At the end of of February, when Coronavirus had already started spreading in the north of Italy, a bizarre picture went viral on social media: it showed a man walking in via Toledo, in the centre of Naples, wearing not a surgical mask, but a full-face snorkeling mask. Hilarity, as you may imagine, ensued: that wasn't certainly the best way to protect yourself from Coronavirus, but it was ideal for Carnival maybe.
Fast-forward to today: a month has gone and COVID-19 is a nightmare and a pandemic. Italy is fighting against a major Coronavirus outbreak, with the north remaining the most badly affected area. Besides, we aren't laughing anymore at the snorkeling mask. That's actually not because it can be used to replace surgical masks that have become rare, but because a startup transformed the snorkeling device into a useful medical applicance thanks to 3D printing.
As Coronavirus spread, 3D printing has become widely used for a variety of applications: in yesterday's post we mentioned 3D-printed isolation wards in China, but there have so far been companies such as Prusa and Stratasys that developed 3D-printed face shields for medical staff, while Copper3D worked on a 3D-printed N95 mask called NanoHack, manufactured with a material called Plactive.
Projects have also multiplied for what regards 3D printed face masks to make at home as surgical masks are by now rare (yet, as highlighted in a previous post, this may not be a great idea as PLA, the most common material used for 3D printing, is not food safe).
One of the most interesting applications of 3D printing came from Italy. Dr Renato Favero, former primary doctor at the hospital of Gardone Valtrompia, realised they didn't have enough C-PAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) masks for sub-intensive therapy, so he got in touch with a Brescia-based company, Isinnova, a startup founded by Cristian Fracassi, that was already making 3D valves for respirators. The doctor was familiar with the "Easybreath" full-face snorkeling mask sold by European sports retailer Decathlon and was thinking about a way to transform the device into a respirator.
Decathlon eventually provided a CAD drawing of their snorkeling mask and Isinnova studied it and then produced a 3D-printed valve called "Charlotte" that can be attached to the mask and connected to the oxygen tube (there is also an additional valve called "Dave" that can be used for the reservoir). The first prototype in polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) was printed in a couple of hours.Then the company started working on more prototypes in a light-sensitive resin and polyamide-12-coated aluminum powder that needed a longer production time (24 hours).
A test at the Chiari hospital in the province of Brescia proved that it was possible to attach the mask with the valve to the oxygen tube and create in this way a non-invasive ventilator that was successfully tested on a patient. As the news spread, giving hospitals hopes for an emergency solution, Decathlon announced it will donate 10,000 "Easybreath" masks to Italian hospitals (people willing to help should buy and donate a mask, rather than donating their own as the latter would have to be sterilised and that would mean money and time...).
The downside of this project is that these masks can only be employed for emergencies as they are uncertified for this purpose and they can only be used with the signed approval of the patient.
The good news is that, while the patent for the "Charlotte "valve is being sought to prevent price speculations, this remains an open source project like the CURA pods we looked at yesterday, so all makers can print the valves and in this way hospitals all over the world can use this emergency device.
There have actually been makers who took the project further: another Italian 3D printing company, SolidEnergy, explained that the valves designed by Isinnova must be adapted to tubes and filters that are different from hospital to hospital, so they created a valve that allows to connect the mask also to an artificial respirator; besides, they also found a way to insert industrial P3 filters in the mask and turn it into a comfortable and protective device for medical staff. Design may not be able to find the cure for Coronavirus, but it will definitely help scientists and medical staff buying time for a vaccine and saving lives.
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