Tech companies like Apple and Blue Origin and universities like Duke are using their arsenals of 3D printers to produce millions of face shields for medical workers

After reportedly facing pressure from students and local doctors, Harvard agreed to open up use of the Harvard Graduate School of Design's supply of 100 3D printers to make parts for face shields.

Harvard began producing personal protective equipment last week and says it has already delivered 90 face shields to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The school estimates it could produce components for up to 1,000 face shields in a week.

Using the materials it already has on hand, the school estimates it can make 3,500 3D-printed visors and 800 face shields.

The rocket company posted a video of its efforts to 3D-print visors for face shields.

Blue Origin employees have been volunteering extra hours to work on the face shield components, with the company allowing only one employee to work at a time, according to a Blue Origin employee featured in the video.

The company already has about 38 types of thermoplastics on hand, which are used to 3D-print visors, which the face shield attaches to.

"There's a huge shortage across the country," one employee said in the video.

We are proudly producing daily deliveries of 3D printed face shield components to help combat the COVID-19 crisis. Our additive machines are working 24/7, and the volunteers for this effort also support #BE4 engine development. We are grateful for their dedication. pic.twitter.com/GZUjA3TtRY

Carbon, a 3D-printing startup, worked with Verily, a life-sciences company owned by Alphabet, to design face shields, according to Forbes.

The company then 3D-printed prototypes of its design and sent them to two hospitals for testing: Stanford and Kaiser Permanente. Carbon is known for its work with Adidas, and one material used in Adidas shoes is now being repurposed to create face shields, Forbes reports.

As of March 25, Carbon told Forbes it estimated it could deliver 300 face shields to healthcare workers, with the goal of ramping up significantly in the coming weeks.

Our team is hard at work producing #faceshields which use our #LatticeEngine technology. We’re proud to help provide #PPE to #ProtectHealthCareWorkers and #FirstResponders against #covid-19. pic.twitter.com/Yj9n2GZaCC

After reading about alumnus Isaac Budmen using his 3D-printing business to design and print face shields, a professor at Syracuse University got several schools within the university to band together to make face shields, according to the university's news service.

It began with the school's College of Visual and Performing Arts, which already had clear plastic, which it uses for thermoforming. The fashion design program then provided 250 yards of elastic in order to create the headband, according to SU. VPA handles the assembly portion, which the architecture school and engineering and computer science schools 3D-print pieces for the face shields.

So far, SU is making up to 90 face shields each day, which are handed out to local hospitals in Upstate New York, the university reports.

HP has is producing face shields — along with mask adjusters, nasal swabs, hands-free door openers, and respirator parts — to help combat the spread of the virus.

HP said it's working with the global community of those who own its 3D printers to make the equipment, and as of March 24, said more than 1,000 3D-printed parts had already been delivered to hospitals.

The tech giant is also offering its 3D printable designs for the face shields for free.

Loyola University Maryland has started using its stockpile of 3D printers to produce face shields for medical workers in the Baltimore area, according to the university's news service.

Loyola is creating both the top and bottom plastic pieces for face shields, as well as full pieces of equipment, at three different labs at the university. The school is donating them to Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical System, LifeBridge Health, and Sinai Hospital.

Duke has an arsenal of 65 3D printers, which have been working overtime to produce 150 face shields per day, according to the university.

But because the need for face shields is so high right now, the schools say they are turning over production to a larger-scale manufacturer who can make face shields more quickly. Once that happens, Duke says it expects to produce up to 10,000 pieces of equipment.

On March 19, Ford decided to start manufacturing protective equipment for medical workers — by April 6, the automaker announced it had delivered more than 1 million face shields.

The face shields are being handcrafted by workers who are volunteering despite the industry shutdown, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Ford is currently producing over 200,000 face shields per day, the Free Press reports, delivering them to local hospitals in Detroit as well as first responders in New York City.

Two weeks of production = Over 1 million face shields delivered. #BuiltFordProud

Thank you to the many #essentialworkers on the front lines. We hope these shields help keep you protected as you continue helping others in the fight against #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/nMBQEXcMQF

In October, researchers at Northwestern introduced a new 3D printing technique called "high-area rapid printing," or HARP. The technique uses just one 13-foot-tall printer that can print about half a yard per hour, according to the university.

Now, that technique is being put to use to produce face shields. Volunteers have been running the machine 24/7, producing 1,000 components for face shields every day — a production rate that would typically require a fleet of 3D printers.

"HARP is so fast and powerful that we can put a meaningful dent in that need," Northwestern researcher Chad A. Mirkin told the university's news service.

The school is producing the face shield headbands, while a local manufacturer will produce the plastic shields. Another company will sanitize the parts and package them into kits to be supplied to Chicago-area hospitals, the university said.

Snap Lab, the hardware lab that produces Snap's Spectacles camera sunglasses, has started temporarily making face shields.

The company is using the design created by Syracuse alum Budmen and his company, Budmen Industries, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Snap is donating the face shields to the ICU staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, LA Business Journal reports.