Footwear manufacturer transitions to 3D-printing PPE

Superfeet and its partners produce tens of thousands of PAPR hoods for health care workers

PAPR hood produced by Superfeet and its partners. Superfeet

I’d love to write an entire article about one of the coolest AM organizations I’ve come across: Superfeet Worldwide Inc. But as with everyone else on Planet Earth, what I want must temporarily take a backseat to COVID-19.

Eric Hayes can relate. Hayes, the chief marketing officer at Superfeet, Ferndale, Wash., would rather be promoting his employer’s custom footwear line, spawned five years ago through the company’s sister company and 3D printing arm, Flowbuilt Manufacturing.

Flowbuilt has partnered with HP Inc. and is using three of that company’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) printers and Fitstation platform “to democratize personalization by making 3D scanning and gait analysis solutions available in stores around the world.” Flowbuilt uses the data from Fitstation scans to craft 3D-printed insoles and footwear tuned to each individual foot.

As I said, it’s a cool company. But after chatting with Hayes I learned there’s something even cooler than 3D-printing bespoke shoe insoles: using that same technology to save lives.

“Superfeet has a culture of giving,” he said. “When we started hearing about the health care crisis and resultant PPE shortages, some of our team reached out to others in the community to see how we might use our manufacturing capabilities to help. They told us the hospitals were in desperate need of a special hood known as a PAPR,” short for powered air-purifying respirator.

That conversation took place on a Thursday. By Tuesday of the following week, Hayes said, the company had delivered two functioning prototypes to the local hospital for evaluation. Two days after that the manufacturer was moving into production.

Superfeet had help. Another Washington-based company—Pioneer Aerofab, a manufacturer of airplane interiors—joined in to supply the fabric portion of the hood. And HP put Superfeet in touch with another member of the MJF manufacturing network, JawsTec Inc., American Falls, Idaho, which used its bank of printers to produce additional PAPR components.

The multistate, multicompany team quickly ramped up to 10,000 units a week, well on its way to the initial goal of 30,000 PAPRs. The team exceeded its goal in April, when it sent 42,000 PAPR hoods to hospitals.

“That’s the power of having a team of engineers equipped with 3D printers at your disposal, in that you can react very quickly, moving from prototype to full-scale production in days rather than months,” Hayes said. “It’s a great example of the new paradigm in manufacturing, as well as all that’s possible when people get together to address a common need.”