#OPERATIONPPE | How Makers Respond to a Pandemic

Dr. Negar Kalantar, an Assistant Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA), has been working intensively on design and development solutions for Rapid Deployment Emergency Structures for two decades. Her expertise in deployable structures and advanced manufacturing connected her to different task forces dealing with healthcare challenges for COVID-19, such as space, workers, and equipment. Kalantar has been collaborating with Building AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) Learning (BAECL) – a national non-profit organization that is structured as a community of practice of owners, architects, engineers, and contractors who are rapidly sharing lessons learned as AEC project teams attempt to meet the challenges created by COVID-19. BAECL’s mission is to help the AEC industry efficiently and effectively serve society by rapidly identifying, implementing, and sharing lessons learned about the best regulatory, design, supply chain, and construction solutions used to address societal needs. This is especially relevant now as we are all in the midst of the challenges created by COVID-19. BAECL is building Open Source platforms to identify and categorize space-related problems in healthcare, proposed, and implemented solutions. If you are interested in helping their effort, please contact Kalantar directly at kalantar@cca.edu.

FutureForms Participates in COVID-19 PPE Production
Futureforms is utilizing our shop, fabrication equipment, and supply chain to rapidly manufacture and distribute PPE. Healthcare workers’ access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has become dangerously low in the face of increasing demands due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We are currently fabricating both laser cut and 3d-printed face shields. The laser-cut version was adapted from open source files distributed by the Global Center for Medical Innovation at Georgia Tech. The 3d printed model was originally developed by 3DVerkstan in Sweden. All face shields should be used with an N95 mask. We are distributing these face shields primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area (Zuckerberg SFGH, UCSF, and Laguna Honda Hospital) and will begin distribution to the East Coast and beyond next week. While we are only able to produce a few hundred face shields every week, we are excited to be a part of a global community that collectively can make a difference. We are just one of many art, design, and architecture studios and schools participating in this effort – check out this recent NYT Video for more information. If you are interested in getting involved the website getusppe.org is a great place to start. In the coming weeks, we plan to merge our efforts with the CCA Digital Craft Lab and the amazing folks at PPESF. If you are interested please DONATE HERE.

Cross-campus effort rushes 3D-printed gear to Weill Cornell
Jenny Sabin: jes557@cornell.edu

Operation PPE @Cornell AAP
You can find details here: https://www.sabinlab.com/operation-ppe
Images and video from AAP: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q3uk0o75x9xpwnh/AABCV3arcOGFA4XMuve7G4b1a?dl=0

Professor Jenny Sabin is leading these efforts at AAP for ‘operation PPE’ through the Sabin Lab and Cornell Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP). Below is a quick summary of the project using mostly Prof. Sabin’s own words. We are working on a proper press release, but everything has evolved quickly.

Prof. Jenny Sabin was contacted by a colleague, Prof. Kirstin Petersen (kirstin@cornell.edu) late Tuesday evening of last week. Kirstin is an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Kirsten informed Jenny about the urgent request from Weill Cornell Medicine for PPE face shields and inquired if Prof. Sabin and the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning could help. Amy Kuceyeski, associate professor of mathematics at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute had put out an email blast inquiring for help. By the next morning, Prof. Sabin and the head of facilities at the college had put AAP’s entire Digital Fabrication Lab in full operation alongside Sabin’s lab.

Weill Cornell Medicine originally estimated a need for 20-50,000 protective face shields per day in NYC. We have since learned that their need for the visor printed component is much lower at around 3,000 parts. The polyethylene transparent sheet (the shield) is in much greater need. We laser cut hundreds of these components. The PE sheet can either be sanitized for re-use or tossed and a new one clipped on to the visor. The print file and design come from 3D Verkstan and was tested and verified by Weill Cornell Medicine. For the visor, Weill requested PET or PETG material as it has a higher melting point and the PETG material can be sanitized under UV. However, they are taking PLA and ABS printing materials too. They have requested that we bag everything in batches of like material that are clearly labeled for sorting and distribution.

This effort is a collective effort across the Cornell community. Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and many labs across campus with 3D printers and laser cutters joined the effort. It became clear it was important to distribute this effort.  We put out the request to our AAP faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Our students began printing on their home printers and shipping parts directly to Weill.

