The COVID19 crisis has caused a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. Masks, face shields, respirators, and other supplies help keep the people who care for COVID19 patients from getting sick themselves.

There’s been a huge outpouring of effort to fix this shortage, by manufacturers, makers, donors, and volunteers. But as of yet, I haven’t seen anything approaching a comprehensive list of who is active in this space.

This is my best attempt at aggregating all the open-source designs for personal protective equipment (PPE), manufacturers and DIY maker groups currently scaling up their production of PPE, and coordination/distribution efforts to get PPE to the health care workers who need it.

I am not a hardware engineer or experienced maker, so I have made no attempt to evaluate these designs myself. I do NOT vouch for the quality of any of these designs. I do mention when a design has already been in use in hospitals, been tested by medical professionals, been certified by a governing body, etc. The only designs I’m putting in the “Bad Ideas” section are those that I’ve seen specific criticism of (e.g. from the Helpful Engineering team.)

Just because I have not listed a design under “Bad Ideas” does not mean it is a good idea! If you are considering manufacturing PPE, use your own critical judgment to choose a design!

Likewise, I have not vetted the charities on this list. I make no claims about their competence or integrity.

Open Source Designs

Surgical/Cloth Face Masks

Face Shields

Nonwoven Polypropylene Face Masks

These may provide a better seal and more filter protection than cloth masks, though not as much as an N95.

N95-Equivalent Masks

Intermountain3D printed mask – passed N95 filter & fit test at St. Alphonsus Hospital, ID; uses polypropylene surgical wrap (which is widely available)

Filtration Masks (Note: these do not include the filters, which are in short supply)

PAPR

Noninvasive Ventilator Masks

Isinnova: a full-face snorkel mask + 3d-printed valve, used as a CPAP mask in Italian hospitals



Other Mask Types

AC filter respirator

FixTheMask: an attachment that makes a surgical mask fit tighter, designed by Apple engineers

Bad Ideas

DIY Manufacturing Groups

3D Printed PPE: an online directory of maker groups around the world 3d printing PPE

e-NABLE: network of volunteers using 3d printers to make prosthetics and now COVID19 supplies

Inksmith: Canadian educational 3d printing company, manufactures & donates face shields to hospitals

Operation Shields Up is a volunteer maker group in the Sacramento Valley (CA) manufacturing and donating Prusa face shields.

MakeTheMask: coordinates makers to 3d print the Montana Mask

MaskForce: a 2000+ member FB group, making DIY cloth face masks and plastic face shields

Mask Maker Volunteers: a 3000+ member FB group making DIY cloth face masks

Sewing4Lives: volunteer seamstresses have delivered over 32,000 cloth face masks

Shield48; EU based, makes face shields; 2620 produced, 15700 requests

Commercial Manufacturers

10 cycling companies have switched to making cloth face masks.

38 fashion designers are pivoting to producing masks and gowns for healthcare workers; Eddie Bauer is even making N95s.

3Diligent is working with manufacturers to test the viability of new PPE designs, and providing a streamlined procurement process to hospitals.

3M plans to double their production of N95 masks over the next year, up to 2 billion globally.

Airwolf 3D, in California, has pledged to use their 3d printers for respirator valves.

Bauer, the hockey mask manufacturer, is shifting to making face shields

BCN3D, a Barcelona-based 3D printer company, has pledged its 63 printers for COVID19 projects

BYD, a Chinese auto company, is producing 5 million N95 masks per day.

Disney is donating 100,000 N95 masks.

Cole-Tac, a firearms accessories manufacturer, is sewing gowns and masks

Ford Motors is making PAPRs, 100,000 face shields a week, and donating N95 masks.

Honeywell is adding US manufacturing of N95 masks.

MakerGear, a 3D printer company, is manufacturing and donating face shields.

Mitsui Chemicals, a Japanese company, has expanded their capacity to make melt-blown fabrics by 50%.

ProtoLabs, an on-demand manufacturer, is waiving expedite fees for PPE supplies.

RadiciGroup (based in Bergamo, Italy) is producing PPE

Resonance, which has a garment factory in the Dominican Republic, is making PPE to distribute there.

Sinopec, a Chinese company, has built a new factory to produce melt-blown nonwoven fabric for N95 masks.

Stratasys is manufacturing 5000 face shields per week.

The Factory NYC is fabricating temporary facilities and medical supplies for COVID19

Voodoo Manufacturing, based in Brooklyn, has repurposed its factory to produce face shields, which are for sale at $100 each.

Distribution, Donation, & Coordination

I’m not including here all the organizations that are donating PPE or money for the COVID19 effort, only orgs that a potential donor (like you!) could use to get PPE where it needs to go.

There has been a lot of corporate and individual philanthropy and it’s not worth tabulating everyone who has donated to date.

State & Local Governments: US

Other Governments

Canada Ottawa is accepting PPE donations



Information