NEWS | EUREKA!
Protolabs plays key role
on Covid-19 projects
PROTOLABS, WHICH EMPLOYS
over 450 people at its European
headquarters in Telford, is playing
a key role in supporting Italian
engineers in the conversion of
‘Easybreath’ snorkelling equipment
into ventilator masks for front line
medical sta .
3D printed ‘Charlotte’ valves are
being rapidly produced and shipped
direct to its customer Isinnova, who
are producing kits that can be used to
create non-invasive ventilator masks
that will help save lives.
The GTMA supplier is also
urgently working with a highly
multiplexed molecular diagnostics
specialist to produce a series of
plastic cassettes that will help house
a critical medical solution used in
testing for COVID-19.
AusDiagnostics approached
Protolabs to see if it could injection
mould 500 sample parts, a challenge
that was immediately picked up by
the Shropshire-based on- demand
manufacturer. The rst CAD drawings
were not t for manufacture so were
quickly updated and the right material
speci ed, and production was set to
be shipped by early April.
UK COMPANY PRINTS SIX-MINUTE VISOR
3DPRINTUK HAS PARTNERED
with Arts University Bournemouth to
manufacture face shields for frontline
provision of PPE and has released
it for everyone to use.
There has been a large scale
response by the 3D printing
community to the COVID-19
pandemic, with a giant e ort to close
the gap between supply and demand
for PPE for front-line NHS workers.
In recent weeks, some really clever
and innovative designs have been
released for people to produce but all
have been designed and optimised for
FDM printers.
Nick Allen, MD at 3DPrintUK
says, “From the very beginning of
the COVID-19 crisis, in common
“We’re currently working on a
number of customer projects that
are critical to the ght against the
COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bjoern
Klaas, Vice President and Managing
Director of Protolabs Europe.
“With the ‘Charlotte valve’ in Italy
it is already having a really positive
impact on the challenge faced by
medical sta and the wider society,
whilst our latest involvement with
AusDiagnostics is crucial in the UK’s
ramp up of testing for the virus.“ The
customer makes almost 200 kits
a day, but this gure will increase
rapidly to meet the demand for more
with numerous other 3D printing
companies, we analysed ways
in which we could make useful
interventions and help the e orts of
the NHS.
“One thing we noticed was that
many of the face shield related
testing, with our injection moulding
line ready to manufacture 20,000
cassettes every quarter. “Digital
manufacturing can provide incredible
speed of development and continues
to be essential in equipping our front
line sta with the solutions they
need.” Protolabs provides critical
prototyping and manufacturing
services to medical supply chains,
telecommunications providers,
energy companies, water treatment
services and other sectors. The
company will continue to remain
operational across its UK and
German manufacturing facilities.
designs were perfectly suited for FDM
machines, but didn’t work well with
the SLS process. As a company, we
are intimately associate with SLS, and
have printed over 2 million SLS prints,
so we began to look at how we could
optimise designs for the 3D printing
technology that we use every day.”
What the team at 3DPrintUK
noticed when they looked, for
example, at the amazingly welldesigned
and ground-breaking
Prusa face shield design was that
only 14 individual head bands could
be printed on the EOS Formiga P110
SLS machine at a time. The team
focussed on a design that the P110
could accommodate in much larger
numbers.
LSOAUUNTCHHCEOS
FPARCOED SUHCITELIODN
SOUTHCO HAS RESPONDED to
the challenge presented by Covid-19
by adjusting course in record time,
tooling up a CE-marked full face
protective visor.
The complete face shields are
comfortable, lightweight, and easy
to clean and disinfect. Designed with
space to be worn in conjunction with
additional PPE (personal protective
equipment) such as glasses, face
masks and respirators, these face
shields are suitable for frontline use in
many di erent settings. They support
social distancing while still allowing for
personal interactions with patients,
customers and colleagues.
As a local manufacturer with
volume capacity, Southco is able
to o er these face shields at
competitive pricing with short leadtimes.
Whilst Southco face shields are
now available for sale, the company
is also demonstrating strong
community spirit, and has generously
donated large quantities of face
visors to various local care homes,
charities and other organisations.
“We are extremely proud to
contribute to the ght against
this terrible disease,” said Philip
Kempson, Managing Director.
“Southco is a people-oriented
business with a strong customercentric
culture, so being able to make
a positive di erence during these
challenging times is very important
to us. What’s more, this investment
keeps our facility busy during a time
of major economic uncertainty and
secures local jobs.”
8 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JUNE 2020
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