What's cosmo-localism? When hospitals run out of ventilator parts, and local 3D printers provide them

We have been tracking the work of the P2P Communities (impelled by Michel Bauwens) and noting examples of what they call CosmoLocalism - a broad title which essentially means “build local, design global”.

In essence, this is a vision of distributed manufacturing - where powerful “3D” printers make components and objects within a community, drawing down from a global cloud/digital commons of designs and plans. The dream is to replace long, toxic supply chains with planet-light manufacturing, according to need and use.

It’s sometimes seemed a far off prospect. But one story from the Covid pandemic has brought its possibilities vividly to life. This, from 3D Printing Media:

3D printing can have an immediate beneficial effect when the supply chain is completely broken. That was, fortunately, the case when a Northern Italian hospital needed a replacement valve for a reanimation device and the supplier had run out with no way to get more in a short time.

One of the biggest immediate problems that coronavirus is causing is the massive number of people who require intensive care and oxygenation in order to live through the infection long enough for their antibodies to fight it. This means that the only way to save lives at this point – beyond prevention – is to have as many working reanimation machines as possible. And when they break down, maybe 3D printing can help.

The original valve (on the left) and its 3D printed twin.

Massimo Temporelli, founder of The FabLab in Milan and a very active and popular promoter of Industry 4.0 and 3D printing in Italy, reported early on Friday 13th that he was contacted by Nunzia Vallini, editor of the Giornale di Brescia, with whom he has been collaborating for several years for the dissemination of Industry 4.0 culture in schools.

She explained that the hospital in Brescia (near one of the hardest-hit regions for coronavirus infections) urgently needed valves (in the photo) for an intensive care device and that the supplier could not provide them in a short time. Running out of the valves would have been dramatic and some people might have lost their lives. So she asked if it would be possible to 3D print them

After several phone calls to fablabs and companies in Milan and Brescia and then, fortunately, a company in the area, Isinnova, responded to this call for help through its Founder & CEO Cristian Fracassi, who brought a 3D printer directly to the hospital and, in just a few hours, redesigned and then produced the missing piece.

If you’re already a co-creator, click here. And if you can, please contribute!

On the evening of Saturday 14th (the next day) Massimo reported that “the system works”. At the time of writing, 10 patients are accompanied in breathing by a machine that uses a 3D printed valve. As the virus inevitably continues to spread worldwide and breaks supply chains, 3D printers – through people’s ingenuity and design abilities – can definitely lend a helping hand. Or valve, or protective gear, or masks, or anything you will need and can’t get from your usual supplier.

More here. As the author of Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth, tweeted:

This is how the distributive, open-design economy will emerge - by demonstrating its agility and resilience in response to the breakdown of the centralised, closed-design economy.

A small straw in that wind, perhaps - but worth watching as a harbinger of a very different production future.

UPDATE: We’ve now found a Facebook group, Open Source Covid19 Medical Supplies:

If infections proceed at their current pace across the globe, we will not have enough supplies like ventilators, respirators, PPE, etc. to meet demand….This group is being formed to evaluate, design, validate, and source the fabrication of open source emergency medical supplies around the world, given a variety of local supply conditions… We are sharing CAD files for ventilators, respirators, and equipment.

For example, like these GitHub plans for an open-source ventilator:

If you know of any other open-source medical equipment intiatives, please mail us or comment below, and we will update this page.