How Snijlab helped alleviate the shortage of face masks in hospitals by delivering more than 40,000 in a short period of time
How the NGS2020 mask came about
Challenge
The crisis demands a quick solution
Large mainstream producers appear sensitive to raw material shortages and to disruptions in their logistics process. It requires creativity and agility from companies like Snijlab to provide solutions in the time it takes these large producers to adjust.
Solution
Laser cutting is fast, flexible and efficient
Snijlab immediately sees the added value of laser cutting. Starting up quickly but also being able to make volume, with the materials that are available. That is what is needed right now.
Challenge
Design for mask
Several designs for face shields circulate on the Internet. In particular, the design by Prusa inspires, but is not suitable for laser cutting. To make a real impact, Snijlab has a number of design requirements:
- It must be sound and easy to use.
- It must be disinfectable.
- It can be produced in substantial print runs at short notice (days, not weeks).
Solution
Rapid prototyping quickly delivers an optimized design
In one afternoon, more than 15 concepts went from sketch to prototype. Each time, the mask could be immediately validated to see if it fit properly, if it was sturdy and if it was easy to assemble. At the end of the day, the basic design of the NGS2020 is ready.
The NGS2020 consists of only 4 parts: 2 bands made of polyacetal (POM), a screen made of polyester (PET) and a silicone band. There is no screw or tools involved. For hospital cleaning, it is important that it is easy to take apart and that all parts can be cleaned in standard processes.
The prototype will be presented to Erasmus MC
The hospital is immediately interested in using the face masks. They are thinking along with the final adjustments and agreeing to the manufacturing. Other hospitals and the national distribution point are also being contacted.
Challenge
manufacturing scale up
The first orders are in. Within a week, the first 10,000 masks should be delivered. And that's in addition to regular orders. It is the first time that Snijlab has produced its own design on such a large scale. There is confidence in our own capacity, but scaling up so quickly is also a completely new challenge.
Solution
From design to manufacturing in-house
Snijlab chooses to do the entire process in-house. Everyone works extra shifts:7 days a week, all free hours are used to produce as much as possible. Some parts can fortunately be made by the recently developed autoSPOT, a very fast laser machine that can automatically load and unload.
Challenge
Assembly
All the individual parts are there, but Snijlab does not normally provide assembly. However, the crisis requires flexibility and again: speed.
Solution
Volunteers do the assembly of the face masks
Fortunately, there is much willingness. For the masks for Erasmus MC, Snijlab arranges a team of volunteers. In a separate room, they assemble and pack that day's manufacturing daily in a few hours.
"Within a week, the first masks were already on the shop floor, providing protection for hospital staff."
Erasmus MC
Challenge
Global scarcity in materials
The corona crisis has created a global scarcity of raw materials. The demand for transparent materials has exploded, and this shortage is working its way through to other materials as factories use all capacity to make transparent materials. Snijlab has ample inventory of its own, but it is shrinking dangerously fast. The materials needed are simply no longer available for reordering.
Solution
Design modifications to accommodate other thicknesses
Many suppliers only have small residual batches. These are difficult to process because they always have different thicknesses and sheet sizes. Snijlab , however, can deal with this very well. Nestings (plate layouts) can be adjusted quickly. Multiple versions of the design are made, a separate version for each material thickness. This way, a lot of small residual batches eventually make a large stock of material.
Open source: design NGS2020 is available for free
Snijlab offers the design for the face shield open source at: www.ngs2020.nl. Several parties have already produced the face shield based on the design.
