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When the Urgent Task is a Mask

Czech tech team rallies around 3D printing to protect medical crews fast

May 21, 2020

Neither Alex Lazarov nor Ondřej Stefek could claim they saw COVID-19 coming—but they’ll gladly take credit for being on the right side of luck and timing when it struck. In just a week, Alex Lazarov, a young Czech university researcher, and his colleagues designed a 3D-printable mask to protect those who were risking their lives to save others every day as the pandemic took hold. The team’s quick response was only possible, however, because mere weeks earlier an HP Multi Jet Fusion printer had been installed by Stefek, co-owner and chief operating officer of Prague-based 3Dees Industries, at the Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, particularly at CTU’s Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC). COVID-19 compelled Lazarov and the team at CIIRC to get familiar with the specialized 3D printer incredibly fast—learning by doing.
Alex Lazarov, a scientist at CIIRC CTU, who designed the CIIRC RP95-3D half-mask

Alex Lazarov, a scientist at CIIRC CTU, who designed the CIIRC RP95-3D half-mask

Another bit of luck also on their side: Lazarov’s colleagues at CIIRC had already been working on sophisticated industrial design projects. When the virus began spreading through central Europe in mid-March, the university research team and Stefek were perfectly positioned to organize rapid 3D print production of respirators for hospital workers. “As soon as we saw the need at hospitals, we were with them from the start,” Dr. Vít Dočkal says of his colleagues, the CIIRC researchers and scientists. “We developed the idea of a 3D-printed respirator, connected a network of stakeholders together who could help scale the operation and helped start production on all the printers in the country.” 

Dočkal says the CIIRC team normally develops advanced techniques and new approaches in line with Industry 4.0 production. That work mostly takes place in a new international unit established by CIIRC together with its German partners called the Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production (RICAIP), funded by the European Union. But when COVID-19 hit, “We realized that our resources could be very well used for this purpose,” says Dočkal. The power of multi-site yet fully integrated production was behind the development of the respirator from the very beginning.

 

Innovation and collaboration

The challenge was creating a simple, reusable mask that could be rapidly printed on an HP Multi Jet Fusion and that provided 100 percent protection from the virus. (Conventional paper surgical masks don’t create a perfect seal against germs.) The CIIRC scientists came up with a design that incorporates an off-center port to accommodate a screw-on, disposable P3 filter. The mask had to be sterilizable (requiring the use of non-porous PA-12 plastic powder, which HP provided at cost) and comfortable to wear.

The 3Dees team helping to package respirators for hospitals in the Czech Republic

The 3Dees team helping to package respirators for hospitals in the Czech Republic

The result was the CIIRC RP95-3D, which looks a bit like a World War I gas mask. The designers incorporated small grab handles so caregivers can position the mask on their face without touching the inside surface. And in a bit of patriotic pride, the grille over the nose port is printed in the geometric pattern of the Czech flag.

It took just a week for the mask to be thoroughly tested and approved, as a personal protective device with an exchangeable P3 filter according to the EN 140:1999 norm providing the highest measure of protection at the level of FFP3 respirators.

Meanwhile, the team was also rallying other companies in the Czech Republic that own HP 3D printers including car maker ŠKODA and the local plant of the German conglomerate Siemens, both long-term collaborators of CIIRC. Because Stefek is the go-to 3D technology guy in the Czech Republic—delivering and supplying all seven HP industrial printers in the country, the coalition came together quickly.

The CIIRC RP95 3-D mask, created with HP 3D printing technology

The CIIRC RP95 3-D mask, created with HP 3D printing technology

At ŠKODA AUTO, which is owned by Volkswagen and had been shut down during the pandemic, engineers tested the printing process that the scientists optimized to increase production; soon they were cranking out 60 masks a day, in batches that take 16 hours to print and another 16 to cool.

“Everything was fine-tuned so that the respirators in a batch were as close as possible without affecting each other,” Martin Sova, coordinator of plastics production at ŠKODA Technical Development. “The printing was as efficient as possible, from start to finish."

