3d Printing & COVID-19 Response

For many years, International Companies placed all of their manufacturing capability in China, irresponsibly . Covid-19 shows that a level of manufacturing is necessary for every country. In this hard time, 3d printing capabilities allowed Organizations and Individuals to have self- manufacturing capability.

For example: Carbon has collaborated with partners to design a PPE face shield optimized for DLS™ technology that can be produced and assembled quickly.

In addition, Formlabs is currently producing tens of thousands of swabs per day in its FDA-registered, ISO 13485 certified facility in Ohio, and is ramping up production to produce 100,000 swabs per day at peak capacity. The swabs are sold in packets of 25 3D printed test swabs. 

Even more, FDA Approves First 3D-Printed Mask for COVID-19 Support.T he 3D-printed Stopgap face mask is a personal protective mask health care workers can use for liquid barrier protection to the novel coronavirus. 

3d Printers may not be enough for current situation, but the problem came from our past decisions. We didn’t take 3d printing seriously. If we have invested more in 3d printers, if we invested more in 3d printers manufacturing, if we worked more on 3d printers to make them more useful for non professional users, the situation would be different.

We know the importance of 3d printing better than last year, In future we see a growth in 3d printer capabilities. I wrote a short story which present the way government can expand 3d printing , here is the link

Refrences:

https://formlabs.com/covid-19-response/covid-test-swabs/

https://governmentciomedia.com/fda-approves-first-3d-printed-mask-covid-19-support

https://3dprint.nih.gov/discover/3dpx-013429