As we all know 3D printing has already set the rage among the technologies. It has the potential to deliver fast solutions in emergency situations. Now in these coronavirus crisis, 3D-printing engineers are getting crafty.
Recently an Italian business 3D-printed replacement valves for ventilators, badly needed by hospitals globally. Now the company called Isinnova has invented 3D-printed adapters. These 3D printed adapters can turn snorkelling mask into a non-invasive ventilator for COVID-19 patients.
The Isinnova team writes, “In recent days we have been contacted by a former head physician of the Gardone Valtrompia Hospital, Dr. Renato Favero, who got in touch with Isinnova through a doctor from the Chiari Hospital, the health facility for which we were manufacturing the emergency venturi valves,”
“Doctor Favero shared with us an idea to address the possible shortage of hospital C-PAP masks for sub-intensive oxygen therapy, which is emerging as a concrete problem linked to the spread of COVID-19: an emergency ventilator mask, produced by adjusting a commercially available snorkeling mask.”
Isinnova collaborated with the “Easybreath” snorkel-maker Decathlon. The company’s 3D printed prototype was developed using stereolithographic 3D printing. The prototype was “proven to be correctly working,” and hospital staff was “enthusiastic about the idea.”
