3D Printed PPE

The COVID Skunksworks team gathered more than 64 engineers, scientists, doctors, and entrepreneurs to assemble personal protective gear.

The PPE is made using 3D printed parts, and the group has now donated more than 10,00 3D printed face shields.

Last week on news watch 12 we introduced you to the covid skunkworks team and less than a few days, the team gathered more than 64 engineers, scientists, doctors, and entrepreneurs to assemble personal protective gear.

The ppe is made using three d printed parts, and the group has now donated more than 10,003 d printed face shields.

Joining us tonight is brad converse.

He is a leader behind the entire team.

Thanks very much for being with us.

Brad, tell me a little bit about how the skunk works is actually doing what it does and who's benefiting from it.

Yeah.

It's an amazing team.

It's largely people from the rogue valley.

We have doctors, scientists, engineers, makers.

Everybody is coming on board selflessly, giving their time, volunteering to come up with designs that can be made right here in the rogue valley.

So we're not waiting for a barge om china to come save us.

Everything's being made within e working on the assembly, or is that how it works?

Is there, is there an assembly line somewhere?

How's it all getting put together?

We have a few different, so there's almost a dozen different products that we're actually working on right now, and some are being made.

Just, you know, i have a dropbox here at bradley putters.

There's people coming by and dropping off the face shield bands here.

There's other people that are working on the elastic for it.

There's other people working on the transparencies, and that's just the face shields.

We're also working on isolation mass.

Gowns, ventilator manifolds.

We have, again, a dozen different teams working on all these things.

And so it's highly distributed.

I haven't seen anybody in person, you know, everything is just through this computer screen.

And because the team is so amazing at what they're doing, you know, quantum, uh, right here in medford area, they're doing a lot of the sanitization for us.

Um, people at thrival tech, they're doing the ventilator manifolds.

We have so many businesses locally really stepping up to just tackle this challenge.

And they're an amazing team.

How are you deciding or are you decidinu are building?

That's largelywit, , and makers.

And when it comes to the actual need in the community, we are working first to make sure that a santee has the full supply they need.

And then beyond that, we are still working on exactly how to distribute because there's pharmacists, dentists, et cetera, that need these.

And that's one of the things that we've been discussing.

And we'll continue to discuss and our meeting tonight to determine as we get a surplus for the hospital.

How does that get distributed?

And, uh, we'll, we'll have answers on that soon.

So how are you physically buying the stuff that you need to build things?

Are you charging at cost or is it all donated?

How does that work?

It's all over the place.

So a lot of the people in the community are using their own pla, their own materials for their three d printers, and just printing it up and donating it.

Um, some of the local comanies that are doing injection molding, like, you know, , they're, they're just banging these things out for us and they're largely discharging the cost of materials and a little bit of the labor, um, to then sell to a santee.

It's.

It's the ommunity realizing that this is so much bigger than a profit making thing.

You know, we're, we're just trying to help the community.

We're trying to help the true people on the front lines stay protected, uh, against this virus.

So how do you plan to scale up?

It sounds like you have some pretty lofty goals.

What are you going to try and do at the end of all this?

So it's something at the end.

It's currently, we are freeing, very confident that we're going to be, uh, you know, having our health care workers locally be well-covered.

Uh, so to say.

And so we're looking beyond that.

We already have teams starting up all over the country and all, all over the world where we have a team of.

Technical writers that are taking exactly what we're doing and wrapping it up in a nice little bow and saying, hey, any other community that wants to do this?

Here's how to print stuff.

Here's how to make it, here's how to sanitize it.

Here's how to distribute it.

Here's everything you possibly need.

Just do it yourselves.

Is that feasible for folks who don't have your skill or expertise.

Yes, because we are a team of almost 200 plus experts that are doing the r and d.

That is very difficult for the average person to do.

But what we're doing is we're taking everything we've learned and just putting it in a simple document that says, do this, this, this, and this.

You don't have to know anything about research.

If there's a lot of people just buying three printers and following the instructions, there has to be a team.

There has to be a hospital person who understands the need of the community healthcare system.

You have to have a manufacturing lead.

Who knows what.

Is actually available in the community.

And then you needed a distribution lead that gets the resources from the community and delivers those to the, uh, to the place that they're needed.

But yes, it's very hard what we're doing, but we're making it very easy for everyone else.

Can you take more volunteers?

Are there more opportunities for those people to join your group, or have you pretty much closed off your entrance.

So when it comes to the experts on r, and, d, you can send a, an email to engineering@cobinskunkworks... wit the resume.

We have a lot of the people we need.

Um, but when it comes to helping your local effort, talent, make your city.org.

That is where you can help locally and you know, you can donate there.

Um, the money is going to, you know, the, the blliant minds that are working on these problems at talent makers city for the local aspect of it.

Um, and it's going to the materials to create these things.

It's going to buy new three d printers.

Um, there's no go fund me for cobit, skunkworks.

We're a bunch of relatively well off, uh, small business owners that just want to help.

Um, but when it comes to the local effort where we need to buy materials for a local hospital.

That's talent makers, city.org and you can get involved there and you can donate there as well.

All right.

We'll try to get some links up to both of those on our website by congress.

We appreciate all that you are doing individually and running a group.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.