Nagami Design, the Spanish design brand specialising in 3D robotic printing, is supporting the production of personal protection masks for local and global medical staff in the fight against COVID-19.
With more than 900,000 registered coronavirus cases across the world (at the time of writing), China, Italy, the USA and Nagami Design’s native Spain have been the worst-hit areas, including Madrid as well as the capital’s surrounding provinces, such as Castilla y León, where Nagami Design is based.
To help fight the crisis, Nagami Design encourages on-demand production to be actioned locally, bringing its 3D printing and robotic manufacturing expertise to the world and allowing for their designs to be reproduced by 3D desktop printers globally.
As hospitals have hit their maximum capacity levels and continue to face critical shortages of safe medical equipment for healthcare workers, Nagami Design has halted its furniture manufacturing to support the local community and provide essential COVID-19 medical supplies, such as protective face masks, as well as life support machines.
Based on the Prusa model, an open source that can be reproduced by desktop 3D printers, the masks are produced through robotic extrusion in a layer-by-layer FDM (fused deposition modelling). The material used is PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol), a durable and 100% recyclable material with robust chemical resistance and high-impact strength.
“This is by far the most important project we’ve ever worked on, but also one we wish we’d never had to start. Our generation has knowledge and digital tools that have become truly meaningful. There is no product to sell, no market to compete in. This is a challenge for all of us, and we’d like to encourage everyone with tools of any kind to reach out and contribute to help bring safety back into our world”, say Manuel Jimenez García, Miki Jimenez García and Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, the founders of Nagami Design, in a statement.
The team prints around 500 COVID-19 masks per day, or one mask every five minutes. While Nagami Design is currently focusing its efforts on Ávila and Hospital Provincial de Ávila, the city where its factory is located, the business is planning to expand to other regions, such as Madrid and La Rioja, with inquiries also being received from countries, including the USA, Italy, France, UAE, India, UK, Denmark, and many more.
“3D printing has emerged as the ultimate tool for local manufacturing”, says Nagami Design, “reducing the production chain to the bare minimum. With the COVID-19 emergency, this technology provides the opportunity to efficiently produce affordable tools, which are now essential to help save lives. This is indisputably the most important challenge we have faced as designers and makers, but also the best use of design intuition and technology.”
The Spanish design brand has put furniture manufacturing on hold to focus on producing 3D printed COVID-19 masks