3D Printing in COVID-19: Productivity Estimation of the Most Promising Open Source Solutions in Emergency Situations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge of demand for medical supplies and spare parts, which has put pressure on the manufacturing sector. As a result, 3D printing communities and companies are currently operating to ease the breakdown in the medical supply chain. If no parts are available, 3D printing can potentially be used to produce time-critical parts on demand such as nasal swabs, face shields, respirators, and spares for ventilators. A structured search using online sources and feedback from key experts in the 3D printing area was applied to highlight critical issues and to suggest potential solutions. The prescribed outcomes were estimated in terms of cost and productivity at a small and large scale. This study analyzes the number and costs of parts that can be manufactured with a single machine within 24 h. It extrapolates this potential with the number of identical 3D printers in the world to estimate the global potential that can help practitioners, frontline workers, and those most vulnerable during the pandemic. It also proposes alternative 3D printing processes and materials that can be applicable. This new unregulated supply chain has also opened new questions concerning medical certification and Intellectual property rights (IPR). There is also a pressing need to develop new standards for 3D printing of medical parts for the current pandemic, and to ensure better national resilience.

The triple-edged sword of COVID-19: understanding the use of digital technologies and the impact of productive, disruptive, and destructive nature of the pandemic

“…There are diversified reactions and observations whether productivity will increase or decrease due to this pandemic. Surely, this crisis has exposed the weakness of overstrained, globally spreadout, just-in-time supply chain businesses (Salmi et al, 2020). Nevertheless, evidence also reveals that the resilient and surviving businesses are those that strategically formulate and execute teleworking policies using the digital technologies (Karia & Asaari, 2016).…”

Digital Technologies-Enabled Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Lessons Learnt from a Pandemic

“…Similarly, Salmi and coworkers [ 2 ] have concluded that 3D printing represents a “promising open source solution, especially during emergency situations”.…”

Additively Manufactured Parametric Universal Clip-System: An Open Source Approach for Aiding Personal Exposure Measurement in the Breathing Zone

“…AM is also known as 3D printing, and in this study, the term "3D printing" is used for low cost desktop printers. Recently the widespread growth and accessibility of desktop 3D printers [13,21] brought on by the open source development of material extrusion 3D printing [22,23] offers a potential solution to this challenge. The principle of material extrusion is that a filament is extruded through a heated nozzle to create objects layer by layer [24].…”

“…Designing for AM offers more geometric freedom, possibility to create easily customizable designs, new creative ways to manufacture instruments, decentralized manufacturing, and a range of material selection [12,18,[29][30][31]. During the COVID-19 outbreak, AM has shown a great potential in mitigating the disruption in global medical and nonmedical supply chains [21].…”