This project is developed to leverage 3D printing to fabricate personnel protective equipment and other products that can help us navigate the COVID 19 pandemic. 3D printing can be used to quickly fabricate a design idea, but it is a slow process, and there is some inherent porosity, so using this process to make masks is problematic, and other products may prematurely fail. We can use the 3D printed parts for proof of concept, and as patterns to fabricate low volume molds.

These molds will be complex, but using a rapid tooling fabrication approach, variants can be made and tested quickly to develop a robust manufacturing solution. This project is meant to support interim activities for addressing the COVID 19 pandemic.