Stith to the rescue

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter 
 
Newcastle High School science teacher Jim Stith is no novice when it comes to innovation, but now he is taking things to the next level and providing a much needed product to first responders in Weston Country.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stith has found a way to provide masks to the Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department who were without any, and not slated to receive a supply until late summer.
“I’ve had this pandemic on my radar for a while now, and I knew there were already designs out there for respirators/masks,” Stith began. “We have the 3D printers to be able to produce masks, so I was working on figuring out what I needed in order to begin to do that for our local first responders.”
Thanks to grant writing by the science department, NHS currently has three 3D printers and NMS has one, so those four machines are hard at work producing masks from a design Stith obtained from the Billings Clinic Foundation. 
Having the design for the plastic mask available helped to get the project under way, however Stith needed to figure out what to use as filtration material and how to design a gasket which will allow the mask to seal to the face, thereby blocking pathogens from getting around the mask.
Fortunately, the Billings Clinic had collaborated with a filtration company that currently works with the hospital there, and this company has partnered with the clinic to precisely cut filters to fit the masks.
“I took the design and began printing them and have about 30 of them printed right now,” Stith stated. “In the design, they don’t tell you how to create a gasket, though, so I’ve been prototyping one which will provide a seal between the hard plastic and your face.”
Stith experimented with different types of foam rubber and weather stripping and has created a step-by-step guide on how to create the masks with filtration and gasket, and has been sharing and distributing it through a few different resources.
“My gasket design is what really sets what I’ve been doing apart from other designs,” Stith admitted. “One of the resources I’ve shared the information with is the Wyoming Technology CoronaVirus Coalition, which I recently joined, and I am trying to collaborate with the School of Mines who has dozens of 3D printers which they are using to create masks for Monument Health.”
Unfortunately, SDSM&T is not incorporating a gasket with their masks, which Stith considers a rather significant shortfall to their design.
With the design finalized, Stith approached Gilbert Nelson, the head of Homeland Security in Weston County, and asked if Newcastle was in a dire enough situation to need him to produce these masks for local first responders and Nelson jumped at the opportunity.
“Robert Munger had spoken to Gilbert that morning expressing his concern that the volunteer fire department had no masks. If they were called out to the scene of an accident, they would be vulnerable to infection without them,” Stith explained. “ Because the fire department wouldn’t be able to access a supply from other sources for several months, Gilbert was excited at the prospect of having us produce them.”
Stith is expecting a shipment of filtration materials from the Montana company at the end of this week and has been sourcing a variety of materials, including printers, in order to up production capabilities. 
“I’m using our 3D printers, Kylee Shumaker is using the middle school printer to print some, and Greg Locke is also printing some using the same design,” Stith began. “Right now I can produce 15 a day with the printers I have if they are running all day.” 
To complete the masks, Stith needs filament for printing, a proper foam rubber that will fit well around the face, material to apply it to the face that can be washed or sterilized between uses, filtration materials and elastic to hold the mask in place.
“I’m working with Robert right now and the first batch will be 35 masks which will cover the department’s immediate needs,” Stith nodded. “However, there are 50 firemen who may be called so the goal is to have a mask for each, and we also have to print different sizes so they will fit individuals.”
After Newcastle’s needs are taken care of, Stith plans to work on masks for the Upton fire department.
One of the most difficult materials to obtain at this point is the elastic needed to secure the mask to the face. Stith placed an order for a few hundred yards through Amazon, but shipping is slow and unsure so the order won’t arrive until mid-April or May.
“Obviously, we don’t want to wait that long so we took to Facebook asking people to check their sewing baskets and craft rooms for any elastic they might have and would be willing to give to us,” Stith grinned. “I’ve had all kinds of people responding, so we’ve been meeting people — maintaining proper social distancing protocol — and it’s just been so great how people have been helping us out in getting the elastic we need to finish the masks.”
Each mask needs a yard of elastic because they wrap behind the head and neck rather than over the ears. Stith chose this design for a couple of reasons. The first was comfort because having things around the ears can be irritating, but more importantly, these plastic masks weigh more than fabric masks so this type of system will be more stable and secure.
“I’m glad we have the ability to provide these for the community. As a science department, we have written a lot of grants to be able to purchase these tools, so it’s awesome that we are able to now put them to use to help out the community,” Stith smiled. “It’s also nice that we have the opportunity to show that the technology we have purchased isn’t just toys. This gives us a real world opportunity to show how these resources are useful in a variety of different arenas.”
Stith and others who are involved in producing these masks are certainly filling a need in the community given that Wyoming is low on the list of priorities due to the comparatively low number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and Weston County is also low on the state’s list of priorities given there are currently zero official cases of the virus. 
“We are reutilizing the resources we have to rise to the occasion to address this problem,” Stith nodded. “It’s great that the school gives me the capability to write grants to get these types of technologies that we can use to fill a community need during this time.”