Two Brothers Use 3D Printing to Protect the Front Lines of Democracy

Two tech-savvy brothers in California are working to make election day safe. These Airwolf 3D printer users have caught the attention of the LA Times, the Press-Enterprise and most recently were featured on CBS “This Morning”.

Tenzing Carvalho and Zubin Carvalho started making face shields for family members in front line healthcare jobs, now they’re also working to protect poll workers. When the pandemic hit, twelve-year-old Tenzing and fourteen-year-old Zubin took their robotics team skills and transformed their AXIOM printers into lifesavers.

“Our grandparents are in their 70s and they’re still seeing patients in their nursing homes hospitals and offices. So we wanted to find a way to keep them safe,” said Tenzing.

Their group has grown to eight high schools, eight elementary schools and nine robotics teams from five different school districts.

“We want people to realize that there’s more staff to nursing homes. We donated to custodial and cafeteria staff because they also play a key role in those ecosystems as well.”

The brothers’ non-profit SoCal Face Shields For Frontline Workers was created to make sure everyone who needed a shield received one. As of the writing of this blog, the group has printed and donated over fifteen thousand shields to frontline workers who may not have been first in line.

Their main focus right now is election workers because “we want to make sure that they stay safe since they help keep the process of our democracy going.” said Tenzing.

The group recently donated over 1,600 shields to the Offices of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

We thank and support the brothers in their efforts to protect the front lines of democracy and help keep our community safe.