In the wee hours of Friday morning, physicist Massimo Temporelli, founder of FabLab, an innovative manufacturing solutions company based in Italy, received a frantic call from the director of the Italian newspaper Giornale di Brescia. She told Temporelli, who she has had a professional relationship with for years, that a hospital in Brescia was running out of the valves used in patients’ respirators and the supplier could not provide them quickly enough—at least not before the possibility of death for some COVID-19-infected patients.
Is it possible to 3D-print these valves, she asked Temporelli. While he didn’t know the answer at that moment, he was going to find out.
Beside China, Italy has been the hardest-hit country with more than 31,500 confirmed infections of COVID-19 and over 3,000 deaths. These valves for patient respirators, which are mandatory for patients with serious cases of COVID-19, are absolutely essential to keeping the death rate from climbing higher.
After many, many calls and false starts, Temporelli finally connected with Cristian Fracassi, the founder of startup Isinnova. Fracassi’s company was based in Brescia and had a 3D printer, which he agreed to bring directly to the hospital. Within six hours of connecting, Fracassi and colleague Alessandro Ramaioli began manufacturing valves.
By 7:30 pm on Saturday, March 14, the valves were tested, confirmed to work and 10 patients were outfitted with the 3D-printed alternatives in their respirators.
After word spread, Temporelli said he received hundreds if not thousands of inquiries from scientists, experts and 3D printing technicians who are willing to lend a hand if more valves are needed. At this time, no new valves are needed. Regardless, watching the scientific community ban together to ensure the health of others in a time of great distress is truly a sight to behold.
Paola Pisano, Italy’s minister for technological innovation and digitization, publicly thanked Temporelli and Fracassi for their life-saving efforts. In a subsequent Facebook post, Temporelli said he was excited about Pisano’s mention, and he called Fracassi a hero.
“We continue to support scientific, technological and innovation culture because technicians and scientists like Cristian Fracassi have more and more space to express themselves, improving this country,” Temporelli wrote.
Photo: The 3D-printed valves. Credit: Massimo Temporelli’s Facebook.