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3d Printing Face Shields & Ventilator Parts

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tl;dr - If funded, I will buy a 3d printer, print as many CoViD-19 face shield headbands and/or ventilator parts as I can, and then donate the machine to a community workshop in Mass. that is doing the same.

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In Boston (and elsewhere), hospitals are emptying out in preparation for a flood of coronavirus patients. It's possible and looking likely that they will be facing some equipment shortages, such as respirators (N95 masks), ventilators (large breathing machines), face shields, and other medical supplies.

Yesterday (3/22/20), I visited Artisan's Asylum in Somerville, Mass (just across the river from Boston). They are a large warehouse space with many (~12) different types of shops, and are capable of making just about anything.

The purpose of my visit was to learn how to 3d print, a class I had been waiting a month or two for and probably the last they are going to run for awhile due to the pandemic.

While learning, I noticed a file next to my "parametric lego" called "covid-19-headband". I asked and they had already made one - it is the first prototype of a medical headband that a plastic face shield attaches to, and they would like to print as many as possible to donate to hospitals.

They have about five 3d printers at the Asylum. One is a very nice MarkForged printer, one is a Prusa i3 which they like, and the other three are older models (from 2013-14) that often break. While I was there, 3 of the 5 printers were out of service. They said they are hoping to replace the finnicky older models with newer Prusa machines.

Later that night I read a couple articles and indeed this is a method people are going to try to use.

"An emergency physician I work with has contacted everyone he knows in the construction business to ask for face masks or respirators; those wouldn’t be medical-grade equipment, but they’d probably be better than a bandana. The president of Massachusetts General Hospital, where I work, has urged private companies with 3-D printers to try manufacturing masks that way."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/in-boston-doctors-wait-for-the-deluge

"The day after, we returned to the hospital and gave our valves to a doctor who tested them. They worked and he asked for 100 more. So we went back to the office, and returned to the hospital with 100 more. We hoped that this would last them for a few days. Still, the coronavirus rages on. A few hospitals in northern Italy asked us to make copies of the same piece. We are printing them now."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/opinion/ventilators-coronavirus-italy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I think it's worthy cause, and it's worth giving it a shot. If funded I will order a Prusa i3 kit or similarly priced printer, use standard .stl files to print ventilator parts and/or face shield headbands. I will be in contact with the digital fabrication shop at Artisan's Asylum to see what their needs are and align with them as they iterate on designs. As soon as it makes sense, I will donate the machine to Artisan's Asylum to replace one of their older models.

Prusa i3 Kit 

https://www.isinnova.it/easy-covid19-eng/

Organizer

Jackson Walters
Organizer
Jamaica Plain, MA

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