Impact of 3D Printed Components and Ventilators on COVID-19

The disease caused by a virus known as the novel Coronavirus, also known as “COVID-19” by the public, was classified as a major epidemic by the World Health Organisation in 2019. Each country across the globe is affected by COVID-19. While writing this, over 150 million people were affected by the fast-spreading deadly pandemic, and over 3.5 million deaths due to COVID-19 were reported worldwide as per WHO’s official COVID-19 dash panel-https://covid19.who.int/Economy and social life of no territory on earth was left unaffected by the COVID-19. Now vaccines are ready, it may take a reasonable amount of time to complete the vaccination process. One major challenge was the need for more support equipment like Beds, Oxygen Cylinders, and Ventilators. Improvisation in the mass production of many critical components, especially those supporting 3D printing technology, has shown some well-managed results in handling the shortage of many critical components. This chapter examines and describes how 3D printing technologies were used during the dangerous pandemic. It aims to describe many 3D-printed devices like face masks, face shields, various valves, etc. It also makes an effort to point out the dominant drawbacks of additive manufacturing technology in this area and examines the options for a future pandemic.

Keywords: 3D printing, Additive Manufacturing, Additive Printing Materials, Assistive respiration, Berating machine, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Extrusion based 3D printing, Lamination based 3D printing, Life-supporting devices, Lung disease, Materials Jetting, Pandemic, Photo Polymerization 3D printing, Powderbased 3D printing, Pulmonary infections, Shortage of ventilators, Ventilator components, Ventilator valves, Ventilators.