Confronting COVID-19-The case of PPE and medical devices production using digital fabrication at PUC-Rio

dos Santos, J. R. L.; de Melo, J. V. C.; Frajhof, L.; Kauffmann, A. R.

At the end of 2019, the first cases of COVID-19 were registered. As the disease spread across continents culminating in a pandemic, countries suffered from a shortage of personal protective equipment. In Brazil, the first case was recorded on February 2020. This study aims to describe the experience of creating an interinstitutional network to meet the pandemic's demands and the experience of transforming an academic design laboratory into space for the production of personal protective equipment using 3D printing and laser cutting techniques. The actions described in this study, made it possible to meet the high emergency demand for PPE in the city of Rio de Janeiro, as well as the construction of knowledge both within the scope of building networks to solve complex social problems and about the possibilities of production in an academic environment. The work also addresses the importance of the divulgation obtained by the project-specially on national TV broadcast and social media-as a way to raise society's awareness of design professionals work. © 2020 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. All rights reserved.