Subido por Antonio Javier Sanchez Herencia

difusion COVID19 FFF

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DIFUSSION
PRINTABLE PRODUCTS FOR NEW MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES
HOW 3D PRINTING COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTED TO FIGHT COVID-19
A. Eguiluza, A.J. Sanchez-Herenciaa,b
a.- Tailoring Through Colloidal Processing GroupInstituto de Cerámica y Vidrio(CSIC), Madrid, Spain
b.- COLFEED4Print founder
Manufacture of breathing machines and face protecting shields by 3D printing is appearing in media press as
a method to relief the stress that healthcare resources are suffering by the high number of contagions of
COVID-19. Here it is presented the technology behind the Fused Filament Fabrication to understand why is
used in fighting the pandemic.
The pandemic COVID-19 has reach to keep the entire world on edge of its medical capabilities. Most of
countries are implementing safety measures like mobility restrictions or totally lockouts for the whole
nation. The point in this is an attempt to break the fast increase of infected people. In many countries,
included Spain, this situation has caught unaware to the healthcare systems, who have suffered the lack
of the necessary equipment to combat the critical situation that we are living.
In some cases, the infected by COVID-19
patients require respirator machines,
which are not available. In other cases,
the healthcare workers do not have the
individual
protection
equipment
necessary lower the risk of contagious
when attending to patients. Parts to
assembly these equipments are usually
fabricated by the technique of injection
moulding, where a melted plastic is
injected into a mould and cooled until the
plastic solidify and harden, keeping the
piece the shape of the mould. This is the
most extended shaping method for quick
fabrication of pieces of plastic. But
adaptation of the production lines,
specially the fabrication of moulds, is a
process that delays and takes a time
which now is not available. It is under this
Figure 1. A) Controlling software of the FFF Printer; B) emergency where the 3D printing
Experimental printer of laboratory; C) Scheme of the FFF community is developing the potential of
printing device
the
most
disseminated
Additive
Manufacturing technique, the Fused
Filament Fabrication or FFF. But, what is 3D printing and how it can tackle the necessities of parts
for breathing machines or protection equipments?
COLFEED4Print
 Calle García de Paredes 66
28010 Madrid
Spain
 https:/www.colfeed.es/
info@colfeed.es
@colfeed
COLFEED4Print
HOW 3D PRINTING COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTED TO FIGHT COVID-19
Firstly, it is necessary to clarify
that most of the news citing 3D
printing, are referring to the
technique known as Fused
Filament Fabrication (FFF) or
Fused
Deposition
Modelling
(FDM). As any other Additive
Manufacturing technique, the FFF
creates a physical object from a
digital model (usually a CAD
representation) which is sliced in
layers at consecutive height
levels. A computerized interface
drives a machine to lay down the
successive slices of material,
following the profiles defined by
CAD model. There are many
Figure 2. A) First layer of shield frame support; B and C) Frames
different types of additive
finished by FFF (Courtesy of Guillermo Frías); D) Assembled in
manufacturing (or 3D Printing)
use by healthcare personnel at Hospital La Paz, Madrid.
techniques which are classified
by the technology and material that employ in the process of fabrication.
This technology does not require of high energetic sources nor heavy machinery, nor toxic materials,
which makes FFF a very versatile technique and a perfect process to novel users, reasons why is the
most disseminated technology (Figure 1) in our society. 3D scanners, design tools software and internet
apps allow the creation of CAD files (with extensions STL, OBJ, 3DS, etc.) with the digital information of
the pieces to be fabricated by non-expert users.
The extensive use of the FFF equipment in houses, laboratories and crafts, the economic access to
filament and the easy distribution of the files with the shape information (extensions STL, OBJ, 3DS,
etc…) has been the weapons used by the 3D printing community to help during the pandemic crisis of
COVID-19. Several Spanish consortia composed of medical doctors, engineers and scientists have
fabricated innovative breathing machines with parts and connections designed by CAD to be fabricated
by FFF. For these parts with complex shapes and under cyclic stresses, the materials have to be tough
(ABS or PC), the equipment of high performance and the operator expert. Although this is not the more
extended case of equipment, the adaptability of the technique has been critical to address the quick
fabrication of the designed parts.
Other goal of the community has been the fast response to the lack of individual protection for the
healthcare workers. In this case, from novel users to big companies have printed face shields to help to
dodge this problem. In this case the large number of pieces demanded and the lower of the mechanical
requirements have enabled the participation of many anonymous individuals as well as private and
public institutions (like CSIC), universities (URJC, UC3M, UPM, etc…) or 3D printing platforms (FAB3D,
Aditimat-CM, etc…). In this case the most employed material has been PLA, which has a lower melting
temperature and provides a certain plasticity to the frames, making possible a better adjustment to the
head (figure 2).
COLFEED4Print
 https:/www.colfeed.es/
PRINTABLE PRODUCTS FOR NEW MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES
info@colfeed.es
@colfeed
COLFEED4Print
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