3D printers to make masks and other equipment

22 March 2020, 09:58 PM

quote:
Earlier this month, the CEO of an Italian 3D-printing startup learned that a hospital near the center of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy was running short on a small but crucial component: the valves that connect respirators to oxygen masks.

The company that makes the valves couldn’t keep up with the demand, and doctors were in search of a solution.

“When we heard about the shortage, we got in touch with the hospital immediately. We printed some prototypes. The hospital tested them and told us they worked,” the CEO, Cristian Fracassi, told Reuters. “So we printed 100 valves, and I delivered them personally.”

Similar efforts have popped up around the world. In Liverpool, New York, Isaac Budmen and Stephanie Keefe were printing more than 300 face shields for workers at a coronavirus test site in Syracuse this week, according to The Post-Standard of Syracuse. Budmen and Keefe, who run a business, Budmen Industries, selling custom 3D printers out of their home, turned to a fleet of 16 3D printers in their basement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/2...pment-shortages.html

--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training

22 March 2020, 10:39 PM

BeeLady

We have a local "maker's space" that is doing this..They have got a pattern, did a prototype and got approval from two local hospitals.

The great part is that the mask is reusable with a replaceable filter. A local hardware store has donated the material for the filters.

They are now crowd sourcing 3D printers as one mask takes 2 hours to produce..So they need many printers going at all hours to make a dent.

22 March 2020, 11:09 PM

Daniel

The DIY approach to fighting a pandemic.

22 March 2020, 11:20 PM

BeeLady

quote:
Originally posted by Daniel:
The DIY approach to fighting a pandemic.

Much like bandage wrapping, metal scrap collection and the knitting for the troops my grandmother did during WWII.

I still have the knitting patterns, BTW.

23 March 2020, 01:45 AM

Daniel

quote:
Originally posted by BeeLady:
quote:
Originally posted by Daniel:
The DIY approach to fighting a pandemic.

Much like bandage wrapping, metal scrap collection and the knitting for the troops my grandmother did during WWII.

I still have the knitting patterns, BTW.

It's a good point, and many have made it. But, the US government was in charge of those efforts. Unfortunately, the US government seems almost absent in its response.