Our contribution to bend the curve in the face of this pandemic

From the beginning of this emergency situation caused by the spread of the COVID-19, any contribution and help from any field will be extremely important, we set to work on various fronts in which we believed that we could reach our small contribution in the fight to combat this global pandemic.

The first, obviously, was the safety and health of our entire team, implementing the necessary measures following the recommendations of the health authorities (promotion of telework, provision of personal protective equipment, restriction of travel and face-to-face meetings, etc.).

On the other hand, as soon as the Ministry of Health requested the availability of different types of sanitary and protection material, we informed through the official channel of the available resources valid for sanitary use, which we deliver to the authorities for their distribution.

From a necessity that became basic in these conditions, such as opening doors and pressing buttons avoiding direct contact, the idea arose to create a tool that would facilitate these daily interactions with greater safety and ergonomics. Thus, after several prototypes, LU_Touch was born, whose design we published under a Creative Commons license so that any user of a 3D printer could manufacture it anywhere in the world.

As soon as the shortage of sanitary material and personal protective equipment (PPE) began to emerge, we began to intensively manufacture various products of this type, especially protective screens and LU_Touch door openers, for donation to various entities and organizations in our environment (news link). After several days of development, and under the coordination of ASIME and the University of Vigo, as well as other companies in our environment, we were able to manufacture and donate 10,000 units of LU_Touch door openers in record time to hospital centers and other health entities.

We have also collaborated with professionals and researchers in the healthcare field to develop a bifurcator that would double the capacity of the respirators available in the face of the peak of the pandemic, which were delivered to various healthcare centers for validation.

Various media outlets echoed these donations, and numerous companies and individuals contacted us to find out how they could purchase these products for private use or to ensure the safety of their workers. Given the delicate situation, at the time we preferred to prioritize and focus our manufacturing capacity on continuing to provide health centers with the protective equipment they needed, until they have finally managed to guarantee a correct supply.

The 3D printing sector has practically completely turned over since the beginning of this health crisis. Various designs were published by numerous companies in the sector and individuals under open license, especially for protective equipment, such as the Copper3D NanoHack mask. In our blog we collect some of the ones that we found most relevant. In addition, the maker community launched its 3D printers to manufacture these types of devices, emerging very interesting initiatives such as the CoronavirusMakers platform here in Spain and similar ones in other countries such as Germany, Italy, Chile, Argentina or Colombia.

From Filament2Print we have donated, in collaboration with various organizations, kilometers of filament for the construction of screens and other PPE. We want to thank everyone who has made their 3D printer available to society at these critical times. Cheer up everyone!

#westopthisvirustogether #HackThePandemic