Coronavirus
From Dan Halsey, President, Bloominglabs
Bloominglabs has gotten a few calls to action lately related to COVID-19, and I wanted to share those with you so that you can act on anything you feel most able to help with:
Any Blabs' efforts will be coordinated on Slack or the discuss mailing list:
- Bloominglabs Slack
- https://bloominglabs.slack.com
- Send an email to contact@bloominglabs.org to get an invite
- Discuss mailing list
Please share these as you want, and help however you can.
From our friends at the IU School of Education MILL:
Adam Maltese is working on a face-shield project, and is looking for thin acrylic, PETG, or other easily-cut, formable, transparent material, and collaborators to work on this.
Contact: amaltese@indiana.edu
From our friends at Dimension Mill:
Pat East, the executive director at The Mill] was brainstorming with execs at Cook and IU Health last night. We've got the start of a plan to manufacture face masks and are looking into N95 respirators. They can be 3D printed, the question is getting the right material for the filter. So a few questions...
- How many 3D printers do you have?
- How can we get access to more?
- Could you figure out how to get the right material for the filter?
Contact: pat.east@cofoundventures.com
From various sources:
CDC-compliant cloth face masks
e.g. https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/2020/03/18/coronavirus-deaconess-ask-public-provide-medical-face-masks/2865273001/
Ambu-bag based ventilator projects
e.g. https://github.com/emersonmoretto/CITI-OpenLung
Sub-project for a Laser Cuttable Full Face Shield using Bloominglabs's resources.
From Dosman, Maker Extraordinaire
For the moment it seems like the printed face shields are the potentially the lowest risk items that could do the most good. Potentially: they *probably* are easier to sterilize and will *probably* cause the least amount of harm to medical personnel if something goes wrong with them.
UCLA is now examining DIY PPE designs so at this very moment most of these designs are iterating through new revisions. Maby in another few days things will settle down with PPE designs that most places will accept: https://docs.library.ucla.edu/display/LSD/COVID-19+Response%3A+3D+Printing+PPE+Equipment
That being said, this 3D printable face shield design is getting a thumbs up from a number of institutions already and is one of the faster designs to print: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/protective-visor-by-3dverkstan
A growing list of face shield designs being updated with feedback: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J7CT6TrKycYWrSBcGgCnmwZlpOgC1Y6ERYJ-ijNWDSg/edit#gid=0
Ventilators, splitters, etc: I’m all for helping, but this is a highly critical part could easily cause someone to die if it's not made right. Hell, even if a 3D printable ventilator design is approved by the FDA, your print could have hidden filament globules stuck in the Venturi component which could affect air-flow and kill someone. I don’t subscribe to FUD, but these parts have a very high degree of liability both for the creators and those relying on them to stay alive. I would warn folks to be very wary of making parts in this area until more information becomes available.
There are still other ways individuals could help though. This effort still needs assistance with the science guiding it. Design a process to accurately test and measure air-flow through a printed ventilator and other parts. Other areas could also likely use folks with a real eye for science and manufacturing. But please still be careful, this all needs much vetting. You absolutely don’t want to design a faulty testing or certification process.
I would also recommend the MasksForDocs Slack for those who want to get involved, new info is rapidly iterating there in real time on all DIY efforts. Also there are channels for regional assistance, coordination, and who needs what resources:
https://masksfordocs.slack.com
Last but not least I’ve published a short google doc on batch, device, and lot numbering for any devices shipped out and why this is important: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X7mMdeno3oCOyGFZbV-mwBZWlkMLuBiOUszY_k1ETU4/edit
