The Bolles School issued the following announcement.
Flautists in the Bolles Band have been restricted during COVID-era rehearsals because their playing techniques force unsafe air from their instruments. Luckily, they go to a school where faculty model innovation and problem-solving and as such, the issue is a problem no longer.
Bolles Instructional Technology Specialist Andrew Nation and Bolles Band Director Maggie Vance collaborated on project that would mitigate the problem of flautists’ unhealthy air distribution.
“Wind mitigation was a concern in the band with the spread of massive air movement,” Vance explained. “We were able to correct the issue with bell covers and playing masks for the rest of the band. The flute, however, does not produce airflow in the same way.”
If there could only be some kind of shield to place over the flute’s opening to better protect musicians – or a contraption that reduced the forced air flow from students’ lips. Vance did a little research and discovered designs for a plastic shield that would do just that. Her next call was to the Bolles IT department.
“When Maggie sent me the 3D file, I loaded it into our the software that works with our MakerBot 3d Printers. The software created the print file and added dissolvable support material to ensure the best print quality possible,” explained Instructional Technology Specialist Andrew Nation. “Since these were fairly intricate in some design aspects, we chose to print them using the MakerBot Method 3d Printers at Bartram and San Jose. Each print took approximately 14 hours to complete.”
Vance and Nation printed 10 shields, one for every flute student in the Bolles Band -- plus two extra ones for backup, Vance added. Nation said the he printer used PLA Filament to print the objects. PLA is a type of vegetable-based biodegradable plastic.
“Not only are these technically considered PPE for COVID, they are also Earth friendly,” Nation said. He said Bolles Chief Technology Officer Paul Sollee ’88 was extremely helpful in the printing part of the project. “By expanding to use the San Jose printers, we were able to produce more of them at the same time, which greatly sped up production.”
With the new shields, the air is not distributed far or wide and makes Bolles Band rehearsal a safer class environment.
“This is just one of the many systems we have in place to keep our students healthy and playing,” Vance said. “Thank you to the tech department for the collaboration!”
Original source can be found here.
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