Terminology - Face shields (visières de protection) (8) HappyShield (UK and AU)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The University of Cambridge (UK), Department of Architecture, Natural Material Innovation Group, and The University of Queensland (Australia), School of Engineering Folded Structures Lab, jointly designed a face shield, designated the HappyShield (logo included). The HappyShield is further characterized as “Curved crease origami face shield for infection control”. The HappyShield was created within the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, in response to the shortage of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment).

The HappyShield design comprises a single sheet of 0.5 mm-thick PET or Acetate, which is curved-crease-folded twice to provide extra protection from fluids and sprays, coming from above. Once double-creased, the face shield distance from the user’s face is also adjustable. A 20 mm wide elastic strap, threaded through attachment holes, on each side of the shield, alternatively through friction clips first, secures the HappyShield to the user’s head. The HappyShield is intended to be easily washable for decontamination, and re-usable between shifts.

 The HappyShield was designed specifically for ultra swift, mass-manufacture, at low cost, keeping in mind global disruptions in supply chains, and the greater impact in less-wealthy countries. Thus, the Happyshield design supports several production processes, in particular: Hand-creasing, Laser cut, and Laser-cut + pressure creasing.

An image of the HappyShield Hand creasing template, extracted from the GitHub project files, is included below, together with an image of the assembled HappyShield. A Youtube video is also included to show the various features and assembly of the HappyShield. Incidentally, the GitHub project files also contain many Instagram widgets to illustrate instructions and various aspects of the HappyShield

References

GitHub HappyShield documentation files: https://github.com/HappyShield/happyshield.github.io

Github HappyShield project:https://happyshield.github.io/en/

GitHub HappyShield template files: https://github.com/HappyShield/HappyShield

The University of Cambridge (UK) - Department of Architecture - The Natural Material Innovation Group: https://www.natmat.group.cam.ac.uk/

The University of Queensland (AU) - School of Engineering - Folded Structures Lab.   https://www.civil.uq.edu.au/icarus/folded-structures-lab-various-topics 

YouTube video of the HappyShield: https://youtu.be/NzHtaLhImxM