Abstract
The global pandemic COVID-19 has emerged as a bane for the human race. The emergence of this disease was initially noted in Wuhan, China and slowly spreading to large number of countries. The greater number of positive cases and increasing mortality rate clubbed with no prescribed medication to cure has led to greater impact on global society and has badly hit the manufacturing sector. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is considered to be primary source of manufacturing in meeting the supply chain towards medical devices and protection kits. This paper discusses the response of global AM community in development of essential products in the desired time span for greater cure.
1. Introduction
The emergence of new epidemic disease named as 2019-nCoV (novel corona virus) has reportedly seen its advancement to world through its origin from Hubei Province of China from the city of Wuhan during December 2019 [1]. The initial identification of this disease relates to severe pneumonia symptoms and the reported patients had a history of visit to Hunan seafood and live animal market in the city of Wuhan. The identified samples of patients from Hunan seafood market after testing had the similarity index greater than 90% of bat corona virus and greater than 70% homology to SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Corona Virus) that had emerged in 2002–2003 in Guangdong Province of China with its origin from bat mammals and transferred to humans through intermediary palm civet cats [2,3].
5. Conclusion
The advent of COVID-19 epidemic has made to rethink the human and nature relations in the broader perspective. The dependency of economy, globally, plays a very important role in manufacturing sector and its supply chain. The planet has also seen the dearth of required medical equipments for better cause and safety. Additive Manufacturing has played a major role in meeting the required necessary devices in curing the positive cases of COVID-19 and also in protecting the health workers.
