The Impact 3D Printing is Having on Coronavirus COVID-19 and What’s Ahead

3D printing technology has the potential to impact almost every industry in the world — whether it’s creating replacement parts for machines to quickly developing prototypes from scratch. Today, the impact 3D printing is having on the global fight against the coronavirus COVID-19 is significant. In this episode of our show, my colleague and fellow analyst Sarah Wallace and I take a look at the role 3D printing is playing — from rapidly creating protective face shields, respirator masks, nasal swabs and ventilator parts for use by front line workers and hospitals — to the challenges the industry faces, to spotlighting companies doing innovative things with 3D printing — and what’s ahead.

What makes 3D printing such a great solution?

What makes 3D printing such a great solution? In a word: It’s fast. With 3D printing, in the space of a short period of time (think hours not days or weeks) it’s possible to design, prototype and produce an idea. And that? That incredibly rapid turnaround time is something that manufacturers can’t (yet) do. Right now, supply chain issues and overwhelming demand are what is driving the need for 3D printing solutions. As a result, 3D printing is, and can continue to, have a big impact on the supply chain by filling short-term supply gaps that every industry is facing as we navigate the COVID-19 outbreak.

Here’s but one example of how 3D printing can provide important solutions to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and our supply chain problems —

Manufacturers of nasal swabs have been struggling to keep up with demand. These swabs are used for coronavirus tests and are very different from standard swabs, as they need to be long and skinny, made of synthetic fiber, and can’t have a wooden shaft. While hospitals and communities want and desperately need to ramp up testing, this weak link in the supply chain is a big factor. That’s where 3D printing can help. In a recent interview with CNN, HP’s Raymond Pastor, acting president of 3D printing and digital manufacturing for HP indicated the company has the capacity to print 1 million swabs a week in the U.S. alone.

What are the limitations of 3D printing?

Sarah walked us through some challenges as it relates to 3D printing. For starters, not all 3D printed equipment is the same, and some is easier to produce than others. Equally as important, some 3D-printed equipment might be better than others, while some might not quite afford the level of protection that’s needed. Some things require FDA approval to produce, and of course there’s always the risk factor for companies producing these things that is inevitably important to consider.

Sarah also mentioned there’s a skills gap that plays a role in the limitations and challenges of 3D printing, as well as some other things worth considering.

What companies in the 3D Printing Space Are Doing Some Really Innovative Things?

Our conversation in the webcast turned to the companies in the 3D printing space that are doing some really innovative things. Sarah is currently immersed in developing a 3D market insight report, so it wasn’t hard to come up with examples of companies doing innovative things with 3D printing. This includes:

Siemens’ Additive Manufacturing (AM) Network is an online order-to-delivery collaboration platform for the industrial additive manufacturing community and connects users, designers, and 3D print service providers to enable faster and simpler production of spare parts for machines like ventilators. Siemens is also making 3D printers available to the global medical community to speed design and production during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors, hospitals, and organizations in need of medical devices and designers and service providers can register for free access to the Siemens AM Network.

HP has developed a 3D printed hands-free door opener, a mask adjustor clasp that helps make masks more comfortable during long time wear, face shields, hospital grade FFP3 face masks that are reported to be available soon, and 3D printed parts for field ventilators are in development. HP and the company’s partners are making validated design files for many parts that don’t require complex assembly available for free. If you’re a 3D designer or innovator (or know one) who wants to join the battle against COVID-19, you can contribute new applications and ideas to the collaborative effort directly from HP’s website dedicated to 3D printing in support of COVID-19 containment efforts.

Dassault Systèms is using scientific simulation of the human sneeze to support the development of personal protective equipment (PPE) projects in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab OPEN COVID-19 online community, as part of collaborative efforts to quickly answer unmet urgent needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The simulations are used to demonstrate what happens when a person sneezes, to better understand the effectiveness of different PPE being developed and deployed, and to aid in improving their design. Dassault’s simulator applications are already used in the aerospace and automotive industries to generate a dynamic simulation of fluid and air flow, and their simulation apps are likewise being used to help understand the flow physics of sneezes.

What are some 3D Printing Solutions Being Used in the Fight Against COVID-19?

Some of the big brands immersed in the 3D printing space — like Siemens, and HP, and Dassault we have heard of and might not be surprised by — but they are not alone. There are other companies in the 3D printing space that are also really stepping up.

Tangible Creative, MakerBot, Shapeways and other 3D printing companies in the NYC area have joined together to create the Covid Makers Response Coalition to help provide 3D printed supplies to area hospitals in need of gear. This group is printing 2,000 face shields a day for hospitals in the NYC area.

Voodoo Manufacturing, a NY-based 3D printing startup, has repurposed its 5,000 square-foot facility to mass produce emergency personal protective equipment for the healthcare workers and hospitals. It plans to print at least 2,500 face shields weekly. Hospitals and healthcare workers can place batch orders for protective face shields at CombatingCovid.com.

Carbon, a 3D printing firm is working with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to create nasal swabs.

SmileDirectClub is one of the largest 3D printing manufacturers in the US (who knew?) and is partnering with medial supply companies and healthcare orgs to produce supplies like face shields and respirator valves.

Protolabs, a Minnesota-based digital manufacturer, has prioritized medical orders on its manufacturing floor which includes ventilator parts and is also producing components for COVID-19 test kits

Formlabs, a Somerville, Mass-based developer and manufacturer of 3D printers and software is using 250 printers in its Ohio factor to manufacture 100,000 nasal swabs for COVID-19 testing every day.

Ford Motor Company and GE are partnering to expand production of ventilators and other critical equipment in the U.S. and currently using Ford’s factories to produce plastic face shields and components for PPE, with a goal of assembling more than 100,000 face shields a week.

Volkswagon has formed a task force to adapt its manufacturing facilities much the way Ford and others have, and also plan on leveraging its more than 125 industrial 3D printers.

The allure of 3D printing is clear

As you’ll see by our conversation here, the allure of 3D printing to combat coronavirus COVID-19 is clear. 3D printing solutions are affordable. They interject much needed rapid response capabilities into the manufacturing process and also augment gaps in the supply chain. The beauty and the strength of 3D printing lies in both the affordability of 3D printers and the network or the community of 3D printing enthusiasts. Just how big is that community of 3D printing enthusiasts?

According to a report published in August of 2019 by the Federation of American Scientists, there were some 600,000 purchases of 3D printers priced under $5,000 sold in the US alone in 2018, and some 140,000 industrial grade 3D printers sold worldwide. That means there are a lot of 3D printers out there. Even more impressive, to us anyway, is the knowledge base and expertise, and the strength of the community that’s being created — both by gigantic companies in the 3D sector, as well as by smaller companies all over the world — is quickly becoming clear.

What role will 3D printing play as businesses begin to rethink and rework their business models post-pandemic? We predict that it will be a big one! Keep an eye out for Sarah’s Market Insights Report on 3D Printing, which will be published in early May.