EOS on inspiring designers to use the full potential of 3D printing against COVID19

Welcome to Technology Forward. I’m here today with Laura Gilmour, EOS global medical business development manager. EOS was one of the founding developers of additive technology. Today we’re going to discuss how this industry can help in the fight against this pandemic. So, thank you for joining me today, Laura.

Gilmour:
Thank you so much for having me.

MPF:
Let’s begin with how the additive manufacturing industry can and should work together to help those with 3D printing capabilities with the knowledge, tools and resources needed to pivot operations and begin creating critical medical supplies.

Gilmour:
Sure. So the way that we have seen and have discussed internally about how additive can really help, and this is not very different from the way that we see things in a normal operating area, but the four areas where we think additive can really help the medical industry is, we’ve termed it to be a little bit more easy to remember in our own heads and others, would be bridge, adapt, accelerate, and sustain.

And what I mean by that is bridge would be the things we’re seeing constantly on the LinkedIn and social media channels, filling that critical immediate need. So, whether that’s face shields or spares and repair parts that we saw in Italy, things of that nature. And that’s something we’ve seen quite a lot of. Adapt would be to help repurpose existing equipment. This is like the idea of the ventilator splitters, which we’ve seen some research done to show success on that, previous research. And the third point would be accelerate. So this is thinking in terms of rapid tooling for traditional manufacturing, helping them get to the point where they can bring up a new line faster, or because we’re dealing with a disrupted manufacturing supply chain, help provide Search Results Featured snippet from the web unsourceable parts, or long lead-time, with potentially help from regulators on material substitution.

And the final part is sustain. So the best way to prevent or to solve a problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. And this is where I think additive manufacturing can really shine. Because what you can do is you can design critical items for future problem avoidance. So, you could say, in medicine for example, you could have a parallel path of manufacturing with the traditional way for when you’re doing your standard operating procedure of, I need X number of whatever it is a month.

But then if you have an additive design, so if you have a surge in need, you could turn on the distributed manufacturing network that EOS has all around the world, and just immediately be able to use that design that has already been through the clearance procedures and are familiar with … from the regulating bodies. And this could actually potentially be a huge cost saver and a great way to respond to something like this, especially if you can analyze what are the critical components or critical … whether it’s medical equipment or transportation or whatever it is. It’s a really great way to think differently about how you’re manufacturing and setting up your contingency plans or crisis management.

MPF:
This could actually be a real opportunity for additive manufacturing. How do you see the additive community’s response benefiting the additive industry as a whole?

Gilmour:
I think that the industry is really getting to show general lay people that aren’t familiar with manufacturing, what it is. Because really, if you think about it, if manufacturing’s working correctly, it’s a little bit boring on the … No offense to the manufacturing folks because it’s a really important need. But you want it to be boring. You don’t want to have to do corrective actions all the time and things of that nature. So, this is really getting manufacturing and what that actually means out to the general public and helping them to understand why things can take long or whatever it is. And then additive can bridge that gap, if you’re in a situation or a crisis as we are now, to help the supply chain function in a more concise way.

MPF:
So how do you think this will impact the healthcare supply chain?

Gilmour:
And we’re talking about the disruption of it currently, correct?

MPF:
Correct.

Gilmour:
Okay. So, the way that we’re seeing things currently, and it’s changing all the time, but the supply and raw materials for a component … for example, when you make something like a ventilator, you’re sourcing parts, potentially, from many different sub-manufacturers or subcontractors. And so if raw materials or if those sub-components cannot be sourced because of the disruption like we’re seeing today … for example, because China was the first hit with this virus, they were not producing. That has a lag time, so you can’t get those materials currently. What we’re seeing is that if you can make something more locally, then you can create … You don’t need that complicated supply chain going forward.

This is something that the medical community is seeing a need for right now, and it’s working together with many different industries to make that happen. Whether it’s someone like Medtronic that already makes components or already make ventilators, that they’re spinning up their manufacturing to increase production, or if it’s someone else from the automotive industry for example, that are trying to create a surge in supply. However, because you don’t have necessarily all of the components in the right place where it might take longer to create the tools to make different components, you could potentially more quickly substitute with an additive component. And so that’s one of the ways that the additive manufacturing industry can help currently.

