In Taranto, Italy, a team of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) established a cooperation with an Italian start-up called ISINNOVA that resulted in the production of 25 3D-printed connectors – on a weekly basis – converting snorkelling masks into emergency ventilator masks. These were donated to the Italian Civil Protection Department for further distribution in the hospitals that needed them most. Now the team from the NSPA is helping with the production of 3D-printed face-shields to help protect health care workers in the local hospitals. Footage includes a Skype interview with Isinnova engineers Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli and various shots and photographs of the snorkelling mask innovation.
Transcript
Cristian Fracassi – CEO, Isinnova “We had to find a solution to help hospitals, to give them more masks so we had this idea to convert a traditional snorkelling mask into a respiratory one.”
Alessandro Romaioli – Engineer, Isinnova “We redesign and 3D print this kind of product. It’s called a ‘Charlotte valve’. Its goal is to connect the mask to the oxygen and through the filter, the expiration of the patient cannot influence the doctors and other patients.”
Alessandro Romaioli – Engineer, Isinnova “We wouldn’t be able to produce, all by ourselves, a lot of Charlotte valves, but NATO asked us ‘do you need our help? We can offer you for free of course our 3D printer to print products for you, to distribute to all the hospitals that are in need of it.”
Enzo Rondinelli, NATO Support and Procurement Agency “I think now it’s very important that we work all together, all NATO countries, all institutions from all over the world, and we share our knowledge, our capabilities, to beat this virus.”