DIFUSSION PRINTABLE PRODUCTS FOR NEW MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES HOW 3D PRINTING COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTED TO FIGHT COVID-19 A. Eguiluza, A.J. Sanchez-Herenciaa,b a.- Tailoring Through Colloidal Processing GroupInstituto de Cerámica y Vidrio(CSIC), Madrid, Spain b.- COLFEED4Print founder Manufacture of breathing machines and face protecting shields by 3D printing is appearing in media press as a method to relief the stress that healthcare resources are suffering by the high number of contagions of COVID-19. Here it is presented the technology behind the Fused Filament Fabrication to understand why is used in fighting the pandemic. The pandemic COVID-19 has reach to keep the entire world on edge of its medical capabilities. Most of countries are implementing safety measures like mobility restrictions or totally lockouts for the whole nation. The point in this is an attempt to break the fast increase of infected people. In many countries, included Spain, this situation has caught unaware to the healthcare systems, who have suffered the lack of the necessary equipment to combat the critical situation that we are living. In some cases, the infected by COVID-19 patients require respirator machines, which are not available. In other cases, the healthcare workers do not have the individual protection equipment necessary lower the risk of contagious when attending to patients. Parts to assembly these equipments are usually fabricated by the technique of injection moulding, where a melted plastic is injected into a mould and cooled until the plastic solidify and harden, keeping the piece the shape of the mould. This is the most extended shaping method for quick fabrication of pieces of plastic. But adaptation of the production lines, specially the fabrication of moulds, is a process that delays and takes a time which now is not available. It is under this Figure 1. A) Controlling software of the FFF Printer; B) emergency where the 3D printing Experimental printer of laboratory; C) Scheme of the FFF community is developing the potential of printing device the most disseminated Additive Manufacturing technique, the Fused Filament Fabrication or FFF. But, what is 3D printing and how it can tackle the necessities of parts for breathing machines or protection equipments? COLFEED4Print Calle García de Paredes 66 28010 Madrid Spain https:/www.colfeed.es/ [email protected] @colfeed COLFEED4Print HOW 3D PRINTING COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTED TO FIGHT COVID-19 Firstly, it is necessary to clarify that most of the news citing 3D printing, are referring to the technique known as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) or Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). As any other Additive Manufacturing technique, the FFF creates a physical object from a digital model (usually a CAD representation) which is sliced in layers at consecutive height levels. A computerized interface drives a machine to lay down the successive slices of material, following the profiles defined by CAD model. There are many Figure 2. A) First layer of shield frame support; B and C) Frames different types of additive finished by FFF (Courtesy of Guillermo Frías); D) Assembled in manufacturing (or 3D Printing) use by healthcare personnel at Hospital La Paz, Madrid. techniques which are classified by the technology and material that employ in the process of fabrication. This technology does not require of high energetic sources nor heavy machinery, nor toxic materials, which makes FFF a very versatile technique and a perfect process to novel users, reasons why is the most disseminated technology (Figure 1) in our society. 3D scanners, design tools software and internet apps allow the creation of CAD files (with extensions STL, OBJ, 3DS, etc.) with the digital information of the pieces to be fabricated by non-expert users. The extensive use of the FFF equipment in houses, laboratories and crafts, the economic access to filament and the easy distribution of the files with the shape information (extensions STL, OBJ, 3DS, etc…) has been the weapons used by the 3D printing community to help during the pandemic crisis of COVID-19. Several Spanish consortia composed of medical doctors, engineers and scientists have fabricated innovative breathing machines with parts and connections designed by CAD to be fabricated by FFF. For these parts with complex shapes and under cyclic stresses, the materials have to be tough (ABS or PC), the equipment of high performance and the operator expert. Although this is not the more extended case of equipment, the adaptability of the technique has been critical to address the quick fabrication of the designed parts. Other goal of the community has been the fast response to the lack of individual protection for the healthcare workers. In this case, from novel users to big companies have printed face shields to help to dodge this problem. In this case the large number of pieces demanded and the lower of the mechanical requirements have enabled the participation of many anonymous individuals as well as private and public institutions (like CSIC), universities (URJC, UC3M, UPM, etc…) or 3D printing platforms (FAB3D, Aditimat-CM, etc…). In this case the most employed material has been PLA, which has a lower melting temperature and provides a certain plasticity to the frames, making possible a better adjustment to the head (figure 2). COLFEED4Print https:/www.colfeed.es/ PRINTABLE PRODUCTS FOR NEW MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES [email protected] @colfeed COLFEED4Print
