Kennet Valley TR Group Member supports the NHS with his 3D Printer

Kennet Valley TR Group Member, Ralph Colombo whilst locked down, wanted to do something to help our super NHS and critical workers, Ralph commented "I wanted to do something to help in these difficult times. Unfortunately after a shoulder operation so I am not able to volunteer but as I have a 3D printer! I have printed some surgical mask straps for those health workers that find the elastic strap irritating or sore at the back of the ears."

"It is not my design, but I saw it going on in the USA and it’s an open design so I thought I would use it locally. Lots of people with 3D printers are now doing one thing or another but at the time not that many around here. They’re catching up now."

50 sanitised and packed - ready to go and will be dropped of at Basingstoke Hospital for the ICU

"The benefit of this one is that you can knock them out pretty quickly whereas some other things each take upwards of 3 or 4 hours to print with your average home device. Factor in that a print could fail it’s quite a cumbersome task for little return. I’m lucky enough to have two filament printers so can print 9 a time as long as the printers keep going. They’re not designed for 24/7 production runs."

"I’m trying to source the Perspex shield to make visors. I can print the head piece but need the shield and a method of fixing them together so am researching!"

Well done Ralph, support support for our vital and critical care workers, we look forward to seeing the face masks in production soon.

If you have a 3D printer and can help out, there are lots of websites offering designs, just Google: Covid19 3D printer open designs.