Business and Money - Health and Wellbeing

 

Sasha Bruml and Felix Manley met at Bedales, the Hampshire school known for artistic and creative subjects.

Sasha went on to study design engineering at Brunel while Felix did product design at Central St Martins. 

In 2017, they co-founded 3D People in east London to manufacture 3D Printed products for car, engineering and consumer products clients.

In March, they applied their staff and machinery to making face masks for the NHS.

 

 


 

Felix, Sasha, when did you realise that your business could play a part in combating COVID?
 
Back in February one of our material suppliers was the first to produce a design for a 3D printable face shield. As the scale of the PPE shortage in the UK became clear, we knew what we needed to do. Our business has over 30 state-of-the-art 3D printers, and we were able to switch very quickly to producing the shields.
 

How long did it take for the first mask to come off one of your printers?

We produced the first few face shields a couple of hours after hearing about the issue. Some quick research showed us that the NHS would not be able to accelerate the certification of any new 3D printed designs, even though they were in desperate need of PPE, so we chose a design that had been approved by the Czech Government instead. Within 2 days we had switched all 3D printed manufacturing to this face shield design.


Now, it’s up and running, how many can you produce per day?

Each machine can produce 6 visors a day, so 200 a day in total.

 

Sasha producing components for the face masks

 


Where are they being sent to?

Most are being sent to a distribution centre in Dartford where they are sterilised, assembled and distributed to hospitals around the country. We work with an organisation called 3D Crowd to distribute them.


How was the money you raised on GoFundMe used?

When we launched the campaign we listed a price of £5 per visor and raised £10,000. The funds are used exclusively for the shields, paying for materials, machine parts, laser cutting, distribution and technician time. Thanks to some small production efficiencies we were able to reduce the unit cost below £5, so the GoFundMe campaign will pay for more than 2,000 visors.


What have you learned from the crisis?

The most inspiring thing has been the sheer number of people offering their support and seeing how quickly people have got organised. There are now 1,000s of shields being made every day through networks of 3D printing companies all working together. Meanwhile, teams of engineers and creative minds are pulling together to design amazing solutions for the cause such as low cost ventilators.


How has your normal business been affected by COVID?

Our day-to-day business has been hit by the lockdown and imminent recession. We’re receiving around 40% of our normal takings but are staying focused and following our COVID action plan. As a small business, we are nimble enough to cut costs and shift our focus.


What’s the most unusual thing you’ve printed?

As 3D printing is a great way to produce bespoke objects we see a lot of bizarre designs that you can’t buy off the shelf, from demonic monster willies to a life-size bust of Donald Trump. The imagination of our clients is limitless.

 


Soles for prototype footwear

 


What’s your dream?

Our mission is to make manufacturing accessible through a simplified process with fewer design constraints and a more affordable entry price.

As more printing materials become available and the process becomes faster and cheaper, the technology can be used for a wider range of products. We are building an automated factory that allows us to fulfil orders for parts without the long lead times and skilled labour.


Thank you Felix and Sasha!