When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S. in early 2020 and overwhelmed the nation's supply of personal protective equipment, the Defense Department's Manufacturing Innovation Institutes leveraged their public-private partnerships to enable manufacturers to quickly pivot and ramp up production to respond to frontline health care workers' PPE needs...
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Additive Manufacturing, Automation, COVID-19, Defense, Digital Manufacturing, Fabrics, Robotics
COVID-19, Fabrics
On March 17 th , AFFOA issued a “Call to Action” to its membership seeking to activate a rapid response to produce and distribute N95 respirators and surgical facemasks to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The goal was to quickly create domestic sources of supply to meet the critical needs of healthcare workers with a by partnering with...
COVID-19, Fabrics
Ever since Covid-19 began spreading in the U.S., state governments have been scrambling to find and secure N95 respirator masks, the kind that seal against the face and filter out infectious particles, protecting frontline workers from inhaling the coronavirus. A national shortage has led states to buy these masks from uncertified foreign producers...