A guest post by Oliver Dathe on how you can help in the fight against the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. If you have any printing capacities free, please consider joining the community effort! Thank you. ~ Gina

During the last days a lot of projects appeared worldwide, all aiming to coordinate makers with 3D printers (and laser cutters etc.) with the drastically rising demand for medical personal protection equipment (PPE).

Now people all over the world are designing and printing:

If you also would like to contribute, you should connect to a local coordination hub through one of the below listed websites. There you can match your own production capability with the current local demand. This is important, because most medicals are asking specifically for something like 70 faceshields of a certain kind but not for a surprise kit. Most projects communicate using Slack or Telegram.

Example: Many hackerspaces did become local coordination hubs and are now aiming to produce a certain amount of Prusa Face Shield RC3 which have been requested by nearby surgeries and hospitals. These hackerspaces run 3D printers and lasercutters on their own but as well collect home printed parts from many nearby makers and companies.

Even if you probably can not produce all of the parts on your own (like lasercutting the foil) you can contribute substantially by delivering demanded parts to the coordinating hubs. They will complement remaining parts, store them and finally deliver them.

If you join the movement, please remember to treat the parts as if you were already infected: Use protective gloves and masks when handling the parts and please follow the instructions of your coordinating hub.

Here is a list of some larger coordination projects by location:

International

Germany

UK

Spain

Please note: This list is not complete for sure. So please feel free to add more projects in the comments, if something is missing.

Discuss!