ANDERSON, Ind. (WTHR) — Here’s another Indiana high school student who has found a way to give back during the current health crisis.
High school senior Nathan Rockhill is creating surgical tension bands for protective face masks for frontline workers using 3D printers all from his home in Anderson — and he's giving them away for free to frontline workers.
The "ear saver" straps are meant to keep the elastic from rubbing the wearer's ears.
"You have your mask and normally, it will loop around your ears,' Rockhill demonstrated. "The issue with that is, over time, the elastic starts to get a little painful. So, essentially, what the ear saver is, it's a little strap in the back that has hooks, where you can hook the mask on to the strap so that it takes the tension off of your ears.”
Starting with his own 3D printer, Rockhill now has an additional machine from his robotics team and three more from Purdue Polytechnic Institute Anderson for a total of five working 3D printers — sometimes operating 24 hours a day.
"Our goal is to keep going until the requests stop," Rockhill said. "At this point, it's not something you can just stop whenever you feel like it. It's kind of become a thing where you just keep going until you can't."
Rockhill is studying robotics as part of his work-study program while attending Indiana Connections Career Academy. Since his robotics team isn't currently meeting, Rockhill decided to try printing the bands after seeing a Boy Scout in Canada also create the items. Noticing the need for this type of product, Rockhill chose a design approved by the National Institute of Health, which allows health care workers to use the bands.
"I'm just happy to be able to help out people who need them," Rockhill said. "Next thing we know, we have thousands of requests, and we can barely keep up — even with the five printers and two other teams helping us out. Almost every person we've ever sent them to has had some kind of response along lines of 'These are amazing!'"
Due to the high demand, Rockhill is now collaborating with other robotics teams to churn out as many ear savers as possible.
Rockhill has produced and shipped 11,000 ear saver straps to central Indiana locations, 11 states and British Columbia, Canada.
Click here to fill out a request form for ear saver straps or to donate to help support the project.