile manufacturer Burlington in Reidsville is producing special fabric that is used in hospital gowns and masks. Some of that fabric was used by Hudson's Hill in Greensboro, a small batch maker of clothing and accessories that turned its sewing machines to making masks for Cone Hospital.

Greensboro-based Precision Fabrics Group is working overtime to make special fabric for protective gowns for hospital workers. That fabric is being used by Kontoor Brands of Greensboro. The lifestyle apparel company, which owns Wrangler and Lee jeans brands, is using its global plants to produce gowns for patients and disposable gowns for health care workers.

Custom Converting Solutions in Greensboro went from making parts for autos and appliances to making masks for Cone Hospital.

TE Connectivity, which makes connectors and sensors, is retooling its Winston-Salem plant to produce face shields. Engineer Randy Smith led the effort to help protect health care workers and first responders, including his daughter Sydney Smith, who is a Guilford County EMT. The company is making about 3,500 face shields for Winston-Salem area front-line medical workers. About 1,000 have already gone to Guilford County Emergency Services, Forsyth Novant Medical Center, Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and local nursing homes. The goal is for the company's facilities to produce a combined 100,000 face shields that will be distributed globally.

And Dallas-based Corsicana Mattress is ramping up to produce up to 70,000 masks a week at its plants, including a Greensboro factory. Two types of masks will be sold at cost to businesses and consumers through Corsicana's e-commerce retailers.

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