In order to scale the effort quickly, AAP reached out to our incredible alumni network, and within 24-48 hours, our alumni not only joined the 3d printing efforts but also leveraged their networks.  Within hours Handel Associates, KPF, BIG, Grimshaw, Terreform just to name a few started 3d printing the PPE face shield visors and laser cutting the shield.   Alumni practice leaders (Vivian Kuan, Blake Middleton, Michael Manfredi, Dan Kaplan, Brad Perkins, Doug Gensler, Susan Rodriguez, David Lewis, Rosalie Genevro also leveraged their networks.  Through those networks, industry partners such as g-Create, a 3d printer manufacturer, and organizations such as NYSCF (New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute) and faculty at Parsons also joined the effort.

Also, firms have innovated on the 3d print file.  KPF modified the file to stack the visors so they could print overnight and got to a production rate of 400 a day.  And it seems there is a large maker community, including model makers and 3d printing companies and rapid prototyping companies supporting efforts for a variety of PPEs.  (please contact Charles Thornton for information on other initiatives on ‘COVID-19 actionable steps for makers’ at cthornton@handelarchitects.com).  

It has been an incredible effort and through this network of architects and makers, hundreds of printed visors and laser-cut shields were delivered directly to Weill Cornell Medicine in NYC. There, the material goes through a sanitizing process and is then distributed to doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals on the front lines. 

It has been amazing to see how quickly the network has grown in less just 4 days and it continues to expand.  We have had firms across the US and even abroad also reach out for the 3d print file to help their local communities. 

To get a glimpse of the distributed community of makers/architects, here is a spreadsheet where we have captured nearly all who are contributing across the Cornell community.

If you are able to connect with Kirstin Peterson (kirstin@cornell.edu), she will be able to give you more information on Cornell Engineering and their effort. We have all been working round the clock, sharing materials, dropping off materials and parts in our garages and at our doorsteps and in the end, making a very big and real impact in a short amount of time through the informal, democratic, and collective DIY network that digital fabrication and design affords across disciplines and practice.

Some additional comments from Dean Meejin Yoon at AAP about the project:

Designers, makers, and fabricators are ready and able to help in the PPE effort, and it was useful to understand what healthcare professionals needed and get a direct recommendation/specification from Weill Cornell.  It is comforting that designers and makers have rallied eagerly to help with this need.  I think our design disciplines and creative makers have a role to play to support the healthcare workers at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more, here.

The just-in-time economics of our supply chain logistics has created a gap in our current urgent demand for PPEs that has caught the industry off guard.  How can we (as designers, makers, fabricators) fill the gap by crow-sourcing components through distributed networks of idle rapid prototyping resources 3d printers in architecture schools and offices, and even desktop 3d printers?  While our ‘rapid’ prototyping machines are not meant for industrial-scale manufacturing, and by those standards are not ‘rapid’, as industry ramps up, our distributed maker capabilities can fill this essential gap to help those on the front lines of the COVID-19 health care crisis.

Edith is the AAP communications officer.  (jf459@cornell.edu).

GSD-led team is fabricating PPE for Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“As design communities around the country come together to help fabricate new stockpiles of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), a team at Harvard University is undertaking its own PPE manufacturing operation.

Representatives from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have pooled resources, production capabilities, and labor to produce over 1,000 face shields and 750 visors so far. ”

Read more… 

Iowa State University Computation + Construction Lab, co-founded by Shelby Doyle @shelbyedoyle, Nick Senske @nsenske, and Leslie Forehand in 2016, democratizes access to and knowledge about technology in architecture. CCL works across campus borders, leveraging design and construction tools for public engagement with non-profits and small towns in Iowa.

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Kennesaw State University will have completed over 4,000 face shields by the end of June.  The masks are being distributed free of charge to local hospitals, nursing homes, and senior living centers.

