Necessity is the mother of Invention

This week is Easter week, which means we don’t have any classes and technically speaking I don’t need to write a blog. But alas I am here writing anyways because what is writing a blog in comparison to what our health care professionals and other essential servicemen and women are going through.

Yup Exactly. This is pretty easy going and I like many others in the world wish there was more that we could do to help.

Some members of the creative community are in the position of not having to wish. This is because they have their own 3D Printers. They are doing their best to produce the personal protective equipment that their local health care professionals desperately need to keep themselves safe, and I think this is amazing.

It makes me wish I had a 3D printer of my own so that I could try and help, however the closest I can get to this is talking about it.

My current place of study, the University of Limerick, has made a post or two about how they are working with University Hospital Limerick, using the 3D printing and manufacturing facilities that the university has.

Together with all the people attempting to help in this way I have seen a number of videos from the larger 3D printing channels on YouTube answering the question of how to get their printers to print faster, to allow them to produce more face shields among other items faster.

In one specific video, the person talks about not making anything that the hospital will turn away. Instead of blindly printing off model after model you should first work with the hospital to see if they already have one that they are using and that you could perhaps make more of, or if you could design one that is more to their needs. This is not dis-similar to what we are being taught as students.

I think its nice to know that what we are learning is very applicable to everyday problems along with the other end of the spectrum with emergency situations like the pandemic we are experiencing now.

That’s all I’ve got for today, I'll see you in the next one!