As we all struggle to manage the effects COVID-19 has forced upon us with new working environments, being in self-isolation, or having to look at streamlining business structures and implement new strategies, it is also equally important to find good stories to share and to inspire our industry. This story we share is from the International Sign Association, hopefully it may provoke some thought around diversifying your business to meet the needs of the market right now and in the future.
Many have been asking what the implications of the current COVID-19 pandemic are going to be on additive manufacturing as an industry. The relationship between coronavirus and 3D printing is not entirely clear, mostly because we are very far from understanding what the long, medium and even short terms implications of the pandemic are going to be on global supply chains.
Additive manufacturing may be able to play a role in helping to support industrial supply chains that are affected by limitations on traditional production and imports. One thing is for sure though: 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 …. read more here