The disease caused by a virus known as the novel Coronavirus, also known
as “COVID-19” by the public, was classified as a major epidemic by the World Health
Organisation in 2019. Each country across the globe is affected by COVID-19. While
writing this, over 150 million people were affected by the fast-spreading deadly
pandemic, and over 3.5 million deaths due to COVID-19 were reported worldwide as
per WHO’s official COVID-19 dash panel-https://covid19.who.int/Economy and social
life of no territory on earth was left unaffected by the COVID-19. Now vaccines are
ready, it may take a reasonable amount of time to complete the vaccination process.
One major challenge was the need for more support equipment like Beds, Oxygen
Cylinders, and Ventilators. Improvisation in the mass production of many critical
components, especially those supporting 3D printing technology, has shown some
well-managed results in handling the shortage of many critical components. This
chapter examines and describes how 3D printing technologies were used during the
dangerous pandemic. It aims to describe many 3D-printed devices like face masks, face
shields, various valves, etc. It also makes an effort to point out the dominant drawbacks
of additive manufacturing technology in this area and examines the options for a future
pandemic.
Keywords: 3D printing, Additive Manufacturing, Additive Printing Materials, Assistive respiration, Berating machine, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Extrusion based 3D printing, Lamination based 3D printing, Life-supporting devices, Lung disease, Materials Jetting, Pandemic, Photo Polymerization 3D printing, Powderbased 3D printing, Pulmonary infections, Shortage of ventilators, Ventilator components, Ventilator valves, Ventilators.
