3D Printing for COVID-19: ID Badge/Door Opener from 3D LifePrints UK

A number of small companies are attempting to support the supply shortages being faced by hospitals in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak and provide new devices that can reduce the potential risk of contamination for medical professionals. Meanwhile, some large manufacturers that might be deployed for a massive World War Two-style production effort are not stepping up or being government mandated to provide production capacity. In fact, they are even laying off staff in the midst of a health crisis that has also become an economic crisis. (See our comments about GE worker protests in a previous article for an example.)

One such small firm lending a hand to the supply shortages is 3D LifePrints UK, an additive medical device manufacture specialist that makes such items as implants for craniofacial surgery, surgical guides and pre-surgical models for National Health Service trusts, medical device companies, research institutions and others in the U.K., Europe and around the world. 

3D LifePrints has been asked by a number of medical institutions to investigate and provide prototype designs for personal protection equipment (PPE) such as Facial mask connectors, mounts for ICU devices that are being moved into other venues, and a simple 3D printable device called the “Distancer.” This last item makes it possible for healthcare professionals to open a door or swipe an ID card without the need to touch potentially contaminated surfaces. 

“A doctor goes through a door up to 150 times a day in a hospital. The phrase we hear all the time is ‘the doors are like lava.’ The surface retention of COVID-19 is quite high on stainless steel and plastic,” founder and CTO Paul Fotheringham said.

Fotheringham explained that, in addition to the regular protocol for which hospital employees use their IDs, presenting proper identification in healthcare facilities is necessary to prevent the theft of supplies by hospital staff. 

To ensure the maintenance of proper protocol and prevent the spread of the virus, 3D LifePrints UK and the Alder Hey NHS Foundation Trust designed a 3D printed device that can hang off a keychain or lanyard and allow for the slide insert of a user’s electronic ID card. The Distancer features a handle so that the user does not have to touch the actual card, a hook that allows users to open a door, and a flat end for pushing doors closed. 

The company is 3D printing the items from materials that will not deteriorate during the cleaning process, which is essential for items that have exposure to COVID-19: nylon PA 12, ABS or anti-microbial PLA that includes an embedded nano-copper additive. It is available in two designs, either flat-packed with living hinges and one-click assembly, which could be mass produced with injection molding, or a 3D printed version.  

The 3D printed Distancer from 3D LifePrints UK. The file is available for download on the company website. Image courtesy of 3D LifePrints UK.

3D LifePrints is in the process of producing and delivering 4,000 Distancers to NHS hospitals at the moment, while it designs and evaluates other items. The firm is also working with the NHS to develop a specialty connector that can join an off-the-shelf scuba mask to an anesthesia filter that results in a respirator-style device for clinicians (not patients). This is in contrast to the CPAP-type device being developed in Italy using masks from Decathlon. The device is currently being evaluated with the NHS, but it is promising due to the fact that the scuba mask is form fitting and sealed against the face with rubber in a way that is required for the safety of clinicians.  

Fotheringham stressed that 3D LifePrints didn’t simply begin making supplies for the U.K.’s medical facilities out of the blue, but is acting on specific requests from the NHS and British hospitals and is working with medical partners to ensure the safety of the devices, while it is his firm’s job to design, iterate and produce the parts to the needs and specifications of the medical professionals. 

Typically, these devices would require significant clinical testing and approval from the proper regulatory bodies, but due to the emergency nature of the current public health crisis, devices that have not yet received certification are being fast-tracked for approval. 

Other considerations being taken into account are the specific production technologies and materials used to produce parts. More common and less expensive material extrusion printers, for instance, are known to make items that are more porous and have rougher surface finish than those made with selective laser sintering and other polymer powder bed fusion technologies. This reduces the chance for bacteria developing in hidden crevices and makes the parts easier to clean. 

As for materials, the company is focusing on the ability of plastics to withstand the use of chemical disinfectants to minimize the degradation of the part over time. In this case, PLA (the most common polymer used in desktop machines and made from corn starch), is not ideal. However, polypropylene, from which 3D LifePrints intends to injection mold its Distancer, is more durable and can sustain repeated cleanings. 

Fotheringham urged 3D printing enthusiasts and experts to use caution and proper time management when volunteering to combat the COVID-19 supply crisis. He suggested that these devices should be made in conjunction with medical professionals to ensure proper protocol is followed. One way would be to use official channels such as the FDA in the U.S., who we have reached out to in order to learn more about the safety of 3D printed medical devices made in response to the public health crisis. We will cover this topic in greater depth in a follow-up article.

