Texas Toyota plant is making face shields instead of Tacomas

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/co...aking-face-shields-to-send-to-texas-hospitals

https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-we-are-here-for-you-toyotas-response-to-the-covid-19-crisis/

 

why are they 3d printing the face shield part instead of injection molding?

 

Awesome, nice to see things in this Country working and evolving for the new and unique situation.

 

Easier to retool. Also, I would be surprised if an assembly line had plastic injection machines on site. They usually sub that work out.

 

Probably an open source/they developed an open source, so that hospitals and anyone else can also work on building the same masks.

 

The real question is when will get the pro model face shield?

 

Also working with what they have. Molds will take a couple of weeks to cut and get parts in. They can start printing stuff now.

 

Will the new face shield rub if I install 285's??

 

I'd bet they're just 3d printing the black headband part and cutting the clear mask from bulk plastic sheeting.

 

Hopefully not the same material as their Guage cluster. They'll be scratched and unusable in just a few minutes.

 

Cost of tooling as @marintaco said. We retooled a mold to make extra of a product used in the research/vaccination effort of COVID and took 8 weeks and 150,000 dollars to get the mold made.

 

for something as easy as that head band design though? I have almost 10 years of CNC machining experience under my belt and can have that mold milled out in less than a week for a few thousand dollars max.

i do get the point of their assembly facility not having a molding machine in house but a 3d printer would mean it's their R&D team pushing these out so they'd have to have a CNC mill and can use better plastic material. the 3d printed ones slapped together with a rubber band and some hand cut foam just seems...cheap.

edit:

the bauer hockey ones are much better looking

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-SVowqgTpy/

 

My 285s fit without lifting the face shield

 

Nah fuck that. Who are they trying to fool with that? The pro face shield has fox head straps. So what. Are they rebuildable? No. I could buy the basic face shield and install king head straps for half the price. Gimme a break.

 

But what about the rigid LED headlamps on it? They are way better than those chinese clone versions.

 

I think that's great and all, but I just watched a video from Scotty Kilmer. He said the Texas Toyota plant is planning to stop building tacoma's in USA and moving to strictly Mexico. I wonder if this is a way to expediate that process.

 

How long till someone slaps some TRD branding on it

 

Awesome for Toyota though helping out

 

Tooling costs and the time needed to make molds.

 

Bauer has that "King blue" color down pat, just sayin...