As of 4/15/2020

COVID-19 Response

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the NYIT School of Architecture and Design SoAD has resoundingly joined together in a collective endeavor to make PPE for hospitals and healthcare workers. Dean Maria Perbellini had mobilized the SoAD to partner with NYIT COM, CAS, and CoECS under the coordination of VP Suzanne Musho in production and distribution efforts. Dean Perbellini leads the SoAD team volunteering to 3D print and 2D laser cut face masks and face shields. Dustin White, Director of Digital Technologies & Fabrication supervises Mauricio Tacoaman, who is operating in the school’s Long Island FabLab, while Associate Professor Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa and several Thesis students, including Ari Begun, Jason Bottiglieri, Peter Leonardi, Alexandra Panichella, Karina Pena, and Benjamin Sather, are remotely engaged with design ideas and the fabrication of 3D printed face masks and shields’ components.  The SoAD leadership, faculty, and school community are immensely proud of this group of students and are grateful for their commitment to this initiative. As production ramps up in the School of Architecture and Design’s Ed Hall Fab Lab, approximately 1,000 face shields will be produced per week.

Contact: Tom Verebes, tverebes@nyit.edu

As of April 30, 2020, Norwich University’s Design-Build Collaborative has produced 186 face shields using its small-format 3D printers and laser cutters. The 3D printed face shields were based on the popular 3D Verkstan visor, but modified by architecture faculty to fit on the smallest 3D printers. In addition to this effort, Norwich is supporting the Burlington Generator effort to mass-produce face shields. 

For more information regarding the modified 3D Verkstan visor, contact Matt Lutz, Associate Professor of Architecture.
https://www.norwich.edu/cops/design-build-collaborative

Marcus Shaffer, associate professor of architecture, and two architecture graduate students in the Stuckeman School have joined the efforts of the worldwide additive manufacturing community in 3D printing face shields that could potentially be used by doctors, nurses and healthcare workers, who are on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shaffer, along with the husband and wife team of Julio Diarte and Elena Vazquez, who are both doctoral students, are 3D printing the headbands and hand-cutting the shields from transparent sheets from their respective homes in State College. They are using the online guide created by architect Jenny Sabin, which Shaffer found when researching ways he could use 3D printing to help during the pandemic.

Sabin’s lab and the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University – where Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture – are collaborating with other Cornell departments to address the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) at Weill Cornell Medical Center in an initiative called “Project PPE.”

Shaffer said he was compelled to help because he knows how design enriches all of our lives. “Many of my friends are artists, designers, architects . . . and this period of isolation has made clear how rich our lives are because we can be productive by making things that are beautiful, useful or both,” said Shaffer. “As a person who spent a significant time of my life as a designer working in New York City, I just felt compelled to turn my tools and machines toward potentially helping that city.”

Having lived in New York during the 9/11 attacks, Shaffer said that the feelings of loss and uncertainty, coupled with the city as a whole coming to a standstill back then, are still fresh in his memory.

“When I found Jenny Sabin’s website and Project PPE, I turned on the 3D printer in my little factory here at home and it literally has not stopped,” added Shaffer.

Diarte, one of Shaffer’s advisees, said he and Vazquez felt compelled to assist with the effort after reading about the MASC initiative at Penn State.

“Elena and I borrowed a 3D printer from the FORMAT Lab in the Stuckeman School to continue our research at home, so we figured, ‘why not print some headbands in the downtime when we’re not working?’” explained Diarte. “We take turns at home – one works on their research and the other prints – and then we switch.”

As of Thursday, Shaffer, Diarte, and Vazquez had printed 70 headbands and the trio expects to print another 100 this week.

McEwen’s Black Box Research Group Leads Collaborative Efforts in PPE Prototyping and Production for the COVID-19 Front Lines

Assistant Professor Mitch McEwen has been leading and participating in collaborative efforts with the Princeton community and other designers from across the world in prototyping and producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for those on the front lines of COVID-19.

Information about open source files and prototyping progress can be found on McEwen’s Black Box Research Group website as the Black Box Rapid Response: https://box.princeton.edu/rapid-response-architectures/. 

