From Face Shields to Ventilators and Nasal Swabs, 3D Printing is changing the Medical Scenario

3D Printing Industry has suddenly seen a rise amidst the coronavirus pandemic. People all over the world are domestically printing masks. Companies have reduced their manufacturing and taken up to produce PPEs for medical health professionals. 3D Printing is the new era IoT development aimed to transform manufacturing. Here's how it is being leveraged towards medical gears.

What is 3D Printing?

3D printing enables you to produce complex shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods. The printing is achieved via additive processes. In the process, the manufacturer lays down successive layers of material to create the object. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

Traditional manufacturing or subtractive manufacturing considers carving out an object from a piece of metal or plastic. On the contrary, 3D Printing integrates additive manufacturing with slicing to create an object. Where 3D printing was only suitable for prototyping and one-off manufacturing in the early stages, it is now rapidly transforming into a production technology.

In the current scenario, companies are largely adopting 3D printing. Those who have not integrated additive manufacturing somewhere in their supply chain are ever decreasing. Most of the current demand for 3D printing is industrial. Acumen Research and Consulting forecast the global 3D printing market to reach $41 billion by 2026.

As it evolves, 3D printing technology is destined to transform almost every major industry and change the way people live, work, and play in the future.

How does 3D Printing Work?

You must create a 3D Model from a repository first. This step can take the help of a 3D scanner, app, haptic device, code or 3D modelling software. There are many different 3D modelling software tools available. Industrial grade software can easily cost thousands a year per license, but there’s also open-source software that you can get for free.

The next step is to prepare the file for a 3D printer. This is called slicing. Slicing is dividing a 3D model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers and is done with slicing software. Some 3D printers have a built-in slicer and let you feed the raw .stl, .obj or even CAD file. When your file is sliced, it’s ready to be fed to your 3D printer. This can be done via USB, SD or internet. Your sliced 3D model is now ready to be 3D printed layer by layer.

3D Printing Industry and Medical Equipments

Above is a picture of a ventilator. Its connectors are 3D printed. The connectors that look like the letter ‘Y’ can turn a ventilator that could serve one patient into a ventilator that could serve two or four patients. Dr Becker told Fox news about this 3D Printed ventilator. Scientists at Rhode Island are preparing to produce this piece of ventilator component. He also said, "Now, in the face of COVID-19, this convenience and efficiency have become a critical necessity. The automatic compounding device can print custom medications for every patient right there from the very small piece of equipment that we have and a laptop for the very specific needs of any patient on-site, on-scene, even at the curbside."

The above is a picture of Jaguar Land Rover using its prototype build operations to start production of 3D printed protective visors for healthcare workers. It utilised its CAD design expertise to answer the government for more vital equipment to fight coronavirus.

CIIRC created respirator, can be made using specific types of 3D printers and fulfils the highest-level protection criteria set by the team. The entire process, from the start of development to the certification of the respirator and getting production up and running, took just a week.

NASCAR’s Research and Development Centre in Concord revealed the 3D printed safety splash shields or simply face shields. NASCAR’s R&D centre has 5 3D printers that are now running 18 hours a day with approximately eight engineers volunteering their time to oversee production from approximately 7 a.m. until midnight every day. The newest printer, about the size of an outdoor shed, can print three face shields every 2½ hours.

HP’s MJF 3D printing system ensures a homogeneous material that does not have distinct layers and is not porous. According to the team, the respirator can be made using any of the three types of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer and so knowing this, Skoda the Czech automobile manufacturer, offered to help and support in the 3D printing of the respirator. HP added it was working with several government agencies all over the world "to ensure a synchronized and effective approach."

Northwell Health partnered with the University of South Florida, Tampa General Hospital and 3D-printing specialist Formlabs in Somerville, Mass. to design and produce the swabs. The swabs are now being produced at a rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a day, according to Northwell Health, which is also making the swab design available online.

Other applications in the testing and validation phase that are expected to be in production soon include 3D-printed parts for a mechanical bag valve mask designed to provide emergency ventilation to COVID-19 patients and hospital-grade face masks.

People all over the world are contributing to personal levels as well. For instance this:

Maya Nkoloma an Engineer from Malawi is leading in the production of Masks through 3D printing

We are now on track towards having our own Made in Africa Masks

There is need for more 3D PLA Filament pic.twitter.com/UY4sahD3VM

— sikunkhoma (@sikunkhoma) April 6, 2020

Even kids are contributing to the technology:

when it was recommended that we all wear a mask, this kid answered a request from local hospitals to create "ear guards", to help take the pressure off healthcare workers ears from wearing masks all day and made the 3D printing patterns available to everyone pic.twitter.com/cikQombM5O

— valeska (@iatemuggles) April 6, 2020

The world is facing a crisis like no other in recent history and it needs to unite against the same. The 3D printing industry is using all its capabilities of rapidly producing new or replacement parts and showcasing the power of the technology and playing its part in the fight against COVID-19.

Image Credits (2-5): Skoda Automobile