Business owners with additive manufacturing and 3D printing capabilities are calling on the UK government to tell them how they can best help the effort to build more ventilators for the NHS.

​

Richard Dinan – CEO of Buckinghamshire-based Pulsar Fusion – has already started using his company’s 3D manufacturing capabilities to create ventilator parts and protective face shields. He says with the help of his network, he could quite easily produce 50 a day – and possibly many more, as similar companies join up with him. 

 

The entrepreneur – whose firm develops and manufactures components for use in nuclear fusion reactors and associated applications – has been contacted by scores of other business owners anxious to help create simple ventilators and safely equipment using 3D printers. 

Mr Dinan believes 3D printing could provide a short term solution to the NHS equipment and ventilator part shortage. However, he says that firms require government guidance on which parts they should prioritise and where they are most needed.

 

He has already started producing ‘Charlotte Valves’, which connect a ventilator to a breathing mask currently being used in Italy. Moreover, Mr Dinan says he can also produce face shields and possibly even simple ventilators but added that he “would welcome more government guidance on what is needed”. 

 

Below is a video of Pulsar Fusion's 3D printer at work...