Read more… 

The Smith College Architecture + Urbanism Program, led by Elisa Kim (Assistant Professor), has been working with the Mass General Boston COVID Innovation Team through several design reviews to develop hospital approved face shields for Massachusetts frontline medical professionals. After receiving support from Smith College and with sponsorship from the Five College Architectural Studies program, the college’s idle 3D printers were transferred off-campus and set up in Kim’s home basement studio, where they are running around the clock. Our specific design utilizes a complete forehead guard and velcro straps for stability and comfort during long-term wear. Furthermore, while the visors are able to be reused, the design utilizes clear transparency sheets with a standard 3-hole punch as a shield, allowing the shield to be used and discarded rapidly, but easily replaced or replicated using a simple 3-hole punch.

While the operation out of Smith College is small, and our ‘rapid’ prototyping machines are certainly not meant for industrial-scale manufacturing, we are eager to contribute in whatever ways that we can. We are aware that while a single 3D printer doesn’t seem like it will make a big difference, the aggregate of an informal and democratic network of multiple people and printers coming together can be leveraged to make as great a contribution as possible. 

While we’re a liberal arts college and don’t have the same fabrication facilities that professional architecture programs may have, it was important to do this also as an example to students as to how we, as designers, can leverage our skills–and in particular, our collaborative skills–to make a contribution in the ways that we know how, from a disciplinary standpoint. To that end, one of our architecture studios is engaged in designing non-machined, low-tech face masks for civilian populations. These are masks that could be made with common materials found in many households in America, without any advanced skills, tooling, or even the use of a sewing machine. The students’ designs (and instructions for making these masks) will be publicly available via a website as an effort to truly democratize access to PPE for all.

For more information, contact Elisa Kim, emkim@smith.edu.

Students and professors at Tecnológico de Monterrey are collaborating actively to create projects that provide solutions to the pandemic. Driven by the desire to innovate and generate change, Tecnológico de Monterrey is at the forefront of relief efforts in Mexico, with interdisciplinary actions of all the Schools: Architecture, Art and Design; Medicine and Health Sciences; Business; Engineering and Sciences; Humanities and Education and Social Sciences and Government. Through many collaborative projects, people at Tecnológico de Monterrey are responding to two main areas of the pandemic: Initiatives against the pandemic and Educational innovation.

The first response corresponds to the actions for the sanitary emergency. Our professors, researchers, and students are developing products and services to help increase the treatment capacity, optimizing detection methods, and enhancing protection. Some of those projects are: Biodegradable testing kit (fast and inexpensive home-test for virus detection), a Farewell Suit (which allows the family of terminal quarantined patients to spend their last moments together) and a Basic basket administration app (a platform that helps to avoid shortages by allowing users to ration basic basket purchases). In collaboration with local and national health organizations, students have developed important resources during the contingency: an easily manufactured and low-cost oxygen respirator, the donation of more than three thousand reusable masks with interchangeable filters, the creation of a robot to treat patients, habilitation of line assistance to provide emotional and medical help, a research project to detect COVID-19 through AI and the design and development of graphics and audiovisuals for “Susana Distancia” (a healthcare campaign promoted by the Mexican government through its Health Secretary), among many others.

Currently, our students and teachers are organizing discussion forums, research projects, webinars, and exhibitions to discuss the future scenarios of our cities. As part of the Designing for the Future initiative, they generate strategies that help us not only to identify but also to face the changes that will occur in our way of living, working, and inhabiting cities.

Some examples of these activities are “The Acceleration of Change: Our New Cities”, a discussion about how the COVID-19 isolation will change our way of inhabiting cities and “Other Borders”, a debate that explores the concept of “a border” after pandemics, beyond the political conception.

The second response, Educational Innovation, focuses on continuing academic activities through the Flexible & Digital Model that Tecnológico de Monterrey implemented as a reaction to the pandemic and the need for quarantine. The model accelerates educational innovation, our pedagogy, and advances toward a more technological future.  Multiple research efforts have begun after the implementation of the Flexible & Digital Model, regarding topics such as economics, social sciences, health sciences, design, and built environment. Some examples are co-housing and isolation research (where the viability of the co-housing is investigated as a habitat solution to develop resilience during moments of isolation), The Coming City Research (demonstration research on how isolation will change the way we inhabit and design cities) and the Equitable Services In Resilient Territories research (where Tec de Monterrey and UNAM are joining forces to develop a mathematical and geospatial method for evaluating spatial equity in the distribution of services and its impact on the management of natural and bio-epidemiological risks).

