Requests from hospitals and other organizations
exceed 350,000 shields; first hospital shipment received on Mar.
25
A coalition of companies and universities assembled by Stratasys
Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) to produce face shields leveraging 3D printers
now numbers more than 150, the company said. Among others, the list
includes Boeing, Toyota Motor Company, Medtronic, Dunwoody College
of Technology, the University of Central Florida, and the
University of Minnesota.
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A tray of face shield visors being 3D
printed by Stratasys. Thousands are now being produced by Stratasys
or its coalition partners. (Photo: Business Wire)
Last week, in an effort to confront the COVID-19 pandemic,
Stratasys set an initial goal to produce 5,000 face shields at no
cost to recipients through its own and partner resources by today,
March. 27. This includes both a 3D-printed visor and a clear
plastic shield that covers the entire face. Stratasys said that
number will be exceeded by the end of today and the coalition
should be able to produce more than 11,000 face shields next week,
and 16,000 or more during the following week.
Any 3D printing shop that wishes to help print at least 100
visors can fill out an online form to be invited to join the
effort. For the U.S., Stratasys is using its GrabCAD Shop work
order management software to assign orders from healthcare systems
to each coalition member. In Europe, the company is serving as a
hub to connect service bureaus with those requesting help, and has
fielded offers and requests in most of the larger countries. The
company also has posted the full face shield printing and assembly
instructions for anyone to produce face shields on their own.
So far, the coalition is serving the needs of more than 30
different health systems, covering hospitals, clinics, academic
medical centers, and nursing homes. The first shipments started on
Wednesday, Mar. 25. Stratasys has received requests for 350,000
face shields, so further acceleration in production across
coalition members is critical.
“I have never seen collaboration across our industry the way
I’ve been seeing it over the last couple weeks,” said Stratasys
Healthcare Segment Leader, Scott Drikakis, who is directing the
company’s COVID-19 response in the Americas. “The need is dire, but
we are getting the kind of commitments from our coalition partners
that will make a real difference and help buy time to scale up the
manufacturing of shields and other essential supplies. This rapid,
adaptive response is what 3D printing does exceptionally well, and
I’m very proud of our employees and partners.”
Stratasys is producing thousands of visors itself in Minnesota,
California, and Texas, marshalling the resources of Stratasys,
Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, and MakerBot. This is in addition
to continuing to meet other requests of customers and partners for
3D printers, materials, on-demand parts, and service. “Stay in
place” orders are not currently limiting its ability to meet these
needs other than limited access to on-site support.
The company is also responding to the crisis in additional ways,
including ramping up production of 3D printing materials to support
its partner network. It also has made free the material licenses on
many of its high-end printers used to make the visors during this
time.
An initiative led by anesthesiology residents of Massachusetts
General Hospital called the CoVent-19 Challenge will launch next
week. The challenge will ask engineers and designers to help
develop a new rapidly deployable ventilator and other innovative
solutions to the ventilator shortage, and Stratasys will support
the challenge and promote it via its GrabCAD community of more than
7 million professional designers, engineers, manufacturers and
students. The company will also provide prototyping services to the
challenge finalists.
For more information on how Stratasys is responding to the
COVID-19 pandemic and how others can help, visit
www.stratasys.com/covid-19.
Stratasys is a global leader in additive manufacturing or
3D printing technology and is the manufacturer of FDM®, PolyJet™,
and stereolithography 3D printers. The company’s technologies are
used to create prototypes, manufacturing tools, and production
parts for industries, including aerospace, automotive, healthcare,
consumer products and education. For more than 30 years, Stratasys
products have helped manufacturers reduce product-development time,
cost, and time-to-market, as well as reduce or eliminate tooling
costs and improve product quality. The Stratasys 3D printing
ecosystem of solutions and expertise includes 3D printers,
materials, software, expert services, and on-demand parts
production. Online at: www.stratasys.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200327005345/en/
Stratasys Corporate & North America Aaron Pearson
Aaron.pearson@stratasys.com (612) 716-9228
Europe, Middle East and Africa Jonathan Wake / Miguel
Afonso, Incus Media stratasys@incus-media.com +44 1737 215200
Asia Pacific and Japan Alice Chiu
alice.chiu@stratasys.com +852 9189 7273
Investor Relations Yonah Lloyd yonah.lloyd@stratasys.com
+97 274-745-4919
Brazil, Central America and South America
Erica.massini@stratasys.com +55 (11) 2626-9229
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