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Airbus Subsidiary Uses Full-Color Multi Jet Fusion for Maintenance Tooling

Among the most exciting aspects of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology when initially unveiled was the ability to 3D print functional objects in a full range of color. Though it took a couple of years for it to happen, that capability finally hit the market in 2018 with the release of the HP Jet Fusion 300/500 Color 3D Printer range. Now we are beginning to see the applications that a broad spectrum of hues has in practice. Airbus services company Satair used the technology to 3D print a series of tools for its maintenance operations.

Used to gag the main landing gears on the A380, the GAGS tool pads were redesigned to improve the strength-to-weight ratio, resulting in 60 percent mass reduction. Image courtesy of HP.

Satair turned to service bureau Fast Radius with the ultimate goal of to speed up aircraft repair with the use of 3D printed tools. As a member of HP’s Digital Manufacturing Network, Fast Radius leveraged MJF to print tools for the company. In particular, the color printing capabilities of the Jet Fusion 580 Color system were utilized to 3D print bright red and orange tools in order to improve job safety and ensure that tools were not misplaced after use. The tools were also optimized to reduce total part count, enhance robustness and integrate new functions.

One particularly unique feature about the company is the fact it has a production hub on-site at the UPS Worldport facility in Louisville, Kentucky, allowing it to potentially ship parts at greater speeds than other service providers.

This pintle bearing alignment tool is used to bear in the rear spar prior to installing it during the installation of the main landing gear installation. Assembly was reduced from four parts to two. Image courtesy of HP.

Three new tools were redesigned and printed by HP and Fast Radius for Satair: GAGS tool pads, pintle bearing alignment tools, and flap zero locking tools. MJF was chosen in part for the ability to 3D print durable parts with the mechanical properties necessary for harsh aircraft repair environments. Specifically, HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 was chosen due to its chemical resistance to oils, grease, aliphatic hydrocarbons and alkalies.

3D printing the parts also sped up design time, as multiple iterations could be produced at once within a single build. The use of color also allowed for the communication of information in unique ways, such as 3D printing part numbers, serial numbers and scannable QR codes directly onto the tool.

Whereas Satair previously waited weeks for new tools to be manufactured, this project saw Fast Radius print, inspect, package and ship two tools in less than 48 hours. This was enabled in part by Fast Radius’s logistics partnership with UPS, with which it sent the items from Chicago to Hamburg, Germany.

This flap zero locking tool is used to lock flaps in the A320 cockpit. The assembly was reduced from six parts to two and resulted in a lead time reduction of 50 percent. Image courtesy of HP.

The use of 3D printing by Satair is just another notch in Airbus’s belt, as the aerospace giant deploys AM all across its business to the point that it is probably not necessary to recount all of the ways it is being used, but we can highlight the myriad parts printed for the A350 XWB, as well as the work of Premium AEROTEC and APWorks.

As for Fast Radius, this is another interesting customer from the service bureau, which is fond of emerging AM technologies. For instance, the company also used Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis to print parts for Steelcase’s office chair. Outside of 3D printing, Fast Radius offers a number of other manufacturing services, including CNC machining and injection molding. With the Fast Radius Virtual Warehouse, the company is hoping to implement the concept of digital inventory, in which digital files replace physical stock, with goods manufactured on-demand.

As with 3D printing itself, it will take some time for designers and engineers to fully grasp the potential of producing parts in full color. The ability to use bright pigments for safety purposes and to embed QR codes is just the beginning. HP previously demonstrated the use of colors to exhibit the level of wear on a part, so that, as it is worn down, it shows new colors that can be more easily quantified. Augmented reality applications could also be developed based on embedded symbols in a part. In the near future, we may see even more interesting uses of full color printing of end parts.

The post Airbus Subsidiary Uses Full-Color Multi Jet Fusion for Maintenance Tooling appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Evonik and Evolve Additive Solutions partner to develop new materials for STEP 3D printing

Evonik, a leading German chemical company, has announced a partnership with Evolve Additive Solutions to advance the range of thermoplastic materials for Evolve’s Selective Thermoplastic Electrophotographic Process (STEP) technology. “STEP has been developed for volume manufacturing so offering the widest range of thermoplastic materials to our customers is a critical element for production,” stated Steve […]

Researchers Investigate Applicability of Using 3D Printing for Mass Production of Satellites

[Image: Tomsk Polytechnic University]

As the world works to find faster, more cost-effective ways to get to space, it’s necessary to test out innovative, modern technologies, such as 3D printing, rather than stick to the more conventional but expensive methods. Most current 3D printed thermoplastic satellites are developed as part of academic projects that have a low budget, such as the small Tomsk-TPU-120, and it’s very important to achieve fast, flexible, and automated serial production of reliable satellites for less money.

