Helping Our Community

Closed due to COVID-19, Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, South Dakota, wanted to help support frontline workers by manufacturing a reusable soft rubber facemask with a removable filter that can be washed and cleaned.

• Design software
• GibbsCAM® CNC programming software by 3D Systems
• CNC machines
• 3D printer
• Santoprene™ 210-88 and 101-88 thermoplastic rubber material for the facemasks
• PLA biodegradable thermoplastic polymer material for the filters

Lake Area Technical Institute precision machining instructor Darrel Grohs, Garry Mudder, Mark Ralmsey and his students designed a two-cavity plastic injection mold for a reusable facemask. GibbsCAM reseller Midwest CAM Solutions helped program the mold core and cavity in GibbsCAM and Dakota Automation helped with the file transfer logistics and posting. They then used the mold to injection mold 2,400 facemasks (about two masks every 45 seconds); 3D printed the filters; and then donated the reusable, N95-capable facemasks to area first responders and then to others on a running list. They can manufacture more facemasks with the mold as needed.
 

Challenge

Two 3D Systems employees have friends and family on the frontline who requested surgical mask relief bands to help ease the difficulty of wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) for long hours.

Solution

• ProX® SLS 500 by 3D Systems
• 3D Sprint® plastic AM software by 3D Systems
• DuraForm® ProX PA nylon, thermoplastic, autoclavable material by 3D Systems that can be disinfected

Outcome

In only one day, 3D Systems used an NIH clinically-approved CAD file to 3D print 70 reusable relief bands that can be used with any surgical mask that requires an elastic band and donated them to frontline workers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania (build preparation: 10 minutes; build time: eight hours; cool-down time: eight hours; post-processing time: 45 minutes). The frontline workers including registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners were grateful as the masks are much more comfortable now and the average worker is using the 3D-printed part for 12–13 hours per shift.

Bird Mark 7 Respirator

Challenge

Quickly meet the growing demand for ventilators by creating an open-source CAD design and manufacturing plans for the Bird Mark 7—a reliable, non-electrical, oxygen-tank-powered ventilator from the 1960s endorsed by experts from UC Davis, Livermore Instruments, and the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska—that manufacturers can use to reproduce the ventilators.

Solution

• phoenix v|tome|x c450 industrial CT scanner with scatter correction applied by Waygate Technologies (a Baker Hughes company)
• Geomagic^® Design X™ reverse engineering software by 3D Systems

Outcome

Captured high-quality industrial CT scans of the Bird Mark 7 ventilator main control body and provided a history-based, editable Autodesk Inventor file within 24 hours.

Learn More

Wall Street Journal Article

Download Entire Ventilator Assembly (14.5MB)