3D-Printer Helps Italian Hospital In Need Of Ventilators

Coronavirus Outbreak Continues In Italy — Doctors treat COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit at the third Covid 3 Hospital (Istituto clinico CasalPalocco) during the Coronavirus emergency on March 26, 2020, in Rome, Italy. Hospitals in Italy are under increased pressure as they battle to treat those who have contracted COVID-19. The Italian government continues to enforce the nationwide lockdown measures to control the spread of COVID-19.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

March 27, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Tech writer Andy Ihnatko spoke with Boston Public Radio on Friday about how volunteers mass produced ventilator parts needed by a hospital in Italy.

"Hospitals were running short on an item, a valve, for a mechanical ventilator and the manufacturer couldn't provide them with any more," he said. "So the hospital in Italy decided to reach out to the local community and they found local engineers that could just use existing 3D software to reverse engineer it and make a 3D model of the part."

Another group then took that model, and were able to mass produce hundreds of copies of the valve, on a 3D-printer, Ihntako said.