Dr. Alex Stone and Dr. Jacqueline Boehme from a leading Boston hospital testing a prototype for leaks and safety.

Digital fabrication company Formlabs, headquartered in Somerville, is recognized as the professional 3D printer of choice for engineers, designers, manufacturers, and decision makers around the globe.

Now, in stepping up to lend a hand during the current COVID-19 crisis, the company is pulling out all stops in its initiative to match healthcare organizations and providers with Formlabs customers who are willing to use their printers and volunteer their time to help address critical supply chain shortages and other healthcare needs.

They are working closely with health systems, government agencies, and their network of over 750 volunteers to help design, prototype, and produce parts to be tested and potentially adopted by clinicians. Among them, test kit swabs, facial shield adjustment straps, respiratory mask adapters, surgical masks and respirators are currently under development.

According to Formlabs, front-line healthcare providers are running out of personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks and/or respirators (e.g. N95 masks) and face shields. The company is working with a leading Boston hospital, Arthur Blume, Eugene Mann, and hundreds of volunteer designers and engineers to adapt a full face snorkel mask to fit a filter already in use for breathing circuits and in hospitals.

While not yet validated, they are using the same material as their biocompatible, autoclavable Surgical Guide Resin to print an adapter to attach the filter system to the masks. After testing and clinical evaluation, they hope to soon go into production with a 100-unit test batch.

Formlabs is working with a leading Boston-based hospital and several others around the country to 3D print swabs used for COVID-19 testing. With the latest design, they are able to print almost 300 swabs per build. This is currently undergoing clinical evaluation. When this part has been clinically-assessed and is ready to print, they will notify everybody in their community. Between Formlabs and their volunteer network, they currently have 1,000 printers ready to help.

If you are working on COVID-19 related projects and need access to 3D printed parts, or if you have access to 3D printers and are willing to volunteer your time and equipment in this fight against COVID-19, please go to: http://bit.ly/2WzXlCj. They will do their best to connect available printers and relevant services to the people who need them most.