The 25th March 2020 saw our call for ‘collaboration between designers and 3D printing companies’ to combat COVID-19.

Using shared design files and a multidisciplinary remote collaboration network, we have piloted a project of 3D printing face shields, and within 10 days were able to send small batches to local hospitals and care homes in Cambridge, Birmingham, and Glasgow in the UK.

Here is our recipe:

• The open source design file
• 3D printing machines
• Protective plastic sheets
• Hole puncture
• A request-resource match list

Dr Rongsheng Zhang (Cambridge Hacklab Academy) and Prof Wenmiao Shu (University of Strathclyde) are our hero makers.

The multidisciplinary remote collaboration network has been set up by Prof Liang Hao (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan) and Prof Hua Dong (Loughborough University), together with Prof Zhaohui Huang (Huazhong University of Science and Technology) et al. The Inclusive Design Research Centre has been supporting and publicising all these activities through its website and the Wechat account.

Our COVID-19 Wechat publications include:

• 8th March 2020: ‘Combating COVID-19 in different cultures – a matter of wearing masks’
• 9th March 2020: ‘Have we considered the female users?’
• 21st March 2020: ‘Combating COVID-19: donation to the hospitals’
• 25th March 2020: ‘Call for action of designers!’
• 26th March 2020: ‘A toolkit for transforming old items to new functions – join the Wilson Challenge!’
• 6th April 2020: ‘Using design and 3D printing to protect lives!’

The photos are provided by Rongsheng Zhang and Wenmiao Shu.

Here is the process: