Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

As long as the 10u Spotsylvania Cowboys can get to practicing come early August, I'm good. I badly wanted to have some Spring get togethers to work on stuff, but that's out the window now.

 

3D printing is well-suited for mass customization (orthopedic applications, usually) but is not ideal for scale production. We're in a pinch, though, so we'll take what we can get. While there are specs for the expected warping and shrinkage of the chosen material, the design specs on the final part need to be verified over multiple runs to ensure a production-level product. Fine for respirator bodies (assuming you can source the filtration media for the insert), but not for ventilators.

No company can flip a switch and start making a new product within a similar industry sector, let alone going from industrial/automotive to medical manufacturing. Imagine if Sushi Inoue had to use Tartine’s place to serve sushi and sashimi. Now imagine if, instead of Tartine, they need to move into a Meineke.

Lead times for tooling, specialty equipment, automation (if required) and other process requirements all have significant lead times. Best case is 2-3 weeks if you’re extraordinarily lucky.

If a facility is ISO 9001, it can produce shoot-and-ship commodity components but for finished devices, you’ll need to be ISO 13485. It’s not a really heavy lift getting from one to the other but it’s not fun, either. Similarly, it’s not that tough to install a modular cleanroom, if needed, but your facility may need some alterations to its HVAC system.

All of the processes and products will have to undergo V/V, as well. Many components (and some materials) are supplied from low-cost manufacturing centers in Central America and Gchyyyna, and you can imagine how fun it might be to take delivery from your overseas manufacturing partner right now.

If every stakeholder had their respective shit together, you could get ventilators manufactured at a third party in 6-8 weeks, with anything under eight being a fucking miracle.

 

Now do it in your LIBZZZZ! voice.

 

Sure, we're in wait and see mode, and I hope that things calm down by then. That said, the 1918 Spanish Flu killed more people when it blew back in the fall than earlier in the year. We're talking about 85 guys in a locker room, and then thousands of fans in the stands. Might not be bad in September, but by November all bets are off.

 

Sports team nickname: the Hardrockers. No joke.

 

I've posted about it before, but will again. There are any number of places on the net which have directions to sew cloth masks. No, those are not going to replace N95 respirators, and no they are not perfect. OTOH, they are designed to take replaceable filter media, and you can buy the high end 3M 1500 furnace filters, cut the wires and cut the filter inside to fit in the masks. Such masks are best used by the infected or possibly infected to attempt to limit exposure to others. They are also maybe 60% effective at protecting the wearer. That's far from ideal, but remains 60% better than not wearing a mask or using a bandanna, and if you have a sewing machine can be made at home or by a friend who sews.

 

We interrupt the standard-SJ-issue snark to present you with a metric fuckton of COVID-19 resources:



Thou art welcome.

 

Be nice if this could be pinned on its own.

 

Good idea.

 

Interesting. I worked at a small chocolate factory not so long ago. The owner's BIg Plan was waiting for the legal go-ahead to produce medicinal marijuana chocolate bars. I took a look around and said, "Dave, the relevant authorities will never certify medical-grade production in this shithole."

I was right.

 

Outing alert! @Neutral Corner is Herbstreit.

If football is cancelled then that means we are by then living in a very different, deconstructed world, as it would mean that this virus is killing millions.