Remembering manufacturers’ response to the coronavirus

Image: 3D Systems

When we first learn about a world-altering event we tend to remember exactly what we were doing at the time we learned, where we were, and who we were with. These are known as flashbulb memories.

The sources of two such memories for me were the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and 9/11. On the day of the assassination, my middle-school class was sent home early. I remember walking along, kicking up frozen tufts of grass that I tried to catch. And during the attacks on the World Trade Center, I was in a gym watching the events unfold on TV with a stranger who, moments earlier, had been effortlessly performing handstand push-ups.

Both memories—seemingly inconsequential and forgettable—live as vividly in my mind as if they occurred this morning.

The COVID-19 pandemic we’re in the grip of certainly qualifies as a world-changing event. Yet for me there’s been no flashbulb memory. That’s because the coronavirus seeped in slowly over the course of several months, unannounced and largely ignored. Its arrival wasn’t proclaimed by a rifle fired from the sixth floor of an office building or airplanes flown into buildings.

I do, however, have good memories of putting together the latest issue of The Additive Report, which will be available in late May. One of the best take-aways has been industry’s heartening response to the global health crisis. Manufacturers everywhere, of all sizes and representing every industry sector, have contributed their time, resources, knowledge, energy, and leadership to alleviating the suffering. 

That includes additive manufacturing companies. Some are offering—at no charge—downloadable designs for printing personal protective equipment, while thousands of 3D printing companies and makers are printing PPE based on those designs that they donate or sell at a reduced cost. 

Our special COVID-19 coverage profiles five additive industry responders, including a 3D printing hobbyist who teaches teens to make fidgets, an international supplier of custom-made insoles and footwear, and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of 3D printers.  

We also report on anesthesiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital who joined forces with industry to host a contest to design a simple, easily deployed mechanical ventilator.

The CoVent-19 Challenge, which garnered 213 design entries from 43 countries, is an effort to ease the global shortage of ventilators, said Challenge Co-director Dr. Diana Barragan-Bradford. Social distancing has helped flatten the curve of “contagion in general,” she told writer Bill Leventon, “but there are countries that haven’t even peaked yet, so they are going to need the ventilators.”

Another memory made while putting together the issue happened the day I wrote this column. During my morning walk I was listening to a podcast about the spread of the coronavirus in Great Britain. It featured a snippet of a speech given in early April by Queen Elizabeth II.

Near the end of the speech she said, “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.”

Some majestic advice—and something we can all look forward to.