FabLab UB continues to work for public health in 3D printer projects
The FabLab UB, a grup formed by teaching staff and administrative and service staff of the faculties of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Fine Arts, continues to work for public health intensifying the production of material for the health staff and safety services. This goes together with the actions of the community of the University of Barcelona regarding the COVID-19 health crisis.
The FabLab UB, a grup formed by teaching staff and administrative and service staff of the faculties of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Fine Arts, continues to work for public health intensifying the production of material for the health staff and safety services. This goes together with the actions of the community of the University of Barcelona regarding the COVID-19 health crisis.
The volunteers of this group print and put together protection visors, ear protection straps and door-openers using a total of 17 3D printers of the research groups of the University and privates. In order to guarantee the safety of the participants in this initiative, printers are distributed in different homes, and once a week, a reduced group meets at the Faculty of Physics to put the pieces together (put the screen and elastic band to the visors) and prepare the delivery.
This material is distributed weekly around different hospitals in the provincial area of Barcelona and the safety services. Today, already 700 protection visors, 1.300 ear protection straps and ten door-openers have been given to the hospitals Clínic, Bellvitge, Sant Pau, Vall dʼHebron, and Creu Roja, as well as to Althaia Foundation and other centers and foundations.
A great part of the material to make this comes from donations. The secretaries of the Faculty of Physics and the Faculty of Chemistry and the company Gràfiques Mogent provided the screens for the protection visors, and the factory Cintas Martell, the mercery Toica donated the elastic bands. The necessary filament to make the 3D printed pieces was acquired by the Faculty of Physics.
The FabLab UB is a group resulting from an initiative by the Vice-Rectorʼs Office for Entrepreneurship, Transfer and Innovation to work on 3D printing projects. Although at the beginning of the pandemic the group was not active as itself, its launch had to rush due to the need for personal protection equipment for those who work at the