Technological Resources for Fighting COVID-19 Pandemic Health Issues

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global effect with several people dying daily due to the dreaded disease. Therefore, each individual has a duty to support the efforts of their countries either financially, socially, technically, or by any other means to contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. During this crisis, engineers can come up with innovations to fight the pandemic. One of the reasons for the death of a patient suffering from COVID-19 was the lack of resources required for patient care. The doctors who are taking care of COVID patients could get infected due to lack or the deficiency of available safety kits. Some of the resources required to fight COVID-19 are personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g. gloves, gowns, face masks and shields for respiratory and eye protection respectively), mechanical ventilators and body vital monitoring devices. Engineers can contribute to the fight against COVID-19, by developing compact size ventilators, 3D printed face shield, masks, door handles, hand sanitizer, etc. The available medicines to fight the disease are still under development and trials with limited options at present has led to deaths among patients mostly those who are elderly or having any co-morbid condition. The deficiency of medicine availability can be resolved up to some extent by applying tools of supply chain management.

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Evaluation of the Circularity of Recycled PLA Filaments for 3D Printers

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10248967 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (24) ◽

pp. 8967

Author(s):

Victor Gil Muñoz ◽

Luisa M. Muneta ◽

Ruth Carrasco-Gallego ◽

Juan de Juanes Marquez ◽

David Hidalgo-Carvajal

Keyword(s):

Circular Economy ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Fused Filament Fabrication ◽

Circular Loop ◽

Material Supply ◽

3D Printers ◽

3D Printed ◽

Circular Economics ◽

High Level ◽

Additional Value

The circular economy model offers great opportunities to companies, as it not only allows them to capture additional value from their products and materials, but also reduce the fluctuations of price-related risks and material supply. These risks are present in all kind of businesses not based on the circular economy. The circular economy also enables economic growth without the need for more resources. This is because each unit has a higher value as a result of recycling and reuse of products and materials after use. Following this circular economics framework, the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM) has adopted strategies aimed at improving the circularity of products. In particular, this article provides the result of obtaining recycled PLA filament from waste originating from university 3D FFF (fused filament fabrication) printers and waste generated by “Coronamakers” in the production of visors and parts for PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) during the lockdown period of COVID-19 in Spain. This filament is used in the production of 3D printed parts that university students use in their classes, so the circular loop is closed. The obtained score of Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) of this material has been calculated, indicating its high level of circularity.

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Preliminary Study: Environmental Assessment of Perchloroethylene in Dry-Cleaning Facilities in the UAE

Journal of Environmental and Public Health ◽

10.1155/2018/1732906 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-5

Author(s):

Sedra Habib ◽

Hafiz O. Ahmed ◽

Naema Al-Muhairi ◽

Reem Ziad

Keyword(s):

Environmental Assessment ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

International Agency ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Dry Cleaning ◽

Local Exhaust Ventilation ◽

Exhaust Ventilation ◽

Human Carcinogen ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

Monitoring Devices

Background. Perchloroethylene (PERC) is a widely spread cleaning solvent, used in nearly all dry-cleaning facilities. It has been declared as “probable human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) due to its hazardous and toxic effects on human health. The study aimed at assessing the exposure of PERC among dry-cleaning workers at four different dry-cleaning facilities in the UAE. Methods. The four dry-cleaning facilities, using PERC in one of the cities of the UAE, were selected. Draeger perchloroethylene 10/b detector tubes along with a Draeger accuro pump were used to estimate the levels of PERC exposure in three main selected positions in each of the facilities. Results. The results showed that the second selected position had the highest amounts of PERC exposure above the international and local standards in 3 out of 4 selected facilities. The workers at position 2, who were not using any of the provided personal protective equipment, were at the highest risk of developing PERC-related health problems. Conclusion. It is important to install local exhaust ventilation systems and monitoring devices of PERC concentrations in these facilities, along with raising the awareness of workers about the health effects of PERC and the importance of using personal protective equipment (PPE) while performing their job.

