According to the article published at issue no. 460 of macplasonline, the Italians are ahead of helping to fight COVID-19 from 100,000 Euro of Zoppas family to the decree of the Italian President of the Council of Ministers (DPCM) (next news). Of course Italy is now the number one in mortality rate among all other countries.
In this moment of public health emergency caused by the outbreak of Covid-19, the healthcare sector is facing unprecedented challenges. In particular, the virus outbreak is causing severe shortages of critical medical equipment in hospitals or limited access to essential pieces, in particular valves or ventilators.
Cecimo, as the European association for Additive Manufacturing was requested by the European Commission to address its membership and query if it would be able to aid in producing equipment (for instance, valves or ventilators) that hospitals are lacking due to the Covid-19 outbreak in Europe. Consequently, Cecimo has decided to expand the call for action to all AM companies, urging everybody who has the possibility to do so, to assist the needs of hospitals all over Europe.
The response from Cecimo Members has been so far very positive, with many companies from the 3Dprinting industry already volunteering to aid hospitals and health centers by proposing the use of their machines. Cecimo believes that the additive manufacturing sector can be the right answer to reach immediate solutions. A good example is the case of the Italian startup Isinnova, which offered their printer to a hospital in lack of valves for their medical devices.
In the past few days, the news traveled around the world of the initiative taken by the company in response to the call for help from the hospital of Chiari, near Brescia. The company made its 3D printer available to produce more than a hundred valves in a 24 hour period to be used for respirators for intensive care units. At that time none of the hospital’s suppliers were able to deliver these valves with such a quick turnaround.