The students and professors at Tec de Mont are committed to the well-being of the community, working tirelessly through many new research projects to reform our society by facilitating an efficient, positive, and humane transition to a safer community.

Read more:

COVID-19 efforts: https://tec.mx/es/coronavirus-covid-19

Social Media | Tecnológico de Monterrey

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TecdeMonterrey/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TecdeMonterrey/

Social Media | School of Architecture, Art, and Design:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EAAD.Tec/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eaad.tec/

As of April 3, 2020

Texas A&M College of Architecture 3D prints face shields for local hospital

For more information, visit: http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2020/4/3/3d-prints-face-shields/.

In just over a week, the CoA’s contribution of 200+ 3D printed pieces along with university-wide volunteer efforts have been able to collectively produce components for over 1,000 face shields that will be provided to health care professionals throughout Texas.

Follow Professor Ersela Kripa and her team at TTU El Paso. @ersela_kripa

Brendan Shea continues to coordinate the 3D printing efforts in Lubbock with the assistance of Noémie Despland-Lichtert, Sarah Aziz, Jeremy Wahlberg, Victoria McReynolds, and Landon Wade. So far, their total number of printed pieces sits at 150 and counting. Brendan and his team are also in the process of assembling their pieces into face shields and are projected to assemble 90 shields by Tuesday and pick up 90 more to continue processing through the week.

In Lubbock and have a 3-D printer, contact Brendan Shea to get involved.

As part of the Arizona Makers Fighting #COVID19 group, Materials Labs Manager Paulus Musters is using CAPLA facilities and tools such as laser cutters and 3D printers to create face shields, aerosol boxes and face mask frames to protect healthcare workers and first responders. He’s been designing, building, and testing face shields, aerosol boxes, and face mask frames for healthcare providers and first responders working with patients who have COVID-19. To learn more about CAPLA’s involvement in the fight against COVID-19 visit: capla.arizona.edu/studio

Dear ACSA Community,

A core group of faculty, staff, and students at The University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture’s organized in the latter days of March to support health-care workers and other individuals working on the front-line during the global pandemic. Members of the SALA team have been 3D printing parts for PPEs for nearly a month. Our production has been steady and several hundred pieces have been delivered to the coordinating BCCOVID core group (a centralized body coordinating a broad local effort in British Columbia). Interest in our operation has been steady, and more than a few members of our extended community have reached out to see how they might help. Generous colleagues in mechanical engineering and other departments on UBC’s campus have donated filament to the project.

As with most things COVID-19, the entire process is fluid, and needs/requests the central group and our subsection receive changes from day-to-day. There have been some very positive developments that impact how we are operating. A few will have a big impact. These included increased participation in support efforts by local businesses with fabrication capacities that exceed those available in university shops. Despite this, requests for masks and ear savers continue, and only this week (April 22) a call came to the BCCOVID core group for 100,000 new parts. Local medical professionals have also contacted the UBC SALA group directly, asking us to provide more specific design support.

With this in mind, the UBC SALA team launched “UBC Design for the Frontline”. While small at its inception, the objective is to establish a platform within the university where interested members of our faculty, staff, and student body can make connections and establish working groups to attack specific problems. We hope to connect people who are close to the frontline (and in direct view of the needs of frontline workers) and members of our community of designers, engineers, scientists, and creatives who have access to design and fabrication talent and resources. We see real potential in crowd-sourcing design solutions that leverage the incredible expertise present in our students, technical staff, and faculty.

We don’t know where all of this will go. Nor do we know how long our current situation will persist. We do see an opportunity to work across our diverse areas of expertise to collaborate on very real problems. In doing, we also hope to build lasting connections within Applied Science, the University, and our community that can be nurtured when we are past this specific crisis.

Our best to everyone, be safe, and keep up the great work.

