It has been just over a year since the UK experienced its very
first lockdown during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
This week we caught up with Chistos Softas (a PhD researcher at UoB) to reflect on his role in helping to tackle the nationwide shortage of PPE equipment for medical staff in the UK back in Spring 2020.
Christos: Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) shortage was a major
problem during the initial stages of the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak.
Addressing this problem was essential for healthcare workers since they were in
the front line of the fight against the pandemic.
There was a huge response from various individuals and companies in tackling this issue and one of the proposed solutions came from Prusa Research a well known company who produce 3D printers. They designed a face shield consisting of 3D printed parts and easily sourced materials; their design was approved by various heath organisations around the globe and the relevant files could be accessed freely on their website.
In 2019 I was funded by B-Enterprising through the Ideas
Fund for starting my very own 3D printing business. Since I had an FDM
3D printer at my disposal I decided to help in tackling this PPE shortage and
in March 2020 I joined an initiative led by Solid
Print 3D and 3P
Innovations that would provide 3D printed face shields to healthcare
workers.
I printed 50 headbands/chin pieces and shipped them to Solid Print 3D where
quality inspection took place. Subsequently, they were dispatched at 3P
Innovations for sterilization, assembly (i.e. visor, head straps etc.) and
distribution.
In total 40000 visors were delivered to the NHS and medical professionals all
around the UK.