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Leveraging 3D Printing Capacity in Times of Crisis: Recommendations for COVID-19 Distributed Manufacturing for Medical Equipment Rapid Response

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17134634 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (13) ◽

pp. 4634 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Albert Manero ◽

Peter Smith ◽

Amanda Koontz ◽

Matt Dombrowski ◽

John Sparkman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Hospital Staff ◽

Global Supply Chain ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

High Demand ◽

Global Demand ◽

Short Run ◽

3D Printed ◽

Traditional Manufacturing ◽

Rule Out

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has provided a unique set of global supply chain limitations with an exponentially growing surge of patients requiring care. The needs for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for hospital staff and doctors have been overwhelming, even just to rule out patients not infected. High demand for traditionally manufactured devices, challenged by global demand and limited production, has resulted in a call for additive manufactured (3D printed) equipment to fill the gap between traditional manufacturing cycles. This method has the unique ability to pivot in real time, while traditional manufacturing may take months to change production runs. 3D printing has been used to produce a variety of equipment for hospitals including face shields, masks, and even ventilator components to handle the surge. This type of rapid, crowd sourced, design and production resulted in new challenges for regulation, liability, and distribution. This manuscript reviews these challenges and successes of additive manufacturing and provides a forward plan for hospitals to consider for future surge events. Recommendations: To accommodate future surges, hospitals and municipalities should develop capacity for short-run custom production, enabling them to validate new designs. This will rapidly increase access to vetted equipment and critical network sharing with community distributed manufacturers and partners. Clear guidance and reviewed design repositories by regulatory authorities will streamline efforts to combat future pandemic waives or other surge events.

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3D Printing to Support the Shortage in Personal Protective Equipment Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma13153339 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 3339 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Mostapha Tarfaoui ◽

Mourad Nachtane ◽

Ibrahim Goda ◽

Yumna Qureshi ◽

Hamza Benyahia

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Medical Devices ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Health Concern ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Global Public Health ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

3D Printed ◽

Single Use ◽

Tract Infections

Currently, the emergence of a novel human coronavirus disease, named COVID-19, has become a great global public health concern causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans. Yet, there is no specific vaccine or treatment for this COVID-19 where anti-disease measures rely on preventing or slowing the transmission of infection from one person to another. In particularly, there is a growing effort to prevent or reduce transmission to frontline healthcare professionals. However, it is becoming an increasingly international concern respecting the shortage in the supply chain of critical single-use personal protective equipment (PPE). To that scope, we aim in the present work to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest 3D printing efforts against COVID-19, including professional additive manufacturing (AM) providers, makers and designers in the 3D printing community. Through this review paper, the response to several questions and inquiries regarding the following issues are addressed: technical factors connected with AM processes; recommendations for testing and characterizing medical devices that additively manufactured; AM materials that can be used for medical devices; biological concerns of final 3D printed medical parts, comprising biocompatibility, cleaning and sterility; and limitations of AM technology.

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Integrated 3D printing solution to mitigate shortages of airway consumables and personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Health Services Research ◽

10.1186/s12913-020-05891-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ferran Fillat-Gomà ◽

Sergi Coderch-Navarro ◽

Laia Martínez-Carreres ◽

Núria Monill-Raya ◽

Toni Nadal-Mir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

3D Printing ◽

Medical Devices ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Medical Equipment ◽

Quality Standard ◽

Global Supply Chain ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

3D Printed ◽

Online Catalogue

Abstract Background To cope with shortages of equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, we established a nonprofit end-to-end system to identify, validate, regulate, manufacture, and distribute 3D-printed medical equipment. Here we describe the local and global impact of this system. Methods Together with critical care experts, we identified potentially lacking medical equipment and proposed solutions based on 3D printing. Validation was based on the ISO 13485 quality standard for the manufacturing of customized medical devices. We posted the design files for each device on our website together with their technical and printing specifications and created a supply chain so that hospitals from our region could request them. We analyzed the number/type of items, petitioners, manufacturers, and catalogue views. Results Among 33 devices analyzed, 26 (78·8%) were validated. Of these, 23 (88·5%) were airway consumables and 3 (11·5%) were personal protective equipment. Orders came from 19 (76%) hospitals and 6 (24%) other healthcare institutions. Peak production was reached 10 days after the catalogue was published. A total of 22,135 items were manufactured by 59 companies in 18 sectors; 19,212 items were distributed to requesting sites during the busiest days of the pandemic. Our online catalogue was also viewed by 27,861 individuals from 113 countries. Conclusions 3D printing helped mitigate shortages of medical devices due to problems in the global supply chain.

