SLM Solutions has formed the Additive Alliance Against Corona, an initiative to join forces with the AM industry to fight the effects of the Corona virus. 3D printing offers a key advantage in this time of rapid virus proliferation: the ability to respond quickly to manufacture urgently needed medical components.
Sebastian Kässner, Chief Marketing Officer of SLM Solutions Group AG explains: "As pioneers in additive manufacturing, we would like to use our many years of expertise, our existing resources and our network to actively contribute to overcoming the COVID 19 crisis".
The aim of the alliance is to combine the strengths of companies in the AM industry and to take advantage of 3D printing, which enables extremely fast response times in the manufacture of important medical components. Since 3D printing is already being used to produce medical components and tools for medical component manufacturing, it will soon be possible to use machines and processes that are already certified according to current European "Medical Device Regulation" (MDR) guidelines or ISO 13485. An example from the USA shows that additive manufacturing can help in the corona crisis. There, injection molds for the production of face masks are already being printed on SLM® machines.
"Sharing ideas, skills and networks is of great importance at this time of year in order to fight together against the spread of the virus, to stem the shortage of important materials and to close possible gaps in the supply chains. This is what our global team of experts is available for," Kässner continues.
With its alliance, SLM Solutions is addressing all companies and organizations that can provide support in the form of production, development or logistics capacities, for example, or that already have concrete ideas and need a partner to implement them.