A fantastic report, great to read! I knew people with 3D printers had organized to design and print PPE so I was really curious to hear more about the experience of doing this.
One thing doesn't make sense to me. It is repeatedly said that 3D printing doesn't work for high-volume manufacturing. What doesn't make sense is that 3D printers, as a general manufacturing tool, can be owned by millions of people on the planet. And if there's a need to produce something rapidly, then millions of printers can manufacture that thing simultaneously. Hard to beat by traditional manufacturing models. Does this make sense? I understand that there would be challenges with sourcing materials but nothing that can't be overcome, I imagine. Curious to hear your thoughts.
Thank you @borislavzlatanov !
Yes, what you are saying makes sense and that's what happened during the lockdown. But today, there are way too few 3D printers per capita to meet the demand we had when the outbreaks started. Printing hundreds of face shields at home takes a lot of time to set up the printer before each print, check the progress regularly, clean the models, send them, and fix the machine. All of that for a relatively low quantity produced and a higher price per piece compared to injection molding.
And we had a big shortage of filament and 3D printers during the lockdown.
I totally agree with you, if more people can have access to easy to use 3D printing technologies, it could be a great alternative to mass production for simple objects. But apart from the learning curve pretty steep for a lot of people and the price, the biggest obstacles for the PPE are the regulation, you have to get your production certified, and the quality between 2 prints can vary a lot (unlike traditional manufacturing).
Great, thank you for the info! And keen to read more about 3D printing if you have plans to post more on this topic. :)