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"Why can't we just 3D print them" is the most "Bay" response to this complex problem. Snark aside, modern respirators are complex machines. Certain components
by remarkEon 7y ago
"Why can't we just 3D print them" is the most "Bay" response to this complex problem.
Snark aside, modern respirators are complex machines. Certain components could maybe be 3D printed. I suspect we'd probably just be moving the bottleneck up the supply chain, however.
- adrr 7y agoPlans were posted last week on here. If it’s life or death triage choices made by a doctor, rudimentary machine could save lives.
- scarmig 7y agoWe (at least, in the US) have a strategic reserve of functioning ventilators. What's going to be worse is lack of trained operators. We'd hit the ventilator bottleneck even if not for them, but the operator bottleneck will come much sooner.
- Nextgrid 7y agoDo you know what is involved in operating one? Would it be possible to write documentation a layman could understand, so the "operator" problem is solved? If I had the choice between no ventilator and one operated by a non-doctor just reading a manual I'd still take the second one.
- remarkEon 7y agoExcellent question. Operator manuals for e.g. military vehicles (and weapons) are fairly step-by-step, though not necessarily idiot proof. I would how that a lot of us here could figure out the basics on our own, and with a manual be up to speed in a few hours if it really came to that.