Additive manufacturing for COVID-19: Devices, materials, prospects, and challenges

Rigoberto C Advincula; John Ryan C Dizon; Qiyi Chen; Ivy Niu; Jason Chung; Lucas Kilpatrick; Reagan Newman

doi:10.1557/mrc.2020.57

Additive manufacturing for COVID-19: Devices, materials, prospects, and challenges

MRS Commun. 2020;10(3):413-427. doi: 10.1557/mrc.2020.57. Epub 2020 Dec 24.

Authors

Rigoberto C Advincula^{1

2

3}, John Ryan C Dizon⁴, Qiyi Chen², Ivy Niu¹, Jason Chung¹, Lucas Kilpatrick¹, Reagan Newman³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Joint Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN USA.
² Center for Nanophase Materials and Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN USA.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN USA.
⁴ Additive Manufacturing Research Laboratory, Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering and Architecture, Bataan Peninsula State University, City of Balanga, Bataan 2100 Philippines.

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) where improvised manufacturing in particular 3D printing has addressed many needs. This prospective discusses the current global crisis, then follows the wide interest in addressing the shortage of medical devices and PPEs used for treatment and protection against pathogens. An overview of the 3D printing process with polymer materials is given followed by the different 3D printing projects of PPEs and medical devices that emerged for the pandemic (including validation/testing). The potential for rapid prototyping with different polymer materials and eventual high-throughput production is emphasized.