Sincerely,

Blair Satterfield, Associate Professor & Chair, Architecture
Dr. Adam Rysanek, Assistant Professor
Graham Entwistle, Workshop + Digital Fabrication Supervisor
AnnaLisa Meyboom, Associate Professor
Robert Geyer, Coordinator, Facilities + Digital Resources
Adriana Ermi-Sprung, Workshop + Digital Fabrication Technician
Derek Mavis, M.Arch Candidate
Rachel Kiloh, M.Arch Student
Valerine Chandra, M.Arch Candidate
Stuart Lodge, MASA

The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

A collaboration between University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, CannonDesign, and MaterialsIn. Michael Tunkey is the project leader and organizer of the Covid-19 responses.⁣

⁣⁣There are many volunteers – including 50+ sewing volunteers. Below is a list of the primary people who have worked on the organization, design, and research. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣Frits Abell, Yu-Ping Chang, Melissa Chow, Lynne Deninger, Randy Fernando, Philip Gusmano, Joyce Hwang, Peter McCarthy, Prathima Nalam, Marisa Nemcik, Chitra Rajan, Krishna Rajan, Lindsay Romano, Joann Sands, Korydon Smith, Nicole Sowinski, Daniel Vrana, and Chris Whitcomb.

Professors use 3D Scanning technology to create customized face masks that are more comfortable for doctors and nurses. Read more…

CoD Assists in PPE Production for UK Healthcare

In response to the high demand for PPE in the healthcare industry due to COVID-19, the UK College of Design has been able to offer its skillset to help produce face shields. The College of Design has become the hub and point of contact for the design and production of face shields – both the ones that cover the forehead down as well as the ones that go from the neck to the top of the head, each one serving a different purpose to prevent the spread of germs.

Joe Brewer, Director of Facilities in the College of Design, has spearheaded the effort to synchronize members of campus to help with this production. With input from Chief Technology Officer/Associate CIO Jason McReynolds and Assistant Chief Medical Officer for Inpatient Service Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates at UK HealthCare, the College of Design developed the prototype and is now working on the final iteration. Because of the dire need for this PPE, Doug Klein, Director of Innovation Center at the UK College of Engineering, has offered their 3D printing services to the College of Design to make the bands for the face shields.

The College of Design will produce as many face shields as possible until the demand is met or until mass production is possible. Afterward, the College will pivot to the next PPE device that UK Healthcare deems essential. “The global magnitude of the coronavirus has been daunting, but the silver lining is that we have been able to put product design into practice to offer some much-needed relief, even before our new program launches” said Mitzi Vernon, Dean of the College of Design. “Designers are nimble and can change on the fly to respond to crisis.”

Read more… https://design.uky.edu/newsevent/cod-assists-in-ppe-production-for-uk-healthcare/.

Led by University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning Design Fabrication Lab Director, Matt Gines and Design Fabrication Lab Professional, Paul Stockhoff, along with a number of faculty, staff, and students, we continue to contribute to the University of Colorado’s comprehensive make4covid efforts through printing our own approximately 200 medical face shield headbands to date, with an anticipated output of about 450 by the end of the spring semester. This effort was recently highlighted in CU Denver News here.

Students working on this printing exercise include Elizabeth Whitacre, Ethan Casselberry, Schawn Li, Sadie Thurston, Bo Lee, Chris Pennick, Mailys Steiblen, and Matt Hayes.

We are proud of all in our community for their hard work. We extend our gratitude to all who continue to work on this important effort, not just at CU Denver, but across the country in all architecture schools. If you would like to contribute in any way, or would like additional information on CU Denver’s efforts, please contact Marc Swackhamer, Chair of the Architecture Department, at marc.swackhamer@ucdenver.edu

University volunteers create face shields for health care workers
For the University of Louisiana at Lafayette mechanical engineering instructor Yasmeen Qudsi, a 3-D printer, a computer-controlled “cutting plotter” and thousands of sheets of laminating paper have been essential supplies as she works remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.

Read more…

UNCC Creates Collaborative to Manufacture PPE

Website: https://www.charlottemedi.org/ 
Injection Mold Design Downloads: https://www.charlottemedi.org/visors  
Work Website: https://coaa.uncc.edu/people/alex-cabral | www.storrslab.com
Work Instagram: @storrslab_uncc
Documentation: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mVmK-zSLhs_QZlcC7DQTmbqFT0I4xIm5?usp=sharing

In the past twenty days, this group has delivered 30,113 face shields to the Charlotte region, and the following states: South Carolina, California, New Jersey, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, Colorado, Louisiana, New York, and Washington D.C. Our goal is to deliver 50,000 face shields by 4/15 and 100,000 by 4/30.

