Personal Protective Equipment Design

Engineering students, alumni and faculty from the Lyles College of Engineering are working on a three-phase, innovative project to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses and other health care providers in the fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 PPE development phases:

Phase 1) Final design and production of face shields. Production is continuing at this time. By the time the project ends, there will have been more than 1,000 face donated to Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno and other healthcare facilities in the community. 

The face shield design is available for anyone with a 3-D printer to print from the open source website.

The final face shield design was developed by Shervin Zoghi, a 2017 mechanical engineering alumnus, with the help of several mechanical engineering students. The design is made of 3-D printed plastic, transparency film and Velcro. Both the frame and Velcro can be sanitized for re-use. The shield is made of transparency film, which is inexpensive and can be disposed of or sanitized after each use. A new shield can be easily loaded onto the frame.

Phase 2) The second phase includes rapid prototyping and testing of an FDA-approved mask. 

Phase 3) The third phase includes powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs).

Full story at FresnoStateNews.com

News Coverage: 
GV Wire
YourCentralValley.com

About the Lyles College of Engineering

The Lyles College offers six nationally accredited undergraduate degree programs in civil, electrical, computer, geomatics and mechanical engineering as well as construction management. Graduate degrees include construction management, civil engineering and civil engineering with options in water resources engineering and environmental engineering as well as engineering with options in electrical, computer and mechanical engineering.

The CSU Board of Trustees recently gave approval for the Lyles College to begin the formal design of a new bachelor’s degree program in biomedical engineering. Student enrollment is slated to begin fall 2022.