News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Many 3D printing companies are stepping up in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, offering up their capabilities to overcome hurdles in existing supply chains. Among them is HP Inc., which today announced that it is mobilizing its 3D printing teams and resources to produce and deliver critical parts to help hospitals around the world to treat patients and protect staff.
As many industrial giants around the world (Tesla, Ferrari, Airbus, FCA just to mention a few) take extensive measures to repurpose their production lines, for 3D printing companies this is just a matter of changing the CAD file. While 3D printing alone does not have the industrial capabilities to serially produce very complex machinery it can certainly play a role in many other situations that require a rapid response. The situation is evolving rapidly: 3dpbm is in touch with dozens of 3D printing companies around the world that have made their services and expertise available in a number of ways. This is how some of the leading 3D printing companies are responding to the COVID-19 emergency so far.
Global sciences company Royal DSM has announced an expanded partnership with JuggerBot 3D, a 3D printer manufacturer based in Youngstown, Ohio. The aim of the collaboration is to advance fused granulate fabrication (FGF) and drive its industrialization by developing high-performance pellet-based 3D printers and materials.
Engineers and designers from Poland-based Urbicum have banded together to launch the VentilAid project, an effort to design an open-source ventilator which can be reproduced using a 3D printer and an assembly of basic, easily accessible parts. The open-source ventilator is being designed to help medical professionals in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in cases where more traditional hospital resources are limited or exhausted.
Mogassam, a Delaware-based 3D printer manufacturer, has released DentCase, a DLP 3D printer designed for the dental industry. The system offers a complete workflow, with integrated dental CAM software and post-curing system. The machine is currently being showcased at the International Dental Show (IDS) 2019 in Cologne, which takes place from the 12th to the 16th March. Explaining its goals, the company has stated:
In compliance with the rules imposed by the Italian government for the health of workers and the fight against COVID-19, company activity at WASP has continued regularly. At the same time, the Italian firm decided to convert its innovation capacity in order to fight Coronavirus. The projects that the WASP Research and Development department has been working on have been temporarily set aside in order to work on two new open source project: the MY FACE MASK with interchangeable filter and the MY SPACE drip protection helmet with ventilation and integrated filtering.
The alliance (which our Spanish language sister website reported on just a few days ago) between the Consorci de la Zona Franca (CZFB), HP, Leitat (Technological Center) together with CatSalut, through the Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa (CST) and the Hospital Parc Taulí de Sabadell, have developed the first industrialized field 3D printed emergency respiration device* to support hospitals and ICUs. The device is a mechanical bag valve mask (BVM) that can be used for short term emergency ventilation of COVID-19 patients.
It’s been only a few days since the world learned about the life-saving effort by a young team of engineers to design and 3D print venturi valves in order to save COVID-19 patients’ lives at an Italian Hospital. As further recognition that 3D printing has the potential to deliver fast solutions in emergency situations, the Isinnova team now developed and successfully tested a 3D printed adapter to turn a snorkelling mask into a non-invasive ventilator for COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian emergency room doctor, has taken it upon himself to produce 3D printed face shields for his fellow front-line medical workers across the country. This is not the first time that Dr. Loubani has used his interest in 3D printing for good: the doctor actually started a medical supplies charity in to provide low-cost medical devices and supplies to conflict zones, such as Gaza.
The main issue, as explained in a detailed New York Times article, is that, to put it plainly, “there aren’t enough ventilators to cope with the coronavirus“. The reason why there aren’t enough is that they are extremely difficult to produce and so it takes a long time, even for those companies that have been making these machines for decades. That’s why it’s not about making 3D printed ventilators but 3D printing parts to address ventilator supply chain issues.