The DIY face mask frame comes in 3 sizes and uses the fabric or filter material of your choice. (Courtesy of The Garden Tower Project)
The food industry has been through a huge upheaval as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. Another industry that has noticed a shift during the pandemic is garden suppliers. I spoke with Joel Grant and Kristi Armes of the Garden Tower Project here in Bloomington, about an uptick in garden supply sales, and a new product they brought online in recent weeks.
If you're not familiar with the garden tower, it's a large container for growing plants in a small space. It has a unique, internal composting system that utilizes red wriggler worms and kitchen scraps to feed the soil in the container. You can learn all about the Garden Tower here.
The latest iteration of the Garden Tower is manufactured here in indiana using an injection mold process. When the Coronavirus hit the US, and Joel heard there was a shortage of protective equipment such as face masks, he started reviewing what was happening in the open source 3D printing community. Apparently, there's a large group of engineers at all skill levels, developing open source designs for 3D printers.
He noticed a well designed product called a mask frame. A mask frame is a thin frame of plastic that holds a piece of cloth or filter material close to a user's face, without needing to sew a mask. It can be reused by replacing the cloth or filter material--blue shop towels work well.
Joel saw the design and knew it could be easily adapted to injection mold production. So he contacted one of their manufacturing partners CS Prototyping in Columbus, Indiana.
They were up and running within two weeks of deciding on the design. The product took off, and since then, they have been full steam ahead trying to keep up with demand. When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, they had shipped more than 20 thousand orders. They've enlisted help from folks in Nashville and in the Green Acres Neighborhood here in Bloomington, to assist with packaging and shipping.
In addition to the mask frames, their garden supply business has doubled this season. The Garden Towers were on on back order when we spoke.
Joel says he and his team at the Garden Tower Project are happy to be able to contribute and to make a difference during this challenging time.
Joel says he’s grateful for the entire Garden Tower team for making this happen, and to Mark Fuller, the open source engineer in Cincinnati who developed the design for this mask.
Hear the story on this episode of Earth Eats.