We are a group of makers, hackers, designers, engineers, product managers, and teachers who formed into Charlotte MEDi with the mission of making a difference in the lives of healthcare workers. We knew that we could each leverage our expertise and personal networks to form a robust 3D printing farm, so we started there. The move to injection molding was quick but necessary given how quickly the COVID curve was rising. A more focused group of designers and engineers met with local plastic manufacturers to develop models, molds, and tooling. By collaborating directly with the industry experts, we went from 3D printing to injection molding in 2.5 days; typically a 6-8 week process.

Our goal has always been to share this process with those in other areas of the country (or globe) who could replicate it. There is no need for you to hit every hurdle we did. Take our files, take our tooling, take our hospital approvals, and start making connections in your local community. At each step, work directly with doctors, nurses, and hospital administration to ensure that what you do is worthwhile, helpful, and safe. Engage directly with the manufacturers and trust their experience. Do not be shy about asking for help and work with people who help to cover the things you are weakest at. Those relationships will create a robust interdisciplinary culture. Our communities are filled with brilliant minds and skilled workers who want to help make a difference, so start making phone calls. Talk with your friends, family, colleagues, and administrators. Shake every tree. On behalf of the Charlotte MEDi group, we are here to help make this process more streamlined for you.

In the past few days, a few of us have focused on delivering the 100,000 face shield goal. We receive, package, and ship over 10,000 parts per day at a warehouse space donated to us. The remainder of our group is focused on the next products needed by frontline healthcare workers. These projects are in the research and development phase but include respirator masks, cloth masks, ventilators, and ventilator splitters. Each project has a smaller focus group driving new ideas and mass manufacturing strategies, while the larger 3D printing farm keeps us nimble and capable of rapidly prototyping physical things we can evaluate. The goal here is to once again scale up a PPE product that the market is either ignoring or slow to catch up on. As these projects materialize, we will have additional files, designs, tooling, and experiences to share.

Thank you for participating in the webinar in early April, watching the recording, or finding this entry and reading through it. Please do not hesitate to be in touch. We need to work together to make a meaningful impact.

Watch the Video

Sincerely,
Alex Cabrel, acabral3@uncc.edu

There’s almost nothing that architects can’t do. Responding to a call for help in fabricating protective PPE face shields for the University Pennsylvania Hospital system, architecture students in the dozens responded to an invitation by architecture associate professor Franca Trubiano to participate in a crowdsourced initiative to 3-D print headbands and to laminate visors for protective visors; equipment essential to the mission of keeping COVID 19 particulates away from the faces of nurses, doctors and all manner of healthcare workers.

Under the guidance of Penn Health Tech and leadership of Mechanical Engineering faculty Mark Yim, the group of two dozen students is led by Anabella Fabiola Gilbert, Paul McCoy, and Ian Lai (first, second, and third-year students respectively). In less than two weeks, hundreds of pieces were delivered. So inventive were the students, that given the limited bed size of many of the students 3D printers, graduating student Rachel Kulish developed a three-part “Keystone” version of the Verkstan headband, which tested and approved by UPENN doctors, speaks to a true Pennsylvanian initiative and the architect’s imagination!

Read more: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/rapid-response-covid-19-puts-power-innovation-test

USC Architecture #OperationPPE is a volunteer network of USC Architecture faculty, students, alumni, friends, and more that are remotely 3D printing personal protection equipment for medical professionals battling on the front lines of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. What started as an open call to arms to USC Architecture faculty and students has since expanded to become a distributed network of volunteers and 3D printers that spans to all corners of Southern California and beyond.

