Covid-19 & 3DPrintedParts
In early March, as we monitored the news, our team at 3DPrintedParts.com started preparing to hunker down; AMUG reservations were cancelled and discussions were had on how we could prepare for the uncertainty of a global pandemic. We have many customers in the medical, defense and food service industries and anticipated that we may need to step in as their supply chains became increasingly hobbled. We placed overnight orders for bulk material on almost every machine, with special priority towards materials that were bio-compatible, temperature resistant or used in tough environments. By March 16th we had begun social distancing in the office, running a skeleton crew when needed to tend to the shop and receive shipments. Most sales and admin staff were able to work from home without a hiccup, we’d been having daily video calls for two years.
On March 23rd, following the shelter in place order from Michigan’s Governor Whitmer, we started receiving phone calls and online requests for PPE, in particular masks that could be substituted for N95s that were in critical supply. Some requests were from large institutions like Spectrum and Bronson, some from individual health care workers, others from corporate sourcing departments, and still others members of the general public. A member of AMPWM, Chris Kaminsky, invited me to a Facebook group that he started, West Michigan COVID Disaster Relief, this group was a collection of engineers and hobbyists who all had 3D printers and wanted to contribute their time and materials to healthcare workers on the front lines. Link3D hosted a Digital Additive Manufacturing Conference in which I participated in a panel discussion comparing Casting to Metal Printing. Reflecting the adaptability of our industry… there were over 1200 remote attendees!
Heading into April, my colleagues and my customers were finding their way through the crisis with some exceptionally bright spots.
The facebook group had morphed into an amazing case study of the power of distributed manufacturing with the launch of a website: www.3dc19.com. This outreach of over 350 volunteers in West Michigan produced over 10,000 items of PPE and distributed them to healthcare workers in only two weeks!
At 3DPrintedParts we were able to leverage our network of machines and contribute hundreds of shield visors and ear savers toward the fight.
We continued supporting our network of customers with urgent needs, from material handling components for essential industries, to PPE for workers in the food processing industry who suddenly found themselves in need of hundreds of community masks.
Recognizing the impact of the 3D printing community at large, the National Institute of Health launched a portal to share clinically approved 3D printed designs for PPE.
As we look toward May and a future filled with uncertainty, I’m positive that we will continue to see West Michigan manufacturers rally together and additive manufacturing to lead the way.