Coronavirus: 3D printing companies help boost production of testing swabs

CNBC's Josh Lipton reports on how coronavirus testing could be ramped up with the help of 3D printing testing swabs.

To combat the medical equipment shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic, GE Healthcare is using 3-D printing to make tools that accelerate ventilator production. Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin is leveraging 3-D printers to make plastic components for face shields. And with support from Adidas, digital manufacturing firm Carbon, in Silicon Valley, is using its highly elastic polymer featured in $200 Adidas running shoes to produce more than 15,000 face shields weekly for health-care workers caring for COVID-19 patients.

Ford, Boeing, HP, Medtronic and the U.S. military are among the manufacturing powers funding, designing and producing a battery of protective gear and medical equipment to fill in supply shortages around the world. But it is 3-D printing firms, as well as a cottage industry of home-based 3-D design tinkerers, that are making a broader call to action possible.

The 3-D printing industry’s designs, materials and networks of machines — which allow a digital design of a face mask part, ventilator component or even a nasal swab to be pushed out to thousands of computers instantly — is having a moment. “Additive manufacturing — 3-D printing — is well suited for rapid prototyping,” said Ryan Martin, principal analyst at ABI Research. “COVID-19 pulls forward that capability from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have.”

Rapid prototyping — or designing scale models quickly, in layman’s terms — has been the hallmark of 3-D printing’s role in manufacturing for the 30 years the industry has existed. Instead of waiting for product to be mass produced overseas and then shipped to a warehouse, 3-D printing allows components to be made on-demand and close by.

“It could be a couple of machines — or 20 or 200 — close to where it’s needed,” said Terry Wohlers, president of consulting firm Wohlers Associates, which tracks the industry. “One day you could be making face shields, another, parts for ventilators.”

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