MPF:
Okay. I’ve been seeing a couple of press releases showing face masks and protection devices that hobbyists and do it yourself-ers are potentially able to contribute and to help. What might be some of the issues that we need to think about as they participate? Do they have access to appropriate materials, for example? Or what might some challenges be for them?

Gilmour:
I have a history in my career of being a developer of medical devices, so I understand the mindset and pathway of what you need to do to get there. And the critical point that you have to think about as a designer of a medical component is that you’re designing something for the patient, but also for the user, that’s the healthcare professional. In the case of something like a mask to filter out various small particles like the N95 masks, for example, that are getting a lot of attention right now, you have to think about the fact that there is a certain standard and expectation from the healthcare provider on what that mask is doing.

And as a lay person, you don’t necessarily have those requirements at your fingertips, or maybe you don’t know where to get them, et cetera. And if you’re making something that doesn’t meet those standards but looks like what the masks look like, for example, then you’re giving the healthcare provider a false sense of security. So, when they’re in an emergency situation, they’re not thinking about themselves, hardly ever. They’re always thinking about their patient. I mean, this is one of the most amazing things about the healthcare provider community is they’re so altruistic, right?
And so you really want to make sure that what you’re making for them is meeting the expectations that they already had and what they’re used to. Because they’re not going to be thinking, “Is this actually protecting me?” So, it’s very important to understand what the standards are, what the requirements are, and be able to meet those, which is why the healthcare community and the medical device manufacturers have such a high bar for those devices, because we need to meet the expectations of those we’re serving.

MPF:
And we need to protect them at all costs because they’re our first line of defense, really.

Gilmour:
Exactly. Exactly.

MPF:
So then that brings up the question of, should certain standards bodies like the FDA, should they start getting involved with the additive community on a certain basis to ensure that certain standards and protections are met?

Gilmour:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, the FDA actually has historically been pretty involved in the additive community. Of course, I was a member of the FDA in the orthopedics division several years ago and was one of the founding members of the additive manufacturing working group there. I understand a little bit about their thinking behind everything. And what’s happened with, that is they’ve started, within the different departments in the federal government … so the department of defense through the VA hospital network, the NIH and the FDA and using the America Makes connections.
All of those organizations have come together to try and give the community that wants to help a place to test their designs and then make them open source if they desire to do that. There is definitely some outreach from the regulatory bodies in a roundabout way through the VA hospital and the NIH. And so, I think this is one way of seeing that the FDA is willing and open to make sure, A, that we’re being safe when we’re doing things, but not saying, “No, you absolutely can’t do this. Leave it to the people who know what they’re doing.” They’re trying to be in the middle somewhere. Because as humans, we want to help each other. And I don’t think anybody wants to shut that down.

MPF:
Right. Well, that’s comforting to know. So those were basically all of my questions, Laura. I really appreciate your time in having a conversation with me about this. Because like you said, this is something that really needs to … We all need to participate.

Gilmour:
Yeah. Yeah. I think we’ll get through it together as we work more closely together. And it’s been fascinating to see all these different industries coming together to … and the federal government as well, coming together to get a response as quickly as we can, being so unprepared.

MPF:
It really has been. Yeah, it really has been interesting to watch. I’ve just kind of been amazed at how quickly so many companies are responding.

Gilmour:
Right. Right. And the additive industry is here to help in any of those ways that I talked about earlier. So to your readership, feel free to reach out to EOS to help bridge the gaps or whatever response you may need to have some help around.

Yeah, there is a landing page for our effort. And we’re working more around helping bridge all the ideas. We don’t manufacture end product. We manufacture our products, our machines and materials, but we don’t manufacture end products for people. We help enable our customers to use additive manufacturing in the best way for their business. So we do have a landing page of an exchange of ideas and how we can help people apply additive to their problem. And our engineering team … We have 150 engineers around the world who help our customers in that way. And we’re definitely here to do that. And I think Becca can give you the link to put in your notes somewhere and then we can … Yeah, we can definitely get that for you.

MPF:
Thank you again for your time, Laura. I appreciate it so much.

Gilmour:
Yeah. Appreciate it too. Thank you. It was great to talk to you.