Scale of demand highlights continuing shortage of PPE equipment for frontline Covid-19 workers
An astonishing 8,000-strong group of volunteers have come together in just four weeks in a bid to produce 3D printed face shields for essential frontline workers in health and social care organisations up and down the country.
Primary school children, OAPs and hobbyists and are working round the clock with schools, University departments and companies to create thousands of vital face masks to protect people tackling coronavirus in their local communities.
News about the 3DCrowd UK group has spread fast and nearly 2,500 different organisations, from health authorities and hospital trusts (including new Nightingale hospitals) to GP surgeries, social care organisations and pharmacies have now requested face shields to protect their workers.
With demand now exceeding 600,000 (611,000) face shields – a stark reminder of the continued acute lack of PPE equipment for frontline workers – 3DCrowd UK are now appealing for money to help fund materials and enable them to scale up.
The volunteers have so far produced around 65,000 face shields with 50,000 more to go out this week, but many printers are now running out of the filament they need to keep their machines going. The group’s organisers also want to commission UK manufacturers – many of whom have already approached them – to make more shields to supplement those being 3D printed, as they have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the demand.
To enable the to scale up, the team behind 3DCrowd UK are now calling on the public to donate funds via their GoFundMe page and businesses to offer sponsorship of funds or materials.
Andrew Boucher, one of the original group who started 3DCrowd UK explains: “What started as a handful of people printing a few dozen face shields, has now grown into a huge volunteer force of 8,000, but with requests for the visors now topping 600,000, we need to scale up to meet this huge demand.
“Many 3D printer owners have donated their own filament in the race to produce face shields but now urgently need more supplies to keep their printers running. And we need to do more as the 3D-print community can only fulfil small-medium orders locally. To meet our massive orders, we need to commission large scale manufacturers, many of whom have come forward to help but need to recoup their costs. Given a bigger budget, we could have hundreds of thousands of units a week, using a mix of mass manufacturing and 3D printing.
“The desperation is palpable when we speak to frontline workers on the phone. More than once we’ve had tearful senior physicians pleading us for anything we can send that will protect their staff.
We have sought regulatory CE approval to ensure that hospitals nationwide can use the shields, know where they are needed and have established a network of regional hubs and a local delivery system, so we’re really keen to harness this so we can meet the demand.”
“Whilst it’s believed that the infection rate in the UK may have peaked, we also understand that this is going to be a long haul and if we’re to protect the people who are exposing themselves to risk to keep others safe and to minimise the chance of another spike in infections, we must get the equipment to the people who need it as soon as we can.”
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