Fighting Corona: How 3D Printing Supports

Medical accessories such as respirators, adapters and valves can be flexibly produced on site; components that are unavailable due to supply bottlenecks can be manufactured on site with the 3D printer. But especially in medical technology, the use of the still young technology has its limitations.

Additive Manufacturing in the Fight Against Corona. The industry is experiencing a surge in development due to Covid-19. (Photo credit: AdobeStock©Monkey Business)

When northern Italy was hit hard by the Corona pandemic in mid-March, 3D-printed valves for ventilators caused a worldwide stir. A hospital in Brescia urgently needed replacement valves for its ventilators and asked resident fablabs and companies with 3D printing expertise. Within hours, they were able to additively manufacture replacement valves, resulting in at least ten additional people receiving artificial respiration.

Since then, 3D printing has been used around the world to fill local supply shortages and produce much-needed protective equipment for medical personnel and rescue workers: Starting with valves and adapters for respirators to face shields, respirators and everyday masks to emergency respirators based on a so-called "Ambu-Bag" (respirator bag). Many Bavarian companies also support local hospitals, nursing services and medical practices, for example Gramm GmbH , Ingenieurbüro Christian Reil, ApWorks (Airbus Company), EOS or FIT. Universities such as TH Deggendorf are also helping to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) through 3D printing.

Picture left: Mask from the 3D printer of Gramm GmbH, center image: Face shield from TH Deggendorf, right image: respirator from Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences. (Photo credit: Gramm GmbH/David Schäfer, TH Deggendorf, FHWS/Bräutigam)

Strict specifications for medical devices

As gratifying as the helpfulness and support of partly non-medical companies is, companies and institutes must nevertheless be aware of the applicable guidelines and regulations: Medical products and personal protective equipment are subject to strict requirements in terms of quality assurance and certifications. As soon as a product is launched on the market or delivered, the distributor must certify with a declaration of conformity that it complies with the standards and regulations of the Medical Devices Act or Personal Protective Equipment. The definition of further quality criteria and their verification is the responsibility of the body procuring the product. In Bavaria, this is usually the purchasing department of the clinics, practices or other facilities; in the current crisis situation, it is the State Office for Health and Food Safety.

But why, despite strict guidelines and requirements, is additively manufactured products from companies partly outside the industry being resorted to? In the wake of the Corona crisis , global supply markets have partially collapsed due to border closures and limited production capacity abroad. In addition, the demand for medical supplies around the world has skyrocketed and continues to do so, further exacerbating the supply situation. Through 3D printing , such supply bottlenecks can be closed locally and in the short term until additional mass production capacity is created or global trade picks up again.

3D printing closes gaps in supply chains

But supply bottlenecks are not unique to the medical sector. Wherever supply chains depend on international cooperation, the current pandemic may cause supply shortages in the short and medium term. This can range from spare parts for production machines to complete supplier components. This is where Additive Manufacturing can fully exploit its advantages and produce and supply the required parts quickly and decentrally. Here, the cost of spare parts also plays a negligible role, as the downtime of large-scale plants is significantly more expensive. However, in order to produce high-quality spare parts, a great deal of know-how is required in the respective 3D printing process and in plant technology.

The current crisis situation shows that the globalization of supply chains is also accompanied by risks in the supply of critical products. The crisis and the increased use of additive technologies and the more decentralized production that comes with it are likely to change the entire global trade in the long term along with the supply chains. In the future, 3D printing could theoretically enable all necessary goods to be produced directly on site, or perhaps, in visionary terms, directly at the end customer's premises, ultimately requiring only the production data to be shipped. In an EU-funded project, the Additive Manufacturing Coordination Office of Bayern Innovativ GmbH is working with project partners from science and industry to develop the possibilities of "cross-border cooperation with 3D printing" (project duration: Jan. 1, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2021). This also involves the potential changes to global trade and business models based on it through widespread use of additive manufacturing technologies and decentralized production. Information and current project results can be viewed here .

In the current crisis situation, Additive manufacturing is proving to be a key technology in a variety of ways, especially due to its flexible use. Nevertheless, industrial 3D printing is still in its infancy and needs to be further developed in many respects. From an economic perspective, the various additive manufacturing processes cannot compete with established technologies such as injection molding in mass production. However, this does not rule out the possibility that there are applications in which certain requirements for the shape or properties of the component can make 3D printing interesting for large-scale production. And even to serve volatile markets and short-term needs, the use of additive manufacturing technologies appears to make sense, even if 3D printing cannot be a panacea.