This is the subject of a paper, titled “Material Characterization of Additively Manufactured PA12 and Design of Multifunctional Satellite Structures,” that was written by a collaborative group of researchers from the the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), and the University of Stuttgart Institute of Space Systems (IRS).

Exploded view of the technology demonstrator with GPS receiver unit.

The abstract reads, “Increasing cost pressure on satellite builders and their suppliers push the motivation to open up for new designs and processes. This paper investigates the applicability of thermoplastic additive manufacturing for mass production of satellites. First, the potential of the cost-effective 3D-printing material Polyamide 12 for space structures is examined. Tests include mechanical and thermal-vacuum properties. In the second step, a multifunctional technology demonstrator is designed and a first qualification test is performed. This demonstrator integrates electronic and thermal management components and shows considerable volume savings. Additionally, the automatable processes used for manufacturing enable further cost reductions in series production.”

The researchers worked to demonstrate the potential of their multifunctional, inexpensive, 3D printed satellite, first by testing how usable PA 12 – an easily processed thermoplastic material – is for mass-produced aerospace applications like satellites, and then by designing and testing a multifunctional demonstrator, which is basically a “sandwich with a 3D-printed honeycomb core.”

“On the one hand, this makes so far unusable design space available,” the researchers said about their demonstrator’s structure. “On the other hand, it can be manufactured by highly automatable and flexible processes, for example by a combination of FFF printing and automated fiber placement (AFP). The demonstrator structure is used to show the possible solutions for integrating functions into the structure by 3D-printing. Furthermore, it demonstrates the potential of multifunctional structures for future satellites. To demonstrate the applied integration concepts, an additional shaker specimen is designed and tested.”

In order to test out both FDM and SLS 3D printing, the team used Stratasys’ carbon fiber-reinforced polymer Nylon 12CF and PA 2200 from EOS for their research, and performed mechanical, outgassing, and thermal vacuum tests on specimens produced in three different orientations in order to measure the Young’s Modulus and tensile strength. In regards to the thermal vacuum cycling test, the mechanical properties of the 3D printed specimens were slightly improved, though elongation at break decreased.

Tensile strength of SLS processed PA 12 and short carbon fiber reinforced FFF
processed PA 12.

“The SLS processed pure PA shows mechanical properties very similar to the manufacturer specifications. It also does not show significant anisotropy with respect to the printing orientation. The carbon fiber reinforced PA, on the other hand, shows a strong anisotropy,” the researchers explained. “Regarding the in plane and sideways specimens, tensile strength is drastically increased by the reinforcement. The standing specimens, on the other hand, show reduced strength. Similar behavior can be observed regarding the Young’s Modulus. Young’s Modulus of the reinforced material, however, is always above the pure PA. Furthermore, it can be noted, that the standard deviation off all tests is less than 5 %.”

Test component for vibration testing; (a) the
printed honeycomb core with integrated electronics; (b) test component mounted on the shaker.

The team concluded that the PA materials do show good potential for inexpensive space applications, though an elaborate test program will be necessary for a true qualification process.

A technology demonstrator, which includes 3D printed cable ducts that integrate coaxial cables and cable bundles, was used to verify both the functionality and feasibility of the 3D printed satellites’ function-integration for electronic, propulsion, and thermal management components, and the researchers determined that, at least in this project, an integration of propulsion components was not feasible.

The researchers produced and submitted a test component, complete with a gyroscope sensor, connector, ultrasonic embedded wire, and other planned functions, to vibration testing. The component was made with a PETG honeycomb core, in order to “ensure that results on the functionality of the concept are available before the optimization of the printing process for the PEI honeycomb core.”

After the vibration test, the team detected no visible damage or change to natural frequency, and could verify the electronic system’s total functionality.

“The technology demonstrator points out the capability of multifunctional sandwich structures for satellites. The concept makes so far unusable design space accessible and can generate considerable volume savings. A First successful vibration test confirms the design,” the team concluded. “A weight reduction, on the other hand, is unlikely since printed honeycomb is not lighter than standard aluminum honeycombs. However, the multifunctional structure offers further cost saving by an automated production suitable for mass production and reduced assembling costs.”

The researchers determined that several additional steps, such as a comprehensive cost analysis, are required in order to present a “holistic evaluation of the presented concept”

Co-authors of the paper are Simon Hümbert, Lukas Gleixner, Emanuel Arce, Patrick Springer, Michael Lengowski, and Isil Sakraker Özmen.

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