In under two weeks, the seven printers in the country had made 600 copies for the Ministry of Health. Today, the production rate is 2,000 every week.

All the printed parts are delivered to Stefek and his team at 3Dees, where the respirators are then assembled. The Ministry of Health decides which hospitals are most in need of them.

Expanding demand, at home and around the world

Besides providing the plastic powder at cost, HP helped promote the new mask beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. So far, more than 80 organizations from more than 30 countries around the world with Multi Jet Fusion printers have downloaded the 3D printing data from their site to be able to produce the masks based on the Czech team’s original design.

Czech Technical University has shared the design software freely for all non-commercial uses; Dočkal says organizations that have expressed interest include the Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Navy, where COVID-19 outbreaks on deployed ships have generated headlines. Critically, the mask can be adapted to hold other styles of screw-on filters, which differ around the world. 

“We’re seeing the HP Jet Fusions used for different kinds of respirators in other countries where they got inspired by the Czech case, and now they can create their own, which is nice,” says Dočkal.

A 3-D printed CIIRC RP95-3D mask before being cleaned

A 3-D printed CIIRC RP95-3D mask before being cleaned

In addition to the requests from around the world, the CIIRC team is fielding demand from civilians who want the respirators while they care for elderly parents at home who have Covid-19—as well as from parents of children with immune deficiencies who are undergoing cancer therapy.

The CIIRC CTU scientists are also working to improve the mask itself. “We’re trying to invent some alternatives to the external filter, which is quite bulky,” Dočkal says. “We have a couple of companies who have made many advances in nano textiles; we want to develop our own nano-technology filters which would be lighter and easier to use.”

One concern, says Dočkal, is that hobbyists are downloading the design file and creating versions on home 3D printers, which can’t meet the strict and consistent standards required to guarantee protection. “It’s specifically designed to be printed using HP’s Jet Fusion 4200 or 5200 series,” he stresses.

Indeed, after troops of Czech Scouts, currently out of school, started home-printing the respirators, they were asked instead to donate their time to 3Dees Industries by assembling conventional masks for the public. They did—in khaki, of course.

3D printing a virtual stockpile

The next step is ramping up conventional factory production of the respirators; injection molds are being developed to do so. That will be important since governments worldwide will eventually need to replenish their stocks of personal protective gear. Stefek sees an ongoing role for 3D printing when crises hit—what they call “virtual stockpiling.”

Ôn behalf of the CIIR team, Dr. Vit Dočkal delivers respirator masks to Adam Vojtech, the Czech Minister of Health

Ôn behalf of the CIIR team, Dr. Vit Dočkal delivers respirator masks to Adam Vojtech, the Czech Minister of Health

“After this crisis fades, which we expect in upcoming months, governments should start thinking about the strategic infrastructure that you should keep locally,” Štefek says. “When all of your suppliers are in the Far East, when the next crisis comes you are cut off from your supply chain, which we are now seeing in Europe.” Dočkal agrees: “Advanced production based on multi-site and additive manufacturing, including 3D printing, could help,” he says. “The long-term impact is that the production can be moved from off-shore back to the end-markets, in our case to Europe. The flexible production enables to produce individualized products with the same efficiency that you can currently only see in mass production. This is the path that we follow in the RICAIP center, too.”

3D printing is typically associated with fast-moving entrepreneurs seeking rapid iterations, but Stefek and Dočkal envision a larger, institutional landscape for the medium. As proven on the CIIRC mask, startup companies—in this particular case, a new university spin-off, TRIX Connections, can also help model a product during an emergency in the form of production-as-a service, a new approach promoted by RICAIP. 

“A Ministry of Defense could have the 3D machines themselves, and in a crisis, they could easily activate the technology and start printing the 3D data they have already prepared,” Štefek says. “So, governments could have a virtual stockpile at the ready.”

 

About HP

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Chad Mack