As part of an initiative started by engineering enthusiasts, the Shield Force project in Edinburgh has been designing and making personal protective equipment (PPE) to donate to hospitals during the coronavirus crisis. What started with a handful of product design professionals using their 3D printers to help fight Covid-19 has now led to a pop-up factory with more than 200 people lending a helping hand.
Based at Summerhall, the project has raised more than £33,000 to help produce the kit, with help from University of Edinburgh students, academics and other volunteers.
“We thought about what we could realistically do – ventilators were too complex to produce,” said Costa Talalaev, director of prototyping company Maker-Bee. Because of this, the volunteers decided to make face shields and Talalaev was able to repurpose some of the company’s 3D printers to produce them.
He also expressed how interest in the project grew quickly: “In the first week we had...