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Integrated 3D Printing Solution to Mitigate Shortages of Airway Consumables and Personal Protective Equipment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

10.21203/rs.3.rs-32570/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ferran Fillat-Gomà ◽

Sergi Coderch-Navarro ◽

Laia Martínez-Carreres ◽

Núria Monill-Raya ◽

Toni Nadal-Mir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

3D Printing ◽

Medical Devices ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Medical Equipment ◽

Quality Standard ◽

Global Supply Chain ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

3D Printed ◽

Online Catalogue

Abstract Background: To cope with shortages of equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, we established a nonprofit end-to-end system to identify, validate, regulate, manufacture, and distribute 3D-printed medical equipment. Here we describe the local and global impact of this system. Methods: Together with critical care experts, we identified potentially lacking medical equipment and proposed solutions based on 3D printing. Validation was based on the ISO 13485 quality standard for the manufacturing of customized medical devices. We posted the design files for each device on our website together with their technical and printing specifications and created a supply chain so that hospitals from our region could request them. We analyzed the number/type of items, petitioners, manufacturers, and catalogue views.Results: Among 33 devices analyzed, 26 (78·8%) were validated. Of these, 23 (88·5%) were airway consumables and 3 (11·5%) were personal protective equipment. Orders came from 19 (76%) hospitals and 6 (24%) other healthcare institutions. Peak production was reached 10 days after the catalogue was published. A total of 22,135 items were manufactured by 59 companies in 18 sectors; 19,212 items were distributed to requesting sites during the busiest days of the pandemic. Our online catalogue was also viewed by 27,861 individuals from 113 countries.Conclutions: 3D printing helped mitigate shortages of medical devices due to problems in the global supply chain.

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Elastomeric passive transmission for autonomous force-velocity adaptation applied to 3D-printed prosthetics

Science Robotics ◽

10.1126/scirobotics.aau5543 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (23) ◽

pp. eaau5543 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Kevin W. O’Brien ◽

Patricia A. Xu ◽

David J. Levine ◽

Cameron A. Aubin ◽

Ho-Jung Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Degrees Of Freedom ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Prosthetic Hand ◽

Prosthetic Hands ◽

Polyurethane Composite ◽

Compact Size ◽

Variable Transmission ◽

3D Printed ◽

Force Velocity ◽

Projection Stereolithography

The force, speed, dexterity, and compact size required of prosthetic hands present extreme design challenges for engineers. Current prosthetics rely on high-quality motors to achieve adequate precision, force, and speed in a small enough form factor with the trade-off of high cost. We present a simple, compact, and cost-effective continuously variable transmission produced via projection stereolithography. Our transmission, which we call an elastomeric passive transmission (EPT), is a polyurethane composite cylinder that autonomously adjusts its radius based on the tension in a wire spooled around it. We integrated six of these EPTs into a three-dimensionally printed soft prosthetic hand with six active degrees of freedom. Our EPTs provided the prosthetic hand with about three times increase in grip force without compromising flexion speed. This increased performance leads to finger closing speeds of ~0.5 seconds (average radial velocity, ~180 degrees second−1) and maximum fingertip forces of ~32 newtons per finger.

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3D Printing for Medical Applications: Current State of the Art and Perspectives during the COVID-19 Crisis

Surgeries ◽

10.3390/surgeries2030025 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 244-259

Author(s):

Andrew Hagen ◽

Megan Chisling ◽

Kevin House ◽

Tal Katz ◽

Laila Abelseth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Extreme Stress ◽

