Makers step up, print 3D medical equipment
Across the country, hospitals are reporting severe shortages of medical masks and equipment in the fight against COVID-19. Suppliers are stepping up efforts to increase production, but this is a solution that will take months to materialize. Enter the makers. Around the globe, groups of makers — hobbyists that exist in the intersection of technology and the DIY movement — have begun making face shields and masks using 3D -printing technology. A 3D printer layers molten plastic to sculpt constructs, working from computer designs. These printers are capable of molding car parts, prosthetic limbs, musical instruments and more.
In Pittsburgh, a loose-knit community of makers and individuals have begun producing hundreds of face shields and masks, then donating them directly to hospitals and health care professionals. It’s a small effort that’s rapidly gaining steam.
The hobbyists are attempting to
go through formal hospital channels to determine whether their creations are medically sound. To date, neither Allegheny Health Network nor UPMC have been able to respond with a formal assessment, even though dozens of individual doctors and nurses have contacted the makers to request supplies.
“3D-printing is absolutely not the right way to do this,” said Ryan Priore, 40, of Pine, a furloughed spectroscopist. He described the equipment in his basement as a jungle gym for nerds.
A UPMC spokesperson wrote in an email that “3d printing is being explored for face shields. No determination has been made but it is being evaluated for recommendations and prototypes.” AHN deferred comment on the printed equipment to the Allegheny Health Department, which said in an email that the equipment hadn’t come across its radar yet.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration updated its guidelines in regards to the safety of 3D-printing personal protective equipment, or PPE. The FDA states that “3D-printed PPE can be used to provide a physical barrier to the environment. However, 3D-printed PPE are unlikely to provide the same fluid barrier and air filtration protection as FDAcleared surgical masks and N95 respirators.”
Shields
Mr. Priore founded the group 3DPPGH with friend and fellow tinkerer Christopher Yohe to provide a space for 3D-printing enthusiasts to gather and collaborate. On March 20, Mr. Priore started receiving requests from medical professionals for some equipment that can be printed using the specialized machines that he works with. At this point, roughly 30 people in the 3DPPGH community are printing face shields using a public design from a company in the Czech Republic.
“In the time that it takes UPMC to figure out whether they want this, we have individual doctors placing orders for hundreds of these shields,” Mr. Priore said said. “They’re telling me that they have nothing left.”
It takes about 3½ hours to print the headband for the shields. The makers aren’t asking for any money and are donating all of the completed products, although Mr. Priore said they may hold a GoFundMe campaign in the future to cover costs of materials. They’ve shipped more than 100 to out-of-state hospitals but are beginning to focus more heavily on local hospital chains.
In less than a week, word has spread, and Mr. Priore is now receiving requests for dozens or hundreds of shields at a time. He said the group is working with UPMC to determine whether there will be official requests for the shields, but in the meantime, he’s delivering to individual doctors, nurses and surgeons.
“I hope that no one uses a single thing we produced — because that means the real equipment is gone,” Mr. Priore said.
Elsewhere, the hospital at University of WisconsinMadison has approved a design for a full face shield. A community of printers has sent more than 1,000 shields to the hospital and expects to see over 75,000 produced through a subsidiary called Troy Design in Plymouth, Mich.
Abroad, a 3D-printing company in the Czech Republic has already donated more than 10,000 face shields.
Masks
Joe Dornetta, of Verona, is another 3D-printing enthusiast determined to help supply area hospitals with protective equipment. He also began printing face masks on March 20 under the project title Infinite Labs using a design from a company in Chile, Copper3D.
“Professionals are telling me they prefer this to a piece of fabric,” he said. “We’ll deliver these to hospitals ourselves if that’s what it takes.”
He doesn’t provide a filter for the masks. He recommends using surgical masks to create a filter and shows how to mold the mask to create a seal in an explainer video on his Facebook page. Community College of Allegheny County has donated a 3D printer to Mr. Dornetta, and a crowdfunding campaign has pulled in nearly $1,300. Along with his wife, a surgical nurse, he has distributed more than 60 masks. Other makers are joining his efforts.
Mr. Dornetta, 31, is unaffiliated with Mr. Priore’s group, but he too emphasized that he does not want people to think that the masks are replacements for the standard N95 masks that hospitals use. To date, no medical organization has deemed the masks sound.
Copper 3D, the company that created the mask design, has temporarily suspended downloads and put up a number of disclaimers reaffirming that it is a lastresort device and that it is continuing to develop the design based on feedback: “We are VERY close to launching a 2.0 version of NanoHack, so we DO NOT recommend continuing to print version 1.0.”
It also states that the design is intended to be used with anti-microbial material and not with conventional material. The makers in Pittsburgh are not using the anti-microbial material, citing a “worldwide shortage” of that material, Mr. Dornetta said, adding that it’s difficult to source even regular material at this point.
The makers have stopped printing masks and are focusing on printing face shields until the updated design is published.
“The very last thing we want to do here is undermine the system,” Mr. Dornetta said. “But I’m convinced that this is the future in a city like Pittsburgh, where we so readily embrace technology and medical exploration.”