HP Innovation Journal Issue 15: Summer 2020 | Page 40
Acceleration of Change
Manufacturing
FACE MASK
STRAP
WHAT: Mask strap that allows
the mask to be adjusted around
the back of the head rather than
loop behind the ears
WHY: Helps relieve ear pain for
hospital staff who need to wear
masks for long periods of time
WHERE: Worldwide
university health systems in Illinois and California.
Dan Baker, SmileDirectClub’s global supply chain
officer, said the crisis has tested his team beyond anything
they had ever done before.
“Once it became clear 3D printing could have a huge
impact on PPE shortages, we started working around
the clock,” Baker says. “I’ve never worked so hard in my
life, and I’ve never seen so many people come together
to solve a problem and make a difference.”
The flexibility of 3D printing has enabled HP and
many other of its digital manufacturing partners to
quickly pivot production to PPE, including more than
540,000 face shields for the government of Canada,
more than 45,000 PAPR hoods by insole manufacturer
Superfeet, and 100,000 face shields with Avid Product
Development, among many others.
“3D printing is proving itself as a just-in-time technology
to get us the supplies we need,” Heyborne says.
“I really do view it as a game changer now.”
Manufacturing leaders mobilize
to fight COVID-19
It is clearer than ever that the path toward a post-pandemic
future must be collaborative, and countries,
governments, businesses, and communities must leverage
new technologies to prepare for an increasingly
volatile environment.
Toward that end, the World Economic Forum (WEF)
organized the 3D Printing COVID-19 Rapid Response
Initiative, made up of 14 major additive manufacturing
players. Together, these leading industrial 3D-printing
companies are bringing their expertise and equipment
and mobilizing resources to help support the critical
needs of frontline workers battling the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
“With the scale of the COVID crisis, we were suddenly
facing all-new challenges that need new solutions
in a time frame that was unprecedented,” Francisco
Betti, the WEF’s head of advanced manufacturing and
production and coordinator of the COVID-19 initiative,
says. “We’re seeing more and more collaboration
to address the pandemic in what is usually a very competitive
advanced manufacturing industry.”
The WEF 3D Printing COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative
has collectively shipped millions of 3D-printed
parts, and more innovations are in the pipeline such as
publishing PPE and device component 3D-design files
that communities in need can access and use to print
their own, proof of the initiative’s ability to unite and
mobilize resources.
“I don’t see how one company could have done it all
alone,” says Betti.
This community-driven approach is spearheading
industry-wide transformation. The 3D printing industry’s
ability to unite and mobilize resources showed
that going forward they will be able to forge new ecosystems
in order to support their ambitions, as well as
help people in need around the world.
PHOTOGRAPH BY