A University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) employee’s basement has turned into a small-scale manufacturing operation that is helping front-line health care workers one ear saver at a time.
Brian Zelip, MSLIS, MA, emerging technologies librarian at the University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library’s (HS/HSL) Innovation Space, answered the call to arms for 3D printers to help with personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“This is Baltimore, where making is a tradition,” Zelip said.
Zelip lugged the 138-pound Raise3D N2 printer from HS/HSL to his Baltimore home during the lockdown as institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others released files to print PPE components. His wife’s handbag-making studio is now a miniature PPE plant.
When the University Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) asked for help from the community with PPE components, Zelip got to work making ear savers for surgical masks. The first batch of 100 was an S-shaped tool.