• At this moment, our group consists of 224 volunteers with 213 3D printers distributed throughout Southern California and beyond (and growing).
• In less than a week, we have printed 1324 pseudo N95 face masks and 700 face shields.
• We are officially distributing to Keck Medicine, USC LA County Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and MLK Hospital in Watts.
• We are only printing Keck approved pseudo N95 masks and protective face shields. Though this gear has been tested and approved by Keck, it must be said that this is not true medical-grade equipment, and is the “back up to the back up”, and has been labeled as a step above our doctors wearing handmade masks, bandanas, and socks.
• There are two sizes of face masks M and L, and we are requiring a 2:1 ratio in respective quantities. The grid and cap are identical for both.
• It currently takes about 3.5 hours to print a single mask, and a $30 spool of filament can produce around a dozen masks.
• You can see our list of participants and inventory system here: https://bit.ly/USCArchPPE
• You can access our Keck approved STL files to print here, along with instructions: https://bit.ly/OperationPPE
• You can find photos and images from our network here: https://bit.ly/OperationPPEmedia
• We are coordinated by a very active Slack group where we share questions, tips & results, coordinate drop-offs and pickups of product and materials, and exchange about various issues as they arise.
• We have received, or are in the process of receiving funding from:
  • The Mayor’s Office
  • AIA California Council (American Institute of Architects) – $10,000
  • Gruen Associates
  • Warner Brothers
• We have been instructed not to assemble any of the parts, and are only being asked to deliver raw 3d printed parts as Keck will still need to sterilize all parts prior to assembly.
• We have drop-off bins to collect completed prints in the following locations:
  • USC Campus
    • USC Department of Public Safety
    • (213) 740- 6000, or text Officer Ed Macias at (714) 745- 2011
    • 3667 McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089
    • Bin location: inside DPS lobby, to the right behind the counter
  • DTLA
    • Contact: Alex Jamroz
    • (205) 382- 4601
    • One Santa Fe, 300 Santa Fe Avenue, Unit 439, Los Angeles, CA 90013
    • Bin location: outside of the apartment door. Please text and confirm before arriving to be able to access the building. The building security will not allow drop-offs in the building lobby.
  • San Gabriel Valley
    • Contact: Rachel Hamilton
    • (813) 240-9068
    • 719 1⁄2 Park Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 91030
    • Bin location: to the left of the front door on the porch
  • Westside
    • Contact: Tram Dang
    • (858) 231- 3090
    • 2612 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90064
    • Bin location: to the left of the front door on the porch
• Our members include people from the following organizations:
  • Schools
    • USC School of Architecture
    • Cal Poly SLO
    • Cal Poly Pomona
    • Santa Monica College
    • SCI-ARC
    • Mary R. Stauffer Middle School
    • University of Oregon
    • UCLA Extension
    • Wildwood School, (WISRD)
    • Western University of Health Sciences
    • Chatsworth High School
  • Firms
    • KAA Design
    • Brooks Scarpa
    • EYRC Architects
    • ARUP
    • Sunweaver Creative
    • Martin Bros
    • HGA Architects & Engineers
    • Tracy A. Stone Architect
    • Avant Leap Consulting
    • Michael Maltzan Architecture
    • HNTB
    • STIR Architecture
    • Gensler
    • Electronic Countermeasures
    • Aaron Neubert Architects
    • HDR
    • LOHA
    • Handventure
    • Design, Bitches
    • Torti Gallas + Partners
    • Warren Techentin Architecture [WTARCH]
    • Omgivning
    • Synthesis Design + Architecture
    • Patrick Tighe Architecture
    • Shimoda Design Group
    • MAPS [Methods for the Architecture of Patterns & Systems]
    • nnARCHITECTS, Inc.
    • Tomaro Architecture
    • Koning Eizenberg
    • Walter P Moore
    • Mega Plastering Systems Inc.
    • Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners
    • Kritzinger & Rao
    • HOK
    • IBI Group
    • KTGY
    • Studio-MLA
  • Non-profits
    • 3D Collaborative Network
    • Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities
    • Foundation For the Building Arts
• You can see other recent press about our movement here:
  • Curbed LA: https://bit.ly/3aVW7pg
  • LA Times: https://lat.ms/2xVso0U
  • CBS News: https://cbsloc.al/2UWghbI
  • Architectural Digest: https://bit.ly/2UDBOai
  • KCRW: https://kcrw.co/3aFdRoG
  • USC: https://bit.ly/2XenW8j
  • Architects Newspaper: https://bit.ly/34cxjq9
  • Architect Magazine: https://bit.ly/3bUaVVt
  • Archinect: https://bit.ly/3dZ41jx