Amazon Releases Self-Designed Face Shields At Cost Price For The Masses
An Amazon engineer testing out the new face shield design. Image via Amazon Day One
Earlier this year, Amazon refocused several of its processes to double down on safety during the coronavirus crisis and help overcome the shortage for personal protective equipment (PPE). Along with banning sales of face masks to weed out scrapers wanting to make a quick buck from panic buyers, the company promised to mass-produce face shields firstly for frontline professionals before making them available to the public at cost price.
As promised, the 3D-printed gear designed by Amazon can now be purchased by the masses for how much the e-commerce giant has paid to produce them. The face shields, which have also since been approved by the National Institutes of Health, are listed on the Amazon website with a price of US$66.25 for packs of 25.
In a blog post, Amazon described that the face shields aren’t only retailing at cost, but are also priced at “a third less than the cost of all other reusable face shields currently available.”
Amazon’s Prime Air drone mechanical engineers and hardware employees designed the face covers based on a prototype from Washington-based 3D-printing nonprofit Face Shield Hub. With the help of this partner, the engineering team constructed the Amazon version to be reusable and more comfortable for medical professionals.
The design can be 3D-printed or injection-molded by anyone via an open-sourced design software.
Amazon announced that 60,000 of the face shields have already been distributed for free, with an additional 150,000 being set aside to be donated later in the year.
You can order the Amazon-developed face shields from here.
[via CNET, cover image via Amazon Day One]
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