{"id":64979,"date":"2020-04-17T21:18:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T21:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-college-businesses-partner-to-create-protective-equipment\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:37:36","slug":"san-juan-college-businesses-partner-to-create-protective-equipment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-college-businesses-partner-to-create-protective-equipment\/","title":{"rendered":"San Juan College, businesses partner to create protective equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The 3D printers at PESCO Inc. create parts for face shields donated to San Juan Regional Medical Center.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan College<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 As regional hospitals and health care providers put out requests for personal protective equipment, a New Mexico Tech student started brainstorming how he could help.<\/p>\n

Logan Byrom, a Farmington native home for spring break, decided to use resources, such as 3D printers, at San Juan College\u2019s makerspace to create face shields.<\/p>\n

The Big Idea makerspace, housed in the college\u2019s Quality Center for Business, has three 3D printers and a laser cutter available to members. Byrom has been involved with the makerspace since it was founded in February 2019.<\/p>\n

Byrom also partnered with his father, John Byrom, who is a business development manager at PESCO Inc., an oil and gas equipment company. After researching designs and blueprints, father and son began printing designs and prototypes around March 25, Logan Byrom said.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Joe Pope with Pi\u00f1on Family Practice wears a 3D-printed face shield.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan College<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With feedback from local medical professionals, they focused on creating protective face shields. A week later, using the 3D printers at the makerspace and seven at PESCO, they began printing plastic parts.<\/p>\n

In partnership with ABC Canvas\u2019 owner Cody Waldroup, who provided the clear vinyl shields, John Byrom estimates they have produced about 130 face shields.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the partnership and support of ABC Canvas and PESCO,\u201d said Dr. Toni Hopper Pendergrass, president of San Juan College. \u201cWe are all in this together and want to do everything we can to support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Logan
Logan Byrom, engineering student at New Mexico Tech, works on face-shield designs using 3D printers at San Juan College\u2019s makerspace.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan College<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While most of the face shields were donated to San Juan Regional Medical Center, John Byrom said a few were also given to Pi\u00f1on Family Practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the PPE being such a scarcity, we are very appreciative that our local partners could provide what we are unable to find in the open market,\u201d said Pi\u00f1on Family Practice\u2019s Dr. Joe Pope in a written statement. \u201cThese face shields are very sturdy and provide much greater protection from droplet contamination than goggles, which our staff was previously using.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logan Byrom has also used the 3D printers at the makerspace to make custom pieces for the hospital. He estimates they\u2019ve printed more than 100 hose adapters for ventilators and adjustment tools for the ventilators. While the designs for the face shields were already available online, the designs for the hose adapters and adjustment tools are specific for the hospital, Logan Byrom said.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of San Juan College<br><br>A 3D printer at San Juan College\u2019s makerspace produces a stack of face shield parts for San Juan Regional Medical Center.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

PESCO bought one shipment of filament for the 3D printers but it is running low, John Byrom said, and the supply of filament could be a potential bottleneck in the process as more communities turn to 3D printers to create protection equipment.<\/p>\n

But as the partners continue to manufacture the face shields and ventilator pieces, John Byrom said others in the community can get involved by donating through the foundation at San Juan College, San Juan Regional Medical Center\u2019s COVID-19 response fund or Basin Home Health\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n

Anyone with a 3D printer can contact the college\u2019s makerspace to join the pool of printers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of neat how the community is coming together to help support the people working on the front lines,\u201d John Byrom said. \u201cWe\u2019re just one example.\u201d<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

130 face shields provided to frontline workers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,168,28,1901,138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89104,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64979\/revisions\/89104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64979"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}