3D Printing Provides Solution to Mask Shortage

Coronavirus

March 19, 2020

3D Printing Provides Solution to Mask Shortage

TheCoronavirus pandemic has caused a severe shortage of respiratory protection masks and equipment for both health care workers and the general public. In response, some 3D printing companies have stepped into the fill the void.

Copper3D, for example, has just put online an open-source STL file of a N95 mask, which can be 3D printed and used against the COVID-19 virus. Because it can take up to two hours to print a single mask, said Copper3D’s Director of Innovation Daniel Martinez, “We needed a distributed manufacturing concept, with networks of 3D printers running 24/7 to make a large quantity of masks in a short period of time.”

The STL file can be found on the Cults platform. It can be 3D printed in PLA.

In Italy, Isinnova reverse engineered and 3D-printed a crucial valve for Venturi oxygen masks, which are connected to ventilators and used to help patients with respiratory diseases like coronavirus Covid-19 breathe.

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