Mobilizing 3D Printers Around the World Against the Coronovirus

“From face-shields to respirator valves, 3-D printer owners pitch in to the efforts to provide PPE to Australian hospitals,” writes davecb (Slashdot reader #6,526).
It’s not only happening in Australia. But the Guardian talked to Mat Bowtell, a former Toyota engineer in Australia who’s using fourteen 3D printers to manufacture thousands of face shields for healthcare workers. And citing 3D printing, the director of a not-for-profit working with the government says the country has an “incredible onshore capability” to respond to the pandemic:
“The 3D printing capability onshore is a massive distinguisher for Australia to step up to the crisis,” he said. When asked how else 3D printing might be deployed in practice, Goennemann points to the supply of ventilators, which are needed to assist breathing in the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients… Goennemann says Resmed, the main ventilator manufacturer, could struggle to get parts due to the disruption of global supply chains. That’s where 3D printing can help. “I don’t want to speak on behalf of Resmed, but that’s an area where we have critical supply, and parts can be 3D printed onshore rather than being procured offshore,” he said…

For Bowtell, the decision to shift his production to face shields had nothing to do with profit. It was about doing what he could in the most extraordinary of times. “It’s about survival at the moment,” Bowtell said. “Just helping people to get through this together.”

Reuters also reported that one Italian company used its 3D printers to manufacture valves for respirators for its local hospital. And a paywalled article at Fortune also describes the team building an open source ventilator, while also noting that more than 4,800 people with 3D printers “have, via a public Google Doc, signed up to help print everything from face shields to ventilator parts for their local hospitals.”
They also highlight Budmen Industries, an upstate New York company selling 3D printers that has now also printed 1,492 face shields for New York medical workers. And finally there’s the CoVent-19 Challenge, “an open innovation 8-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers” on the GrabCAD Challenges platform, to create “a rapidly deployable, minimum viable mechanical ventilator for patients with COVID-19 related ventilator-dependent lung injury.”