It also enables a rapid and impactful response to global crises. In March and April 2020, as the U.S. faced the domestic onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic, it was clear that widespread shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) would be a severe limitation. In response, thousands of individuals tapped into Open Source COVID-19 Communities like Make4Covid, GetUsPPE, and Makers Unite to design, manufacture, and distribute medical supplies, relying on open hardware approaches–including those based on personal 3D printers–to identify and manufacture promising designs. By working with intermediary organizations like Nation of Makers and Open Source Medical Supplies, at least 42,000 volunteers created 48 million units of PPE that provided an important stopgap during the initial response to this global crisis.

At the same time, an informal network of government workers working with the NIH 3D Print Exchange, the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, and other agencies identified a need to evaluate new and open source PPE designs for use by medical professionals, working with grassroots communities and small manufacturing firms to provide more authoritative validation of open source hardware designs. Relationships formed during the Obama Administration’s Nation of Makers initiative strengthened this network, including some relationships between federal workers and grassroots communities.

3D Printing for Distributed Crisis Response