Stratasys ramps up production of 3D printed face shields in the fight against COVID-19 Pandemic
In the face of the growing COVID-19 Pandemic, the world’s global leader in additive manufacturing, Stratasys is leading or supporting several key initiatives to make a real impact against it.
One such initiative is the mobilization of their 3D printing resources and expertise across the world and focuses on 3D printing thousands of disposable face shields for front-line healthcare workers.
The face shield comprises of an FDM 3D printed frame and a clear plastic shield that covers the entire face.
With the capability to scale up to an even faster rate of production, their initial goal is to produce 5,000 face shields by 27 March at no cost to recipients in the United States of America.
Stratasys had learned from one of the world’s top hospitals that they were just down to six days’ inventory on hand with the coronavirus pandemic still building momentum, and on average they were already using 1,530 disposable face shields weekly without factoring in the COVID-19 surge.
“The strengths of 3D printing – be anywhere, print virtually anything, adapt on the fly – make it a capability for helping address shortages of parts related to shields, masks, and ventilators, among other things.,” said Yoav Zeif, Stratasys CEO.
Another initiative is the CoVent-19 Challenge led by anesthesiology residents of Massachusetts General Hospital, where engineers and designers are asked to help develop a new rapidly deployable ventilator and other innovative solutions to the ventilator shortage, and Stratasys will help support by promoting the challenge via its GrabCAD community.
Stratasys has also created a COVID-19 response page where they have included full face shield 3D printing and assembly instructions, while others can also indicate their interest through the page to help in the effort or request for assistance using 3D printing for medical or safety-related purposes.
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