The E.U.’s private-public AMable project is offering aid and public funding for COVID-19 projects. Having already supported the development of small-to-medium-sized enterprises involved in industrial metal and plastic 3D printing, the AMable network is requesting ideas for various coronavirus-related medical supplies and equipment, which will be followed by the additive production of viable items.

Because there already exist a wide variety of existing solutions for the medical supply effort, the AMable network—led by Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT)—is aiming to find ways to use AM to get around bottlenecks, produce medical supplies faster and more effectively. Ulrich Thombansen, project coordinator and scientist at Fraunhofer ILT, explained:

 “There are already many ideas from SMEs for solving this pressing problem with the aid of additive processes. We are investigating in which cases 3D printing can be used to produce components faster and more reliably than conventional processes and how current needs can be met as quickly as possible with new solutions.”