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“From face-shields to respirator valves, 3-D printer owners pitch into the efforts to provide PPE to Australian hospitals,”
It’s not solely taking place in Australia. But the Guardian talked to Mat Bowtell, a former Toyota engineer in Australia who’s utilizing fourteen 3D printers to fabricate 1000’s of face shields for healthcare staff. And citing 3D printing, the director of a not-for-profit working with the authorities says the nation has an “incredible onshore capability” to reply to the pandemic:
“The 3D printing functionality onshore is a large distinguisher for Australia to step as much as the disaster,” he mentioned. When requested how else 3D printing is likely to be deployed in apply, Goennemann factors to the provide of ventilators,
that is wanted to help to inhale the most critically ailing Covid-19 sufferers… Goennemann says Resmed, the primary ventilator producer, might wrestle to get components on account of the disruption of the world to provide chains.
That’s the place 3D printing can assist. “I don’t want to speak on behalf of Resmed, but that’s an area where we have critical supply, and parts can be 3D printed onshore rather than being procured offshore,” he mentioned…
For Bowtell, the resolution to shift his manufacturing to face shields had nothing to do with revenue. It was about doing what he might in the most extraordinary of occasions. “It’s about survival at the moment,” Bowtell mentioned. “Just helping people to get through this together.”
Reuters additionally reported that one Italian firm used its 3D printers to fabricate valves for respirators for its native hospital. And a paywalled article at Fortune additionally describes the crew constructing an open supply ventilator,
whereas additionally noting that greater than four,800 folks with 3D printers “have, through a public Google Doc, signed as much as assist print every part from face shields to ventilator components for his or her native hospitals.”
They additionally spotlight Budmen Industries, an upstate New York firm promoting 3D printers that have now additionally printed 1,492 face shields for New York medical staff. And lastly, there’s the Covent-19 Challenge, “an open innovation 8-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers”
on the GrabCAD Challenges platform, to create “a rapidly deployable, minimum viable mechanical ventilator for patients with COVID-19 related ventilator-dependent lung injury.”
3D Printers Around the World Against the Coronavirus – 2021 is a campaign that brings awareness to this virus and how 3D printing can help combat it.
The campaign will be an ongoing series of articles published by RAPID3DPrinting, where we will highlight unique ways 3D printers are helping people around the world. This first article focuses on medical uses for 3D printing in combating coronavirus, as well as other diseases like Zika and Ebola.
There are 3D printers all over the world helping
people. From classrooms to small businesses, medical facilities to homes, 3D printers are being used in unique ways to help solve the world’s problems. With the rise of Zika and Ebola cases over the last two years, there has also been an increase in 3D printed medical devices that are helping combat these diseases. That is why RAPID3DPrinting is beginning this new campaign, to showcase the ways 3D printing has helped people all over the world – one article at a time.
## Since September 2015, there have been 1,723 confirmed cases of individuals contracting the Zika virus within United States territories. As of July 2017, there have already been 2,519 confirmed cases of individuals contracting the Ebola virus within United States territories. This campaign is to highlight 3D printing’s role in combating viral outbreaks like Zika and Ebola – as well as their role in eliminating coronavirus and other diseases.
There are many different types of 3D printers out there; we will be focusing on desktop fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers for this article. Desktop FDM 3D printers range in price from around $200 to around $25,000, with most below the $2,000 mark. To combat coronavirus, there are three different types of technologies that can be used – biomaterials, antibody testing, and bio-inks.
3D printing biomaterials is the most basic way to combat coronavirus. Biomaterials are materials that are derived from a biological source, i.e. collagen, keratin, etc. These biomaterials can be used in 3D printing for a variety of different purposes – including combating coronavirus.
For example, scientists at the Azad University of Gujarat have used 3D printing technology to create bone scaffolds. These biomaterials are being printed with a desktop FDM 3D printer, and researchers are working to use the cells that grow on this material for engineering functional bones.
A 3D printer is a machine that can create three-dimensional objects from digital models.
Many 3D printers come in the form of desktop FDM machines, which work by laying down one layer at a time using melted plastic. This melted plastic is also known as a filament, and there are many different types out there to choose from.
One type of filament that can be used for combating coronavirus is PLA or polylactic acid. PLA filament is composed of lactic acid that has been processed into its polymer form, which makes it one of the most commonly used filaments in desktop FDM 3D printers because it is strong, easy to print with, and eco-friendly. PLA filament is also biocompatible, meaning it is non-toxic and bio-degradable.
The primary source of biomaterials for biomedical applications are from animals or plants. However, scientists at the University of Missouri have been researching a marine protein called Sp7, which has very similar properties to human skin and bone.
A group of scientists from the University of Missouri and the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been using 3D printing technology to build these marine proteins into scaffolds. Their goal is to use these structures as platforms for regenerating human bone or tooth tissue, as well as combatting coronavirus.
All of the countries in the Middle East have banned any trade or travel to/from Qatar,
except for Iraq.
The second way 3D printing can be used to combat coronavirus is through antibody testing of blood samples. The following video is an example of how this process works – with the sample being added to the cartridge, then inserted into a desktop FDM printer that uses light to create solid objects.
From there, the 3D printer can print out an antibody that will bind to the virus in the sample. This antibody would then be measured – with any levels above a certain amount being flagged as potentially infected.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt have closed their borders with Qatar.
The third and final way that 3D printing can be used to combat coronavirus is through bio-inks. These links are created by taking material and turning it into a liquid, which can then be extruded onto a substrate or another material.
One example of this would be using the cell adhesion peptide sequence RGD, which is present in collagen and enables cells to bind to a substrate.
A group of scientists from the Universities of Sydney, Harvard, and Stanford has been using 3D printing technology to create AAV capsids, which are shells that hold viral DNA. These shells can be used as viruses themselves, such as for gene therapy treatments, or they can be used as a substrate to print out antibodies.
Once this material is printed, scientists can experiment with different antibody concentrations to see how well it binds to the AAV capsid – which may help them find the right concentration for treating coronavirus.
