Ceiling Tile Grommet - Screw Style

thingiverse

In response to the Covid global pandemic in 2020, my school enlisted my help in preparing various PPE designs and plastic barriers that could be used to allow students to attend in-person, in what we believe would be the safest way possible for them, along with our faculty and staff. Part of that work included installing hanging acrylic barriers in some places throughout the school. Due to the weight of the 1/4" acrylic and the sheer size of the barriers, we needed to find a way to attach these hanging barriers to the ceiling above the drop ceiling tiles, instead of the tiles themselves or the gridwork. But this meant that the chain that would be holding up the barriers would need to go through a hole cut into the ceiling tiles in order to reach the structural ceiling. And make holes we did! :-) A 1" hole, as a matter of fact. So to clean up the cutout in the tiles, I designed some grommets that could be screwed into the ceiling tiles that would add an element of "professionalism" and "completeness" to the installations. Of the various tiles that I designed, the screw-type worked dramatically better than any of the others. So that is the one that I elected to share with everyone! :-)