Javelin provides 3D printers to Jewish General Hospital
by Alanna Fairey, Associate Editor
Jewish General Hospital uses Javelin Tech's 3D printers to create their own PPE
PHOTO: Javelin Tech
MONTREAL – As one of the main sites for COVID-19 patients in the Montreal area, the Jewish General Hospital very quickly came to the realization that they needed to take extra precautions to protect staff from the virus.
To create their own personal protective equipment (PPE) including face shields, Jewish General turned to Oakville, Ont.-based Javelin Technologies Inc., a dealer of both 3D design software and 3D printers and a provider of additive manufacturing services.
Javelin supplied Jewish General with two Stratasys Fortus 450 mc 3D printers and one F170 printer that were installed back in April.
Maxime Lacouture, Javelin’s national sales manager, said, “Those three printers combined really are a productive system where they can create a lot of PPE on demand.”
Fortus 450mc. PHOTO: Javelin Tech
The Stratasys Fortus 450 and the F170 printer’s manufacturing design includes a faster and more efficient print in the system, which helps to quickly produce face shields for the hospital, Lacouture explains.
Maxime Lacouture, National Sales Manager, Javelin
According to Lacouture, these printers are ideal for producing PPE because they can produce materials that are sterilizable and biocompatible, meaning that the material is not harmful to the human tissue.
Those materials are called fused deposition modeling materials, and they are engineering-grade thermoplastics.
Fused deposition modeling materials are also beneficial for making PPE because they are strong and long-lasting.
While the 3D printers were installed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Lacouture shares that Jewish General will still have a use for them when the virus no longer poses as a threat, to make surgical guides, orthotics, and prosthetics.
Lacouture concludes: “Not only are these printers an investment that supports the actual crisis, but they are going to be something that Jewish General can leverage down the road.”
When the printers were installed at Jewish General, Javelin technicians performed the installation and provided employee training free of charge due to the COVID-19 situation.
