3D Printing to Support the Shortage in Personal Protective Equipment Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic

• Main Authors: Mostapha Tarfaoui, Mourad Nachtane, Ibrahim Goda, Yumna Qureshi, Hamza Benyahia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: <i>COVID-19</i>; novel coronavirus; medical devices; personal protective equipment; additive manufacturing/3D printing; technical considerations
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/15/3339

Currently, the emergence of a novel human coronavirus disease, named COVID-19, has become a great global public health concern causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans. Yet, there is no specific vaccine or treatment for this COVID-19 where anti-disease measures rely on preventing or slowing the transmission of infection from one person to another. In particularly, there is a growing effort to prevent or reduce transmission to frontline healthcare professionals. However, it is becoming an increasingly international concern respecting the shortage in the supply chain of critical single-use personal protective equipment (PPE). To that scope, we aim in the present work to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest 3D printing efforts against COVID-19, including professional <em>additive manufacturing</em> (AM) providers, makers and designers in the 3D printing community. Through this review paper, the response to several questions and inquiries regarding the following issues are addressed: technical factors connected with AM processes; recommendations for testing and characterizing medical devices that additively manufactured; AM materials that can be used for medical devices; biological concerns of final 3D printed medical parts, comprising biocompatibility, cleaning and sterility; and limitations of AM technology.