MANSFIELD — Matt Sheppard is putting his birthday present to good use these days.
After his wife gave him a Fuzed Deposition Modeling printer, which lays down layers of molten plastic creating shapes, he began using to it to help create objects around the house — coat hooks, a desk organizer for his wife and other household items.
“It’s come in handy,” Sheppard, 30, said.
Now he’s using the machine to create Ergonomic N95 / Loop Mask Ear Loop Clips for doctors, nurses and those who wear masks in the medical field.
“I was looking for things I could do to help out,” he said. “I found the on the National Institute of Health website the files for the clips.”
Sheppard said he can make a batch of 17 in about 8.5 hours.
Working for OhioHealth Mansfield as an emergency room registrar, he began bringing the clips in for his colleagues to wear during their shifts.
“The strings on surgical masks, normally go around your ears, which is normally OK for a short amount of time,” Sheppard said of his clip’s importance. “We’re now wearing those for a 12-hour shift and it irritates the skin on the backs of our ears and it starts to hurt after a while.
“(These clips) allow the string to wrap around the back of the head and alleviates a lot of the pressure.”
Sheppard is continuing to create the clips and donate them to those in need — near and far.
He has shipped an order to a medical department in Chicago, the Richland County Board of Developmental Disabilities and he’s working on a batch for Avita Health System in Ontario.
“The response has been good,” he said. “It makes it a lot more comfortable; a lot less of a burden for your shift.”
