IBM and Coronavirus stories

In Argentina, IBMers organize to meet an urgent challenge


Germán Santini with 3d-printed face shield headbands

 

IBM employees in Buenos Aires are helping local hospitals alleviate a dire shortage of plastic face shields, a critical piece of equipment that helps protect medical personnel when they’re examining patients who may be stricken with COVID-19.

Germán Santini has brought together about 20 IBMers to be part of the “Coronathon challenge,” an initiative to help doctors and nurses battling the burgeoning pandemic. The IBM group has joined a network of 800 volunteers and 600 “makers,” those who use 3D printers in their homes to produce headbands that hold protective plastic shields securely in place.

The operation can produce 100 headbands a day and, as of early March, more than 11,000 headbands had been printed. Shields are attached to the headbands at an assembly center, then donated to hospitals and healthcare centers.

The home-based operation adheres to professional sanitary standards. “For the manufacturing and delivery process, we follow the recommended health and safety guidelines, such as sanitizing the work environment, disinfecting the printing parts and washing your hands regularly,” said Germán, a solutions architect for IBM. The parts are sanitized again at final assembly before being delivered to the healthcare centers.

Being Part of the Solution

Germán is helping coordinate efforts within Argentina for IBMers who want to assist but aren’t sure where to start, as well as finding initiatives in other parts of the country for those who live outside Buenos Aires and want to chip in.

He is also assisting as a maker. Being engineers, Santini and his colleagues integrated improvements into the design of the commercially available headbands, such as reducing the height of the band and modifying the buttons. These tweaks reduced the amount of production material needed while accelerating production.

With the coronavirus in full swing, Germán hopes to produce thousands of masks in the fight against the ferocious pandemic. “Our goal,” he says, “is to chip away in the battle against Coronavirus. We want to be part of the solution. We can all do our part.”

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