Current State ◽

Life Saving ◽

3D Printed ◽

Recent Trends

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected over one hundred million people worldwide and has resulted in over two million deaths. In addition to the toll that coronavirus takes on the health of humans infected with the virus and the potential long term effects of infection, the repercussions of the pandemic on the economy as well as on the healthcare system have been enormous. The global supply of equipment necessary for dealing with the pandemic experienced extreme stress as healthcare systems around the world attempted to acquire personal protective equipment for their workers and medical devices for treating COVID-19. This review describes how 3D printing is currently being used in life saving surgeries such as heart and lung surgery and how 3D printing can address some of the worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment, by examining recent trends of the use of 3D printing and how these technologies can be applied during and after the pandemic. We review the use of 3D printed models for treating the long term effects of COVID-19. We then focus on methods for generating face shields and different types of respirators. We conclude with areas for future investigation and application of 3D printing technology.

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Surgical Performance Is Not Negatively Impacted by Wearing a Commercial Full-Face Mask with Ad Hoc 3D-Printed Filter Connection as a Substitute for Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Cross-Over Trial

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10030550 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 550 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eleni Amelia Felinska ◽

Zi-Wei Chen ◽

Thomas Ewald Fuchs ◽

Benjamin Otto ◽

Hannes Götz Kenngott ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Face Mask ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Surgical Performance ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

3D Printed ◽

Group 2 ◽

Full Face

(1) Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages in the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) have become apparent. The idea of using commonly available full-face diving (FFD) masks as a temporary solution was quickly spread across social media. However, it was unknown whether an FFD mask would considerably impair complex surgical tasks. Thus, we aimed to assess laparoscopic surgical performance while wearing an FFD mask as PPE. (2) Methods: In a randomized-controlled cross-over trial, 40 laparoscopically naive medical students performed laparoscopic procedures while wearing an FFD mask with ad hoc 3D-printed connections to heat and moisture exchange (HME) filters vs. wearing a common surgical face mask. The performance was evaluated using global and specific Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) checklists for suturing and cholecystectomy. (3) Results: For the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, both global OSATS scores and specific OSATS scores for the quality of procedure were similar (Group 1: 25 ± 4.3 and 45.7 ± 12.9, p = 0.485, vs. Group 2: 24.1 ± 3.7 and 43.3 ± 7.6, p = 0.485). For the laparoscopic suturing task, the FFD mask group needed similar times to the surgical mask group (3009 ± 1694 s vs. 2443 ± 949 s; p = 0.200). Some participants reported impaired verbal communication while wearing the FFD mask, as it muffled the sound of speech, as well as discomfort in breathing. (4) Conclusions: FFD masks do not affect the quality of laparoscopic surgical performance, despite being uncomfortable, and may therefore be used as a substitute for conventional PPE in times of shortage—i.e., the global COVID-19 pandemic.

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Air seal performance of personalized and statistically shaped 3D-printed face masks compared with market-available surgical and FFP2 masks

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-98963-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Julian Nold ◽

Marc C. Metzger ◽

Steffen Schwarz ◽

Christian Wesemann ◽

Gregor Wemken ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Second Step ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Air Leakage ◽

Facial Soft Tissue ◽

On Demand ◽

Surgical Masks ◽

Mask Design ◽

3D Printed ◽

House Production

AbstractThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has revealed alarming shortages of personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare professionals and the general public. Therefore, a 3D-printable mask frame was developed, and its air seal performance was evaluated and compared. Personalized masks (PM) based on individual face scans (n = 8) and a statistically shaped mask (SSM) based on a standardized facial soft tissue shape computed from 190 face scans were designed. Subsequently, the masks were additively manufactured, and in a second step, the PM and SSM were compared to surgical masks (SM) and FFP2 masks (FFP2) in terms of air seal performance. 3D-printed face models allowed for air leakage evaluation by measuring the pressure inside the mask in sealed and unsealed conditions during a breathing simulation. The PM demonstrated the lowest leak flow (p < 0.01) of inspired or expired unfiltered air of approximately 10.4 ± 16.4%, whereas the SM showed the highest (p < 0.01) leakage with 84.9 ± 7.7%. The FFP2 and SSM had similar values of 34.9 ± 18.5% leakage (p > 0.68). The developed framework allows for the time- and resource-efficient, on-demand, and in-house production of masks. For the best seal performance, an individually personalized mask design might be recommended.

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