MERCEDES, Texas – With medical supplies in demand all over the world, one local company is doing its part to help.
After ten hours in the design phase, Heriberto Reynoso, owner and founder of Reybotics in Mercedes found a solution.
“I knew it could be done, my problem was do it cost effectively and so I intend for these face shields to be used once or twice, hospital workers, nurses can clean them,” said Reynoso. “Or after the first use, if they think it’s super dirty they can throw them away because it’s so low cost.”
The face shields are made with film, plastic sheets, an elastic band and yoga mats.
“Yoga mats are what we’re using to produce the foam piece that is touching the forehead,” said Reynoso. “So when it’s placed, it’s comfortable as opposed to having plastic on your forehead.”
Because 3D printers take time to produce a solid piece, Reynoso said they’re using laser machines which takes about one minute to produce one face shield.
Gathering the materials, however, is a different story.
“It literally took like a whole week just to find the elastic band and try to buy in bulk and try to source it so it arrives quickly here on time,” said Reynoso.
Reynoso plans to donate a few hundred face shields to local authorities, but also has plans to make ventilators.
“I’m trying to push them out at about $5 each so that $3 each profit will help fund the ventilators and help produce maybe 6,000 for the next batch,” said Reynoso.
Reynoso said they intend to produce 3,000 face shields by Wednesday.
