3-d printer serves valuable purpose against COVID-19

Staff at Tri-County School in Karlstad knew that a 3-d printer could be of value to the school; they hardly could have guessed, however, just how valuable the machine could be not only to the school, but also to the whole community.
Tri-County Superintendent/principal, Ryan Baron, shared the following story via email: “In January, we received a 3-d printer from UND through the TRIO program. This was a free device along with a lot of plastic to print with. We haven’t had much time to use it. We received a call yesterday from Russ Anderson, who mentioned that he had been contacted about printing masks for medical personnel.”
“Last night, Brad (Thompson) downloaded the plans from a website and printed a mask and three shield holders. Ashley Turner (Tri-County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) director) was able to finish it with seals (per instructions from the blueprints). Tri-County EMS will use this. We were asked to print a few more for the ambulance. I am also going to contact hospitals and see if they want us to print a few. Each mask takes about three hours to print.”