Fighting COVID-19 with 3D printing

There is a growing movement across the globe to use 3D printing against limited supplies of medical care for frontline healthcare workers. Nations across the world are trying to meet the growing shortage of masks, testing swabs, and face shields through whatever means possible.

Omar Badar, an assembly engineer at Texas Instruments, understood this need for desperate measures as he sat to find out the best 3D-printed face shield design online. The final proposal for production features a design plan that was faster and 100% more efficient than the others. It was sent for manufacturing at the Kuala Lampur site of Texas Instruments, three days later the company had its first prototype.

Image showing faceshield prototype prepared by TI Engineer For healthworkers

In Omar’s words, “It was important to come up with a more efficient design for production. We’re now printing about 20 face shields per day and will deliver them weekly to public healthcare providers.”

TI has committed $250, 000 for Malaysia and the same amount for the Philippines as the two countries strive to control the devastating effects of this disease on local communities.. Omar adds, “While our nation is on lockdown, we come to the site every day to make these masks.”

Similarly, Donald Dorak, the 12-year old son of two TI engineers, felt compelled to become part of this fight against COVID-19. His mother says, “We had a 3D printer sitting in our house that we planned to donate to Donald’s school. It was supposed to be installed over his spring break. I showed Donald the online training for setting up the design, and he ran with it.

Link to full blog post on E2E community here.